It’s no secret that the novel COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis has an effect on everyone’s life. And with the world of sports pretty much coming to a complete hold, we all need some distraction. To stay positive in these extraordinary times, we picked a list of classic Super GT races you can watch for free.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus may be a stressful situation for many. There are lots of different ways to cope with the anxiety it’s causing, which is why protecting one’s mental health is so important. One of the things you can do to support yourself is to unwind from everything with activities you enjoy. But with the world of motorsport being in an extraordinarily long safety car period, a good way to get your racing fix is to watch some classic races. Since a couple of months now, the official Super GT YouTube channel is uploading full race replays from the last decade. Of course, I would recommend watching all available races, after all I yet have to see a Super GT race that wasn’t entertaining. But let’s pretend you only have time for one race per season, here’s a mostly spoiler-free list with my personal picks. Plus a few alternatives. Easier said than done, trust me! The list will be updated once the rounds from 2010 and 2011 are available. Some of the mentioned races before 2019 are also available with English commentary on The Race (formerly known as Nismo TV).

2012

Round 1: Okayama 300km

Just one year after the tragic events of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the tsunami and the disaster at Fukushima, Okayama returned to its new position as the series’ curtain-raiser. A year prior, the events of March 11th caused a postponement of the Okayama round until after the Golden Week Classic at Fuji. And what a return it was, with surprise victories in both GT500 as well as GT300 and interesting strategies. It took until the very last lap before the race was decided. It can’t get any more entertaining than that!

Alternatives

Round 7: Autopolis 300km, for one of the wildest final laps that lead to the first and currently only GT500 championship decision before the season finale.

Round 2: Fuji 500km, for the final victory of one of Super GT’s all-time greats, the one they call “Mr. GT” because of his 3 GT500 titles. A word of warning, though: Tim Bergmeister suffered a horrible accident in the race after a puncture, which lead ART Taste to end their motorsport programme in fear of having one of their drivers die in one of their cars. Bergmeister survived the incident with serious injuries and would later thank the local doctors for saving his life. After his recovery he raced in South Korea and return to Super GT for a few selected rounds in 2014 and 2016.

Round 8: Motegi 250km, for an incredible charge by Hiroki Yoshimoto / Kazuki Hoshino in the triple a vantage GT3 from the second last position on the grid in heavy rain conditions to still fight for the GT300 championship against Kyosuke Mineo / Naoki Yokomizo in Team Taisan’s Endless Taisan 911 Porsche.

2013

Round 4: Sportsland SUGO 300km

Some of Super GT’s wildest and most entertaining races have been at Sportsland SUGO. Thus, it would be fairly easy to fill the list just with this incredible track, located about 40 minutes away from Sendai. But even then, the 2013 SUGO round would probably still rank as one of the wildest. The 300km race started as usual, but quickly saw lots of dogfights throughout both classes, with the highlight easily being the intense battle between Yuji Tachikawa and Satoshi Motoyama, two of the most accomplished drivers in Japanese motorsport history. But apparently the devil, who is said to live at the circuit, wanted to see more. It took until lap 57 for him to wake up and cause all kinds of havoc. A sudden downpour, a weird race deciding incident and a surprise double win round up one hell of a race.

Alternatives

Round 2: Fuji 500km, for the historic first victory of a hybrid-powered car in Super GT.

Round 5: Suzuka 1000km, for not just the birth of future champion Naoki Yamamoto, but also a great back and forth battle between the Weider Modulo HSV-010 GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Frédéric Makowiecki) and the Motul Autech GT-R (Masataka Yanagida / Ronnie Quintarelli) throughout the whole distance. The Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Tetsuya Yamano / Kota Sasaki / Takuto Iguchi dominated the GT300 class, but late-race drama put a big question mark behind their victory chances.

