Thirty cars and 5 home drivers set to star at Fuji 6 Hours
The provisional entry list for round two of the FIA WEC Season 8 – the 6 Hours of Fuji – features a total of 30 cars including five Japanese drivers competing on home soil.
To view the full entry list, click HERE.
Toyota Gazoo Racing will be the firm favourite amongst the home fans with the reigning LMP1 World Champions having two local stars competing at the famous Fuji Speedway: Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid car and Kazuki Nakajima in the No. 8 sister car.
Kobayashi is an extremely well-known face in Japan, having won Fuji both in 2016 and 2018 and most recently taking victory in the opening round of the WEC Season 8. Meanwhile, fellow former F1 driver Nakajima, the 2018-19 FIA World Champion, has triumphed at the 6 Hours of Fuji on three occasions (2012, 2013 and 2017).
Elsewhere in LMP1, Team LNT will visit Japan for the first time with its pair of Ginetta G60-LT-P1 – AER cars. Rebellion Racing will field its No. 1 Rebellion R13 – Gibson with its confirmed trio of drivers Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Normal Nato.
LMGTE Pro has no line-up changes for the Japanese round of WEC with the six entries set for another three-way manufacturer showdown between round one winners Porsche GT Team, Aston Martin Racing and AF Corse Ferrari.
The LMP2 category will once again see a total of eight entries with Cool Racing eager to continue its fine form from Silverstone in order to keep its position at the top of the standings. The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 entry will see a driver change as Paul di Resta is unable to compete at Fuji due to a DTM schedule clash.
WEC newcomers High Class Racing will field LMP2’s only home driver as Toyota junior factory driver, Kenta Yamashita, joins Mark Patterson and Anders Fjordbach in the Danish squad’s No. 33 Oreca 07 – Gibson. Yamashita is a well-known name in Japan having won the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 2016. The 24-year-old has also been actively racing in SUPER GT since 2015, and currently leads the GT500 standings having taken three back-to-back victories in Suzuka, Thailand and most recently in Fuji.
The LMGTE Am category will see a total of 11 entries, with MR Racing’s line-up featuring two local drivers: Motoaki Ishikawa and Japanese-born Italian driver, Kei Cozzolino. At 52-years-old, Ishikawa is the bronze member of the driver line-up while 31-year-old Cozzolino is silver status.
Cozzolino is new to the WEC this season but competed at Le Mans, finishing fifth, and Silverstone where he and his team-mates took a well-deserved podium. He also competed in all four rounds of the 2018-2019 Asian Le Mans series, winning all four races. Elsewhere, the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR crew has yet to finalise its driver line-up with Austria’s Thomas Preining the only driver confirmed so far.
Free practice is scheduled for Friday 4 October with qualifying due to take place on the afternoon of Saturday 5 October. The 6 Hours of Fuji race will get underway at 11h00 local time on Sunday 6 October.
More information including ticketing can be found HERE.
