Toyota’s home ground set to welcome the WEC

Fuji Speedway is ready to welcome the FIA World Endurance Championship for the seventh successive year, the freight containing the teams’ cars and equipment is on its way to Japan, and the provisional entry list for the 6 Hours of Fuji is today released. The fourth round of the WEC Super Season will take place on Sunday 14th October, beginning at 11h00 local time.

The 4.56 km (2.83 mile), 16 turn track stands in the foothills of the iconic Mount Fuji near Oyama in the Shizuoka Prefecture and has been the scene of some memorable WEC races over the years. The weather is often unpredictable, veering from dry sunny conditions to torrential rain over the course of two days. It adds to the challenge for the competitors, but the warmth of the welcome from the Japanese hosts and thousands of enthusiastic fans overcomes any climatic issues.

The entry list for the 6 Hours of Fuji will see 35 cars taking the start. There are several driver line ups still to be confirmed, and a more detailed look at the competitors is below.

Toyota’s happy home ground

Toyota Gazoo Racing has won five of the six races to date and are hot favourites to repeat this success on home ground. Fernando Alonso has won at Fuji Speedway in the past (2009 Japanese Grand Prix) and, together with Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the No.8 TS050 HYBRID plus Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway in the sister No. 7 Toyota, the Japanese automotive giant will be keen to record its third victory of the season in the record books. 

Rebellion Racing is just two points behind Toyota in the championship standings and the Swiss team will be determined to build on its success to date. Bruno Senna returns to the No.1 Rebellion R13 Gibson alongside André Lotterer and Neel Jani after breaking his ankle at Silverstone.

CEFC TRSM Racing returns to the WEC with one car, under new management and with a new engine. The No.6 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 will be powered by an AER engine, and the driver line up is Oliver Rowland, Alex Brundle and Mike Simpson. 

Jenson Button is a huge name in Japan and there will surely be plenty of focus on SMP Racing, with Matevos Isaakyan expected to re-join Stéphane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev in the No.17 entry to bring it up to full strength.  

Close competition in LMGTE Pro

Aston Martin, Ferrari, Ford and Porsche have all won at Fuji Speedway since the WEC has been visiting, but Ferrari is the only manufacturer to have taken multiple LMGTE Pro victories (2014/15/17).  

With Ford, Porsche and Ferrari having all taking the top spot on the podium so far this year, who will reign supreme in Japan in 2018?  Close competition will once again be the name of the game among the above with, of course, BMW added to their number from this year.  The German marque is the only one to have a change since Silverstone, Tom Blomqvist making his second 6-hour start of the year in the No.82 BMW M8 GTE alongside Antonio Felix da Costa as Augusto Farfus is on DTM duty in Germany.

Who will have the upper hand in LMP2

Round four of the WEC at Fuji will mark Jean-Eric Vergne’s third appearance in a world championship race this season, having driven the G-Drive car at Spa, which the team, and at Le Mans.  He joins François Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxivière in the No.28 TDS Racing ORECA 07 Gibson, replacing Loïc Duval who is racing for Audi in the final round of the DTM.

The third driver to race with Erwin Creed and Romano Ricci in the No.50 Larbre Competition Ligier JSP217-Gibson has yet to be confirmed, but there are no other changes in LMP2.  Will the fight once again be between Signatech Alpine Matmut and Jackie Chan Racing or will it all come together for the other teams in the category?  Fuji has seen some extremely exciting LMP2 battles in the past…watch this space.

Strong Japanese interest in LMGTE Am

The same can also be said of the LMGTE Am class, which in 2018 is proving to be highly competitive.  Dempsey Proton Racing’s No.77 entry with Christian Ried, Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell is on a roll with victories at Le Mans and Silverstone, but they are being pushed hard by the private teams from Porsche (Team Project 1 and Gulf Racing), Ferrari (Clearwater Racing, Spirit of Race and MR Racing) and Aston Martin (AMR and TF Sport).

Two of the Japanese drivers in the race call this category ‘home’ – the ever-improving and consistent Keita Sawa in the No.61 Clearwater Ferrari 488 GTE, and Motoaki Ishikawa in the No.70 MR Racing Ferrari.  The latter is thoroughly enjoying his time in the WEC, has quickly got used to the level of racing, and is very much looking forward to racing at home.

Matt Campbell is now the only Australian in the race which is closest to his home country as Gulf Racing has confirmed that Porsche junior driver Thomas Preining of Austria will replace Alex Davison to partner Mike Wainwright and Ben Barker in the No.86 Porsche 911 RSR.

Practice and qualifying takes place on 12/13 October, with the 6-hour race itself getting underway on Sunday 14 October.  For the full timetable click HERE and for more ticketing information, click HERE.