2016 Super GT Series

Team Transfers

• Andrea Caldarelli switched from the KeePer TOM's team to the Wako's LeMans team.
• Yuji Kunimoto moved over from Team LeMans to drive for the WedsSport BANDOH team.
• Two-time and defending 1000 km Suzuka winner James Rossiter switched from the Petronas TOM's team to the KeePer TOM's team.
• Takashi Kogure and Hideki Mutoh swapped seats within the Honda fleet. Mutoh moved to Drago Modulo Honda Racing alongside Oliver Turvey, while Kogure joined Koudai Tsukakoshi at Keihin Real Racing.
• Katsumasa Chiyo stepped up to the GT500 class for 2016 driving for MOLA, after helping GAINER secure their first GT300 championship last season.
• Masataka Yanagida moved from MOLA to Kondo Racing, his third different team in four seasons.
• After participating in selected rounds last year, Ryuichiro Tomita became a full-time driver of the #0 GAINER Nissan GT-R.
• Kota Sasaki drove a second Toyota Prius GT for apr.

Entering Super GT

• Reigning Japanese Formula 3 champion Nick Cassidy joined the number 36 TOM's team. He was the first driver from New Zealand to race in the series since Mark Porter in 1998.
• GT Academy champion and Nissan factory driver Jann Mardenborough joined the NDDP team, partnering Kazuki Hoshino.
• Former Rolex 24 champion Jörg Bergmeister joined Excellence Porsche Team KTR on a full-time basis, after driving two rounds for the team in 2014.
• WEC LMP1 driver Pierre Kaffer drove for Audi Team Braille in his debut GT300 campaign.
• Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champion Yuya Motojima, as well as fellow PCCJ drivers Rintaro Kubo and Hiroaki Nagai, moved to GT300, driving for Team Taisan SARD, Arnage Racing, and apr respectively.
• Shinnosuke Yamada graduated from the F4 Japanese Championship to race for Team Upgarage with Bandoh.
• South African Adrian Zaugg and Japanese-Italian driver Kei Cozzolino made their Super GT debuts for Lamborghini Team Direction.

Leaving Super GT

• Three-time GT500 champion Juichi Wakisaka announced his retirement from racing at the Toyota Gazoo Racing press conference on February 4. He will stay in the series as the team principal of Lexus Team Wako's LeMans.
• Inaugural GT Academy champion Lucas Ordóñez returned to racing in Europe, competing in the Blancpain GT Series for NISMO RJN Motorsport.
• Mitsunori Takaboshi left the series after a successful rookie season with NDDP to drive in Blancpain GT. However, he returned for the fourth race of the season at Fuji Speedway.
• Former GT500 champion Michael Krumm had no plans to race in Super GT in 2016 after competing for Kondo Racing last season.
• Alexandre Imperatori left Super GT to focus on his World Endurance Championship campaign with Rebellion Racing.
• Former 24h Nürburgring winner Christian Mamerow did not return to the series after running a partial campaign with Audi Team Racing Tech.

GT500

• Au replaced Petronas as the title sponsor of the number 36 TOM's RC-F.
• Petrochemical company WAKO's replaced Eneos as the title sponsor of Team Le Mans.
• Forum Engineering took over from D'Station as the title sponsor of Kondo Racing.

GT300

• Goodsmile Racing with Team UKYO, the number 11 GAINER team, LEON Racing, and Rn-sports fielded the new Mercedes-AMG GT3.
• EVA Racing became the primary sponsor of the Rn-sports AMG.
• apr fielded two new Toyota Prius GTs, with the number 31 car on Bridgestone tyres, and the number 30 on Yokohama tyres.
• Audi Team Hitotsuyama debuted the second-generation Audi R8 LMS and switched from Yokohama to Dunlop Tyres.
• BMW Team Studie and Autobacs Racing Team Aguri used the new BMW M6 GT3 in 2016. ARTA switched to BMW after the retirement of their previous Honda CR-Z, while Studie received additional support from BMW.
• Gulf Racing merged with Pacific Racing Team to form Gulf Racing with PACIFIC, fielding an all-new Porsche 911 GT3-R.
• Excellence Porsche Team KTR also fielded the new 911 GT3-R, and received additional support from Porsche.
• LM Corsa's number 51 team switched from BMW to the new Ferrari 488 GT3. The number 60 team continued to use the Lexus RC-F GT3.
• JLOC was one of two teams introducing the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 to Super GT in 2016.
• Direction Racing changed their name to Lamborghini Team Direction, and also fielded two Huracán GT3s.
• After withdrawing from the 2015 season, Team Taisan returned to GT300 in alliance with SARD.
• Before the start of the season, an entry was announced for Audi Team Braille, with a new 2016 Audi R8 LMS and veteran World Endurance Championship driver Pierre Kaffer. However, the team never appeared in the 2016 season.

