SUPER GT 2019 Round 1

The end is only the beginning and the first race of the 2019 Autobacs Super GT Championship will mark as the last Super GT race of the Heisei era as Japan prepares for the transition to the Reiwa era. Reiwa era aside, the 2019 Season will be the final season for Lexus in the GT500 class as their Lexus LC500 Super GT machines will be the last and they will be replaced next year with the Toyota GR Supra Super GT machines for such class. Anyway, enough of that because let's quickly sum up the season opener at Okayama.

Sadly, due to the heavy rainfall at Okayama, the first round of the 2019 Autobacs Super GT Championship came to a premature halt after 31 laps, which is rather shame for what is known to be the last Super GT race of the Heisei era, but premature end aside, the #8 ARTA NSX-GT, driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa, won the GT500 class while the #96 K-tunes RC F GT3 wins the GT300 class.

Highlights:

So that really is the end of the season opener, which is known as the last Super GT race of the Heisei era, but the second round of the 2019 Super GT season, held at Fuji Speedway on the 4th of May will be known as the first Super GT race of the Reiwa era. Here's for more Super GT in the new Japanese imperial era.