Seven x Seven Racing Promotes Watarai to GT300 Race Seat

Photo: Seven x Seven Racing

Porsche GT300 squad Seven x Seven Racing has elected to promote Taichi Watarai to a race seat for the remainder of the current SUPER GT season.

Up-and-coming Japanese star Watarai, 22, will step up from his third driver role to partner Sven Mueller aboard the team’s No. 666 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo for the remaining five races of 2026, beginning with this weekend’s Suzuka 300km.

It comes at the expense of two-time GT300 champion Kiyoto Fujinami, who stands down from driving duties after a season-and-a-half with the team.

Watarai will make his SUPER GT debut at Suzuka, but is already well known to Seven x Seven via his activities in one-make Porsche and GT3 competition.

The Saitama Prefecture native was part of the recently established team’s title-winning effort in the ST-X (FIA GT3) class of Super Taikyu last year alongside Fujinami and team owner ‘Bankcy’ (real name Hiroyuki Ogawa).

In addition, he was a race winner in SRO Japan Cup last year, won the 2025-26 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East title and leads the equivalent Japanese series this year.

Watarai has tested the No. 666 Porsche on several occasions this year in his third driver role, most recently in this month’s 2027 tire test at Fuji Speedway.

Seven x Seven team director Matt Harvey commented: “This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but one we felt was necessary looking not only at the rest of the 2026 season but also beyond this year.

“Taichi has continued to impress us this year with his performances in Porsche Carrera Cup Japan and we feel that adding SUPER GT to his program will only help accelerate his development. He has also shown strongly when he has tested the No. 666 car this year, so we are confident he is ready for his race debut.

“SUPER GT is undergoing a big change next season with the switch to one-make tires, and we are determined to hit the ground running. Allowing Taichi to benefit from Sven’s experience over the course of the remaining tire tests is a crucial part of this.

“We would like to thank Kiyoto for his significant contributions to Seven x Seven Racing’s success up to now and he will remain an important part of the team going forward.”

Source: Sports Car 365