Mid-season changes

• From the secound round, Team Taisan SARD switched to a 2016 model Audi R8 LMS.

GT500

Driver Ranking GT500 2016 Series[8] Rank Driver OKA FUJ SUG[9] FUJ SUZ CHA MOT MOT Points 1 Heikki Kovalainen Kohei Hirate 7 2 2 8 8 7 2 1 82 2 Kazuya Oshima Andrea Caldarelli 4 5 4 9 4 3 4 2 69 3 Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli 1 1 9 4 6 14 9 7 62 4 Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuji Kunimoto 9 8 5 10 5 1 5 3 58 5 Daisuke Ito Nick Cassidy 8 4 11 5 2 11 3 4 54 6 Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura 6 14 3 7 1 15 6 9 52 7 Daiki Sasaki Masataka Yanagida 13 9 1 Ret 12 13 1 10 43 8 Hironobu Yasuda Joao Paulo de Oliveira 5 11 Ret 1 Ret 4 7 8 43 9 James Rossiter Ryo Hirakawa 2 3 8 12 Ret 9 Ret 5 38 10 Satoshi Motoyama 3 7 13 Ret 3 12 8 6 36 11 Koudai Tsukakoshi Takashi Kogure 11 12 6 2 10 6 Ret 11 27 12 Katsumasa Chiyo 3 7 13 Ret 12 8 6 23 13 Hideki Mutoh 12 13 7 Ret Ret 2 12 15 20 14 Naoki Yamamoto Takuya Izawa 10 Ret 10 3 7 10 10 12 20 15 Kosuke Matsuura Tomoki Nojiri Ret 6 14 6 9 8 11 13 16 16 Tadasuke Makino 2 12 15 15 17 Mitsunori Takaboshi 3 13 18 Daisuke Nakajima Bertrand Baguette 14 10 12 11 11 5 13 14 7 19 Oliver Turvey 12 13 7 Ret Ret 5 Rank Driver OKA FUJ SUG FUJ SUZ CHA MOT MOT Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

GT300

Driver Ranking GT300 2016 Series^[10]

Rank	Driver	OKA	FUJ	SUG[11]	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT	Points
1	Takeshi Tsuchiya Takamitsu Matsui	6	3	2	13	22	1	7	1	78
2	Koki Saga Yuichi Nakayama	12	20	1	25	2	5	24	2	60
3	Richard Lyons Tomonobu Fujii	7	7	Ret	2	6	24	1	4	57
4	Kazuki Hoshino Jann Mardenborough	10	1	5	6	10	2	13	6	52
5	Shinichi Takagi Takashi Kobayashi	11	2	Ret	1	14	3	Ret	DNS	48
6	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	23	11	3	3	1	Ret	23	13	47
7	Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka	2	18	7	5	5	8	18	3	47
8	Andre Couto Ryuichiro Tomita	8	5	11	9	3	4	5	15	38
9	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Bjorn Wirdheim	4	Ret	4	7	Ret	9	4	10	32
10	Naoya Yamano	22	23	14	24	7	7	2	5	30
11	Manabu Orido Kazuki Hiramine	9	25	6	4	9	10	3	Ret	30
12	Haruki Kurosawa Naoya Gamou	1	Ret	16	23	8	11	9	24	26
13	Jörg Bergmeister	22	23				7	2	5	25
14	Yuhki Nakayama Shinnosuke Yamada	15	4	8	10	4	22	12	9	25
15	Jörg Müller Seiji Ara	3	24	10	20	DNS	6	15	12	17
16	Akihiro Tsuzuki Morio Nitta	5	6	9	11	11	12	11	Ret	13
17	Yuya Motojima	20	15	19	8	20		6	7	12
18	Tsubasa Kondo							6	7	9
19	Shinya Hosokawa Kimiya Sato	13	8	22	19	17	21	8	11	6
20	Shigekazu Wakisaka		6							5
21	Yuya Sakamoto				24	7				5
22	Ryohei Sakaguchi Hiroki Yoshida	DNS	Ret	13	21	13	17	22	8	3
23	Shogo Mitsuyama	20	15	19	8	20				3
24	Hiroaki Nagai Kota Sasaki	14	9	18	15	24	14	16	17	2
25	Takayuki Aoki		10	17	12	21		10	14	2
26	Masaki Tanaka	27	10			21				1
27	Hiroshi Takamori	27	10	17		21				1
28	Mitsunori Takaboshi				12			10	14	1
Rank	Driver	OKA	FUJ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT	Points