After five years of partnership, Toyota is pulling the plug on its official Gran Turismo e-sports competition, the Gazoo Racing GT Cup.
The company made the announcement with a post on X early Tuesday morning, thanking everyone who has participated in the races over the years.
The GR GT Cup has been something of a staple at Gran Turismo World Tour and World Series live events since it was first introduced all the way back in 2019 as a special one-make online championship in GT Sport.
After Mikail Hizal won the inaugural competition in Tokyo, the list of GR GT Cup winners has looked like a “who’s who” in the world of competitive Gran Turismo players and has often acted as an omen for a subsequent Nations Cup or Manufacturers Cup title.
Hizal went on to win the Nations Cup that same season, with Takuma Miyazono succeeding him as Toyota champion in an un-matched clean sweep of titles in 2020. The event then pivoted from a GR Supra-exclusive to include more Toyota vehicles, with Tomoaki Yamanaka claiming the 2021 title, before his Manufacturers Cup success — also for Toyota — that year.
Igor Fraga took the 2022 title, which included another marque in the qualifying portion for the first time as the Subaru BRZ joined its sibling GR86, making him the third driver to make the career triple crown. 2023’s competition expanded again, bringing Mazda — with whom Toyota has a manufacturing partnership — into the fold, and Pol Urra won his first title, on home soil, before his win for Team Spain in the Nations Cup.
What turned out to be the final season in 2024 saw the widest selection of brands as the six marques of the “Super Taikyu Waigaya Club” collaboration – Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota — all had a role in qualifying. Jose Serrano claimed that final trophy, backing up his 2023 Nations Cup title.
It’s not wholly clear why the decision to end the series was made, with Toyota remaining a series partner for the Manufacturers Cup and continuing to run an “e-Motorsports” initiative for younger drivers. However it does reduce the number of events at the 2025 GT World Finals, set to take place in Fukuoka in December, from three to two.
See more articles on Gazoo Racing GT Cup and Toyota.