2014

Round 5: Fuji 300km

2014 saw the introduction of the early phase of the Class 1 regulations, a first step to unify the technical regulations of DTM and Super GT. Lexus switched out the SC430 with the new RC F while Nissan introduced an evolution of the GT-R. Meanwhile, Honda unveiled the next-generation of the legendary NSX in form of the NSX Concept-GT – a MR machine with a hybrid system. As this was against the regulations, which require a front engine, the manufacturer had to deal with additional ballast weight. Making the mid-ship engine NSX Concept-GT run with a hybrid powertrain under those regulations wasn’t an easy task and Honda struggled to keep up with its two rivals at first. One of the car’s biggest Achilles’ heel was its cooling system, which was one of the main reasons why only one of the NSX fleet saw the chequered flag at the Fuji 500km round in early May – 15 laps behind the winning Calsonic Impul GT-R. But when typhoon Halong opened the flood gates over the track at the foot of Mt. Fuji for the 300km summer round, Honda knew it would be their best chance. What followed was a wild ride that in parts looked more like a swimming class.

Alternatives

Round 6: Suzuka 1000km, for one of the most dominant performances in GT300, when Akira Iida / Hiroki Yoshimoto / Shinya Sato (the latter didn’t get to drive, though) made their rivals question if their TWS BMW Z4 shouldn’t be dubbed GT400 instead. It was also the first race to be live streamed in English as a proof-in-concept by NISMO TV (now The Race) and Radio Le Mans.

Round 8: Motegi 250km, for a thrilling title decider in GT300. Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka (Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Z4) went with a confident 9-point lead against their rivals Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Björn Wirdheim (Gainer Dixcel SLS) into the season finale. What followed was a nail-biting affair until the very last lap. It’s also available with English commentary.

2015

Round 8: Motegi 250km

If you love intense title deciders that go down to the wire in the final race of the season, Super GT has you covered. Rounding up a very memorable year, the 2015 Motegi finale was no exception to this statement. It featured a Nissan internal battle between Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliviera (Calsonic Impul GT-R) and the defending champions Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli (Motul Autech GT-R) – a battle between the blue and red oni. The stakes couldn’t have been higher: Impul went with a 2-point lead over their rivals into the final 250km of the year. For Yasuda and Oliveira, it would’ve been their first ever GT500 title. Meanwhile, Matsuda was looking for his second straight championship while Quintarelli was aiming to cement himself on top of Super GT’s Mount Olympus with a record of four GT500 titles. The race itself saw many different things: Mixed conditions, multiple battles on razor’s edge through the GT300 traffic and a rookie called Ryo Hirakawa in his first full-time season, who already impressed the fans when he won the season opener at Okayama in heavy rain conditions and wasn’t afraid to intervene into the championship battle.

Alternatives

Round 5: Suzuka 1000km, for being one of the wildest iterations of the legendary race in recent years. Things started off in heavy rain conditions with many small and big dramas to follow. The mixed conditions jumbled the field and for a long time it was unpredictable who would end up being victorious. It’s also available with English commentary.

Round 6: Sportsland SUGO 300km, for the first ever victory of the new JAF-GT300 Mother Chassis platform and one of the strangest pile-ups inside the pit lane that ultimately made the GTA close the pits during safety car for safety reasons. Click here for the English commentary version.

Round 7: Autopolis 300km, for more “red vs. blue” greatness and a very emotional early title decision for the so far only non-Japanese GT300 champion. It’s also available in English.

2016

Round 7: Buriram 300km

It’s a story only sports can write. The ultimate underdog tale – an emotional culmination of a six-year long journey for the smallest private team in GT500. Not even Super GT boss Masaaki Bandoh could withhold his tears of joy after the chequered flag fell. To say that this was the only story of Super GT’s third visit to Buriram, Thailand, would be an understatement, though. In fact, the penultimate round of the 2016 season featured several of them. One was Tadasuke Makino, who almost scored the pole position in his GT500 debut. It was the race that confirmed Honda’s faith in him – and with it came a programme in Europe.

Alternatives

Round 2: Fuji 500km, for being drama-filled, including bad tyre luck during the intense battle between the Motul Autech GT-R and Calsonic Impul GT-R.

Round 8: Motegi 250km, for yet another emotional moment, when Tsuchiya Engineering gambled hard and won even bigger. A moment that became even more precious between Takeshi Tuschiya between his father and team founder Haruo Tuschiya, who got diagnosed with oral cancer soon after. Thankfully, he survived the long and difficult battle. The race is also available in English.

