The SRO Japan Cup is attracting a lot of attention from teams and drivers in 2026, and one of the established squads of the series confirmed their plans, as K-Tunes Racing is set to continue their two car program, but with significant changes in it.
The Ferrari side of things will take a step further ahead, with K-Tunes getting immediatelly the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and while Shinichi Takagi keeps his place in the car, Daisuke Yamawaki leaves the team and in his place comes Betty Chen, who was driving GT4 machinery in the Japan Cup last season but has GT3 experience thanks to her time in the China GT Championship and other series.
Despite having a podium and another top 5 as high points, the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Takagi and Yamawaki was brought down by the two retiremets and another result outside of the points zone, even going as fas as to sit out of the season finale last year.
As for the other car of the team, their trusted Lexus RC F GT3 moves to Super GT’s GT300 class only, while they bring a new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, making it the third example of the model in Asian territory after Johor Motorsport Racing brought two cars for GT World Challenge Asia in 2025, with the program eventually expanding to a partial campaign in the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
While this will be another GT3 Pro-Am Cup entry of the team, just like the Ferrari, hopes are higher in this one, not only because the Corvette showed promise in Asia last season, but because the lineup will be pretty interesting. Kazunori Suenaga stays in the car as the gentleman driver, but the pro slot of the entry will see a rotation between the already established Nirei Fukuzumi and Sena Sakaguchi, as Super GT commitments will make it impossible for one of them to compete the whole season with Suenaga.
With the Lexus last season, Suenaga and Fukuzumi were knocking the door of the top 5 positions for most of the season, with three bad results breaking the good momentum and ending the year in a pretty bad note.
It was also confirmed that the team will use their Lexus RC GT3 at the Suzuka 1000km, with Sakaguchi being confirmed as one of the three drivers.
The 2026 Japan Cup season starts on 16 and 17 May at Sportsland SUGO.
PHOTO: SRO
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