GT500 race results:

Spectators are expected to return to the Le Mans 24 Hours this August for the first time since June 2019, with the ACO announcing today that 50,000 fans will be allowed to attend this year’s edition.

The rescheduled event will therefore run at just 20% capacity, though this will come as a huge relief for the ACO, which ran the race in September last year behind closed doors after months of contingency planning to allow spectators came to nil.

The lucky 50,000 that head to the Circuit de la Sarthe this year will be required to present a health passport that is due to be introduced by the French Government on June 9th.

Fans will be able to head to the circuit from Wednesday August 18th for the first free practice sessions. Crucially, they will be free to roam the circuit, a change from the provisional plans in 2020, in which the ACO attempted to run the race with 10 zoned areas containing 5,000 fans in each.

Unfortunately, due to the current health situation in France, and the reduced crowd, there will be no concerts or fun fair for the fans. Camping will be permitted, however. Tickets will go on sale at on Monday June 21st.

The ACO has also released a revised entry list for the race. Key changes include the addition of Nick Cassidy, ex-F1 driver and Super GT champion Heikki Kovalainen, 2017 GTE Am class winner Dries Vanthoor and Nick Cassidy, a Super GT and Super Formula title winner in Hub Auto’s GTE Pro Porsche.

GT3 regular Marco Seefried has also been added to Absolute Racing’s GTE Am Porsche, and Mikkel Jensen will race for Kessel Racing in its GTE Am Ferrari entry in partnership with Car Guy.

UPDATED ENTRY LIST

Real Racing Honda duo Koudai Tsukakoshi and Bertrand Baguette held on to take an unlikely SUPER GT victory in a dramatic Fuji 500km Golden Week race on Tuesday.

Tsukakoshi had been running third when the race turned to its head just after a late full course yellow period, with the two leading cars dropping out of contention in rapid succession due to unrelated reasons.

That put Tsukakoshi in the lead of the race and the 34-year-old was able to withstand intense pressure from Kenta Yamashita's Rookie Racing Toyota to win SUPER GT's sole endurance event of 2021.

The Real Racing squad had qualified down in 11th place in a grid of 15 GT500 cars, but became the favourite for victory mid-race after an inspired decision to pit under the full-course yellow granted it the lead.

A spectacular middle stint by Baguette, where he stretched out an 11-second advantage, only improved its prospects, but a slow second pitstop brought the the ARTA Honda and the #36 TOM'S Toyota back into play.

ARTA driver Nirei Fukuzumi emerged in the lead of the race following the final round of pitstops but was unable to defend from the Real Honda on cold tyres, dropping initially to second.

However, once his tyres were up to the temperature, the two drivers engaged in a thrilling duel and traded places for several laps, before Fukuzumi made a decisive move coming into the final corner on lap 87 of 110 to reclaim the lead.

Shortly after TOM'S driver Sho Tsuboi also passed Tsukakoshi for second, a third FCY of the race was deployed to recover the #31 apr Toyota Prius that had stopped on track with apparent technical issues.

When the race resumed, Tsuboi couldn't return to full power again and was forced to park the Supra near the Coca Cola corner, seemingly granting Fukuzumi an easy run to the chequered flag.

But shortly afterwards the ARTA Honda driver was handed a drive through penalty for overtaking a car under the FCY, putting Tsukakoshi back in the lead of the race.

As the first of the GT500 runners to complete its second stop on lap 68, Real Racing was marginal on both fuel and tyres in the final stint, allowing Yamashita to close right on the tail of Tsukakoshi.

A wide moment at Turn 1 following a tyre lock-up gave Yamashita a glimmer of hope, but Tsukakoshi never let the gap to close down enough to allow the 2019 champion to make a move.

On the final lap Yamashita fell into the clutches of a charging Ryo Hirakawa, allowing Tsukakoshi to escape and score Real Racing's first victory since last year's Motegi event.

Yamashita held on to second in the Rookie Supra he shares with Kazuya Oshima, while Hirakawa completed the podium spots in the #37 TOM'S Supra he was driving with Sena Sekgacuhi.

Naoki Yamamoto and the returning Tadasuke Makino recovered from the rear of the pack to finish fourth in the Kunimitsu Honda, losing a place to Hirakawa right at the death end of the race.

The B-Max/NDDP team finished as the top Nissan squad in fifth, but with Kohei Hirate and Katsumasa Chiyo finishing over 30 seconds behind the leading quartet.

The SARD Toyota of Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama couldn’t match the pace of the other Bridgestone-shod Supras but benefitted from the late drama to finish sixth, ahead of the Yokohama-shod Bandoh Toyota of Yuji Kunimoto and Ritomo Miayata that dropped from first to sixth in the opening two laps and could never quite recover from its slow start.

After serving the late penalty, Fukuzumi brought home the ARTA Honda NSX he shares with Tomoki Nojiri in eighth, as the Impul Nissan (Kazuki Hiramine and Nobuharu Matsushita) and Nakajima Honda (Takuza Izawa and Hiroki Otsu) teams completed the points scorers.

While the full-course yellow made its debut in SUPER GT at Fuji, the race also witnessed a full-blown safety car when the NISMO-entered Nissan GT-R suffered a spectacular engine blow-up at the start of lap 3, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.