2017

Round 6: Suzuka 1000km

It sent shockwaves through the Super GT paddock: 2017 would see the last running of the classic 1000km endurance race at Suzuka. Instead, circuit owner Mobilityland decided to fulfill their wish to turn the race into a big international GT3 event. Partnering with Europe’s SRO, the Suzuka 10 Hours were created and integrated into the Intercontinental GT Challenge. Without its prestige event, Super GT decided to transform the Fuji 300km summer round into a 500 miles race, which was last being held in 1992 as part of the All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC). It was only fitting that Super GT’s last Suzuka 1000km would feature yet another underdog story, a happy tale for one of the championship’s oldest teams. It also was the debut race for 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button.

Alternatives

Round 1: Okayama 300km, for the first ever sweep of the first six positions by a single manufacturer in series history. An achievement no one might ever be able to replicate. The opening round also saw the birth of Super GT’s currently strongest driver pairing on their way to the GT500 title: Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy. Click here for the English commentary version.

Round 4: Sportsland SUGO 300km, for yet another chaotic wet race that saw one of the best last lap battles between Kohei Hirate and Satoshi Motoyama. It’s also available in English.

2018

Round 8: Motegi 250km

Motegi is the place where dreams are being made. 2018 saw yet another close championship battle. After their victory at Autopolis, Ryo Hirakaw / Nick Cassidy (KeePer TOM’s LC500) were tied in points with Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button (Raybrig NSX-GT). Whoever would’ve finished ahead of the others would crown themselves champions. For the Lexus pairing it would’ve been the first successful title defense since Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli in 2015. Meanwhile, Naoki Yamamoto and “rookie” Jenson Button were aiming for their and Team Kunimitsu’s first ever GT500 crown. What followed was an intense fight where both teams had to put everything on the line, well knowing that an incident would put the mathematically still eligible Yuhi Sekiguchi (au TOM’s LC500) and Tomoki Nojiri / Takuya Izawa (ARTA NSX-GT) right into contention. On top of all of that was the championship battle in GT300 that saw Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou (Leon Cvstos AMG) nibbling off a 12 points deficit.

Alternatives

Round 1: Okayama 300km, for a great 3-way battle for victory that saw Real Racing finally ending their winless streak since the Sportsland SUGO round in 2010. Click here to watch it with English commentary.

Round 6: Sportsland SUGO 300km, for seeing Jenson Button’s first and only Super GT race victory and one of the weirdest as well as afterwards heavily discussed moments in series history on the very last lap. It’s also available in English.

2019

Round 7: Sportsland SUGO 300km

Whenever it is raining, it’s the time to shine for the smaller teams. That also was the case in last year’s penultimate round, when the devil of Sportsland SUGO performed another rain dance shortly before it was lights out. This caused some of the teams switch to the wet tyres, while others stayed on slicks. As the downpour intensified, so did the race with Kohei Hirate, who defected from Toyota earlier that year, and series returnee Frédérick Makowiecki (Crafsports Motul GT-R) trying to prevent Nissan from going winless that season as well as Tadasuke Makino / Narain Karthikeyan (Modulo Epson NSX-GT) aiming for their best result since 2017. It’s a wet race at SUGO. What more do you need to know?

Alternatives

Round 6: Autopolis 300km, for witnessing the art of racing with slicks on a wet track, as well one of the most impressive last lap dashes in GT300 history. After the race, Kohei Hirate revealed that his wife told him of a bromide that if Mt. Aso near Autopolis Circuit is spewing grey ash, the rain isn’t far away. She was right, as the race featured some very tricky mixed conditions.

Round 8: Motegi 250km, for yet another close championship battle that came down to the wire and saw Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita crowning themselves GT500 champions for the very first time in honor of their late chief engineer Kenji Yamada and denying Nick Cassidy of becoming only the fifth double champion in Japan, winning both Super GT and Super Formula in the same year. Unknown to many at that point, it was Team LeMans’ very last championship race for Toyota, as the two parties had a fallout behind the scenes.

Super GT x DTM Dream Race: Fuji Speedway, for witnessing the historic moment of two racing series coming together to hold a unique joint event that featured two absolutely exciting sprint races. Our German readers can watch both races on the official DTM website.

Copyright Photo: GTA