The GR GT3's Initial Wave

It is that time of the year in the racing world; late October into November signals the time for championships across the globe to lower the curtain on the season that was and begin to look forward to what's in store. It was championship weekend across multiple continents this passing Sunday, with the FIA WEC, NASCAR's three national touring series, and Super GT all calling time on their respective 2026 campaigns last weekend. The only one of the lot I watched would be Super GT's twin bill of 250 kilometer races at Mobility Resort Motegi with it still scratching that road racing itch in ways the series overly beholden to Balance of Performance can't. I also didn't watch NASCAR, though I did make time to catch up on the season finale for the Mexico Series, with how much the big three touring series are deliberately at odds with what stock car racing has been and should be, beyond not wanting to watch Rick Hendrick and Kyle Larson continue to get their way unopposed.

The pair of races at Motegi felt like the classic Gatorade Duels at Daytona in how one race was full of chaos and calamity and the other was a much calmer affair, though the Sunday race would still have that chaos with Sho Tsuboi raging against the dying of the light.

There was more going on in the periphery of those races by design with a BOP decision put in place by series organizer GTA. A new racecar made it's fully liveried debut after making appearances in bare carbon throughout the year at the Nurburgring, before it's true launch next year. The new Toyota GR GT3 joined the GT300 grid operated by Rookie Racing, owned by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, though it was balanced on purpose to be a background character as to not interfere with the showdown that was taking place at the pointy end of the class. It's a debut that comes more than a decade after it's predecessor, the Lexus RC F GT3, debuted and happened at the same time as what may be it's final victory; coming in the Saturday race with the car shared by Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi. It's a changing of the guard moment you simply never see in the world of Balance of Performance, though after this initial wave hits the coast is what got me wondering about where GT3 goes next.

The Toyota GR GT3 is a curious beast that comes at a time when Toyota is going all-in across it's entire racing portfolio, fueled by Morizo's passion for the sport which has him stand apart from his CEO peers. No other manufacture would even think about running two different body styles in the WRC, though Rally1 being a tube frame car with body panels hanged onto it meant a Audi R8R/R8C situation was doable if anyone had the guts. It wouldn't surprise me if they were first in line if Gene Haas ever wanted to ride into the sunset and leave Formula 1. But there is a different feeling coming out of a new car being raced in a customer-focused class that Toyota has forever felt like a sleeping giant in; that perhaps this is the giant waking up.

I can't shake the feeling that front of the firewall of the Toyota GR GT3 and it's road-going cousin looks off to me, but done so on purpose. The amount of real estate between the front tires and the doors, with a massive vent for letting air escape from the front wheel arches and deliberate sculpting to a rear fin spoiler following all the blow through venting from the front fascia through the hood makes me wonder about the car's intentions beyond being the follow-up to the Lexus LFA. Those features get highlighted in the race car, which adorned the orange and red of Japanese petroleum giant Eneos over the weekend, but with the added venting above the front tires and exhaust moved to the sides clearly in view. There is a level of intention here in the design choices to where I cannot help but wonder: is this the first time we've seen a car be designed to raced in GT3 first before it was made to be a road car? Should we be concerned that it's Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz, doing this?

What surprises me within the twenty year history of GT3 is that there hasn't been this sort of potential for mass escalation and the perversion of the class's principals by any manufacture, let alone one that can back it up. The spirit of the rules and the class has remained constant as GT1 and then GTE fell by the wayside with GT3 taking their roles in the process. The cars themselves were always going to evolve as aerodynamics and computer aids became more complex, and as the cars they were based on naturally grew faster. There was still this idea of the "four pillars" of the category being respected by the manufactures, as described by class architect Stephane Ratel, even as the category had to serve more purposes as it now did have to house fully factory efforts in America. It's no longer just a customer-only class for the bourgeoisie to be their money-sink; manufactures now actively care about what happens in GT3 and maybe that's why this escalation took so long compared to when the original GT1 exploded out of Stephane's control in the 1990s. Perhaps it's ironic that Mercedes-Benz and Toyota were the main perpetrators the first time around and are now back on their bullshit.

This all came before Hyundai unveiled the incredible Genesis Magma GT3 Concept, which only had a road going concept equivalent in case Hyndai did decide to go down that direction. At the same time the tone of articles talking about the state of GT3 on Sportscar365 went from "not concerned" in May to giving "stark warnings" in June, Porsche boss Thomas Laudenbach saying that something has to be done in August, before Ratel himself suggested a realignment and reset of the GT classes under his purview should be done less than a month ago. Has Stephane Ratel been sleeping at the wheel for this long that he's forgotten that such an escalation was always going to happen unless efforts were made to fight against it? If it starts with Toyota, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz making more bespoke race cars for the category, surely everyone else would have to follow if there's only so much BOP can do right? Those "four pillars" can only do so much if they aren't set in stone, but rather in the sand.

We're all trying to find the guy who did this.

Those four pillars that have allowed GT3 to persist being largely suggestions has left me to wonder what would it take for real change to happen. Up to this point, it wasn't going to be because of financial crises, or drivers being in the hospital because of the class's safety standards not keeping up with the speeds the cars can now do, or the outrageous repair bill that often comes out of Macau beyond the fact that GT3s just don't mesh with the Guia Circuit. Stephane Ratel did nothing in the midst of all that with initial concerns about the state of the class beginning a decade ago with his monopolization nearing completion, perhaps because the personal gain remained steadfast the entire time to even care about what happens next; as far as he's concerned business has never been better.

No one has ever really tried to rock the boat for their own gain and all comers seemingly have played along with the spirit of GT3 throughout it's history. Maybe I'm right to be concerned about a MAGA-loving CEO deciding to push the limits not for better but because he can. He runs Toyota for Christ's sake, who's gonna stop him? Who's gonna stop him if this first wave, turns into a tsunami?