The 2017 Autobacs Super GT Series was the twenty-fifth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era, and the thirteenth season under the name Super GT. It was the thirty-fifth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 9 and ended on November 12, after 8 races.
In the GT500 class, the No. 37 Lexus Team KeePer TOM'S duo of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won their first-ever championship, narrowly beating the Nismo duo of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli for the championship. It was the first championship title for TOM'S since Juichi Wakisaka and André Lotterer's 2009 title win. In the GT300 class, in Good Smile Company and Hatsune Miku's 10th season of involvement in Super GT, Goodsmile Racing won their third GT300 title in just seven years after a closely fought championship battle between the No. 4 Hatsune Miku AMG and the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG of K2 R&D LEON Racing. It was Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka's third title, as well as Mercedes' first championship title in Super GT.
Schedule
Calendar changes
The series returned to Autopolis for the first time since 2015. The race scheduled to be held there in 2016 was cancelled due to damage caused to the circuit and local infrastructure by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. This was the last season that the Suzuka 1000km is included as a round of Super GT, as the current 1000 km format would be dropped in favour of a 10-hour timed race for 2018. The new race will be aimed primarily at FIA GT3 and GT300 machinery.
Drivers and teams
GT500
GT300
Driver changes
Team transfers
Lexus: Kazuki Nakajima returns to Super GT for the first time since 2014, with Lexus Team au TOM's. He'll be joined by James Rossiter, who swaps seats at TOM's with Nick Cassidy. Nissan: Jann Mardenborough makes his GT500 debut with Team Impul, replacing João Paulo de Oliveira, who moves to Kondo Racing to replace Masataka Yanagida. Honda: Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima will drive for the revived Team Mugen in 2017. Kosuke Matsuura moves to Nakajima Racing from ARTA, who promote Takashi Kobayashi from their GT300 team back to GT500 for the first time since 2012. Masataka Yanagida will move down to GT300 with Audi Team Hitotsuyama, replacing Tomonobu Fujii, who will drive for the newly christened D'Station Racing. Yuichi Nakayama moves from apr Racing to LM Corsa and the new Lexus RC F GT3, and sophomore driver Rintaro Kubo will replace him in the #31 apr Toyota Prius. Hiroki Yoshida replaces former GT300 champion André Couto in the Gainer Nissan GT-R GT3. The latter drove for D'Station Racing as a substitute of Sven Müller during Round 3. Shinnosuke Yamada will join Team Taisan SARD after spending one season at Team Upgarage with Bandoh. Both Akihiro Tsuzuki and three-time GT300 champion Morio Nitta leave LM Corsa to join the newly unified INGING and Arnage Racing team.