Worldwide motorsport star and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso will be undoubtedly be the centre of attention, together with his Japanese team mates Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi, SMP Racing’s Jenson Button and André Lotterer of Rebellion Racing, who competed and lived in Japan for many years. 

The withdrawal of the CEFC TRSM Racing entry from the Japanese round brings the total of LMP1 cars to eight, with the two Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 HYBRIDS leading the charge for victory.  When combined with an entry of seven cars in the LMP2 category, including the newly confirmed class winners of the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and André Negrão in the no36 Signatech Alpine A470-Gibson, the total number of Le Mans Prototypes will 15 for the 2018 6 Hours of Fuji.

Japanese driver Keiko Ihara returns to the WEC after a four year absence.  She will be racing alongside Erwin Creed and Romano Ricci in the LMP2 class No.50 Larbre Competition Ligier JSP217-Gibson.

A grand total of 19 LMGTE entries will take part in the Japanese round of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship with ten cars from the manufacturers Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Ford and Porsche.  Porsche currently hold a commanding lead over the chasing pack led by Ford.  Reigning world champions James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi won the last race at Silverstone in their Ferrari F488 and will be hoping to close the gap even further to leaders Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen of Porsche.

In the LMGTE Pro class Japanese Porsche specialist Satoshi Hoshino will be making his debut with Dempsey-Proton Racing in the No.88 Porsche 911 RSR.  His new teammates in the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche, Christian Ried, Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell will be looking to extend their championship lead with their third win of the year.   

Satoshi Hoshino, together with Clearwater Racing’s Keita Sawa and MR Racing’s Motoaki Ishikawa, brings the total of Japanese drivers in the LMGTE Am category to three and to six throughout the entire field.

The 6 Hours of Fuji weekend gets underway with practice on Friday 12 October, with final practice and qualifying on Saturday followed by the 6 Hour race on Sunday 14 October.

CLICK HERE for the provisional entry list for the 2018 6 Hours of Fuji