Vivi and Jay Seal the Crown as Fuji Brings the 2026 Hololive GT3 Japan Series to a Wild Finish

Shizuoka, 4 September — The 2026 Hololive GT3 Japan Series has its champion, and the final round certainly did not go quietly. The Finale 500, the fourth and final round of the championship, brought the season to a close at Fuji Speedway with two 55-lap races scheduled for 3pm JST, with Race 1 contested on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday. After months of racing across Japan, the championship ultimately came down to one name: Kikirara Vivi.

Vivi and Allie Jay, driving the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 #51, entered Fuji with the championship lead and did exactly what a title contender needed to do. Allie Jay took victory in Race 1, turning the opening half of the finale into a statement rather than damange mitigation, The Lamborghini crossed the line ahead of Jace Kinsai in the Nissan GT-R GT3 2018 #61 representing Takane Lui, while Masa Raido brought the BMW M4 GT3 #82 representing Todoroki Hajime home in third.

The Race 1 result was particularly significant because the championship fight behind Vivi had already developed plenty of intrigue. Rustim Kurashio, who had entered the finale second in the standings with La+ Darknesss and the Nissan GT-R GT3 #39, failed to score in the opening race. With Jay and Vivi collecting the maximum haul, the balance of the championship shifted dramatically before the Sunday race had even begun.

Behind the podium, Dag Patterson produced one of the quieter but more important performances of the day, finishing fourth in the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo2 #68 representing Isaki Riona. Rudy followed in fifth with the Audi R8 #45 representing Mizumiya Su, while Alticer Antanarau finished sixth for Nekomata Okayu in the Nissan #5. Chaka Labradores, Mohamed Khashiu and Lorenzo Ricci completed the next three positions, bringing the Lexus RC-Fmachinery of Natsuiro Matsuri, Tsunomaki Watame and Houshou Marine into the top ten.

It was not a perfect Saturday for everyone. Several established names found themselves well outside the positions they would have wanted in the final round, while others simply could not find the pace to match the front-runners. Some did not even have the chance to finish, with then championship leader Rustim Kurashio being victim to an untimely engine failure only 4 laps in.

Then came Sunday, and apparently Fuji had decided that one championship plot twist was not enough.

Race 2 belonged to Daniel Barguer and Hoshimachi Suisei, who charged to victory in the Nissan #41. Barguer's win was especially striking given that Suisei's entry had entered the finale sitting only 36th in the championship standings. Instead of quietly closing out the season, the #41 Nissan left Fuji on top of the final race classification in a near photo finish. Ho Phu-My followed in second for Tokino Sora, driving the Nissan #36, while Maverick Deuxieme completed an all-Nissan top three for Omaru Polka in the #46. The podium meant Nissan had completely flipped the script from Saturday's Lamborghini victory, with the manufacturer occupying all three top positions.

And sitting fourth was the newly crowned champion. Allie Jay once again brought the Lamborghini Huracan representing Kikirara Vivi to the front of the final championship picture, securing enough points to make the title mathematically untouchable. The championship was no longer a question of “who?” but “how far ahead?” Vivi finished the campaign with 1,836 points, a remarkable 413 points clear of Kurashio.

The championship runner-up endured a brutal finale. After a purple patch of form throughout the season, Kurashio's Nissan entry arrived at Fuji with a realistic chance of taking the fight to Vivi. Instead, the DNF in Race 1 and 29th in Race 2 left the #39 well short. It was the kind of finale that will make people realize just how cruel racing can be.

Rudy completed the overall championship podium for Mizumiya Su, finishing the season on 1,261 points. The Audi driver had a remarkably strong late-season run, including wins at Okayama Race 2 and spending much of the season finding consistency. Sammy Ake and Shirakami Fubuki finished fourth overall with 1,235 points, while then reigning champion Airi Nakamura and Akai Haato secured fifth with 1,210.

The fight immediately behind the top five was equally tight. Fellow championship contenders Saerin and Otonose Kanade finished sixth on 1,191 points, only 15 behind Airi Nakamura. Jace Kinsai and Takane Lui finished seventh with 1,176, while Mohamed Shaqif Redza and Momosuzu Nene took eighth on 1,139. Vladislav Domaschnev and Aki Rosenthal were ninth with 1,137, just one point ahead of a tiebreaker for 10th between Dag Patterson and Isaki Riona, and Eri Shinozaki and Usada Pekora on 1,136. Pekora won the tiebreaker, by virtue of former driver Danilo Goyena winning at Fuji in Race 1 earlier this year.

That non-existent margin was one of the final little details that made the championship standings worth staring at after the chequered flag. Patterson had a strong Fuji finale, finishing fourth in Race 1 and ninth in Race 2, but it was not enough as the season-long fight had already placed the Nousagi crew inside the top ten.

Further down the table, the finale produced its share of major movement. Ho Phu-My's runner-up finish vaulted Tokino Sora's Nissan to 25th in the final standings with 750 points, while Daniel Barguer's Race 2 victory lifted Hoshimachi Suisei to 26th with 747 from 36th.

Across the season, the championship's ten manufacturers provided an eclectic GT3 battlefield. All shared the stage at one point or way, or another. Fuji's two races perhaps summed up that variety better than any statistics could: Lamborghini ruled Saturday, Nissan owned Sunday, and the championship belonged to the car that had been consistently there when it mattered.

For Vivi and Allie Jay, that consistency since switching to the Lamborghini became the defining characteristic of the 2026 campaign. Their Lamborghini collected one win, another podium finish, and most importantly, only finished outside of 4th once since Fuji last February across the season and overcame the huge gap built by Kurashio. By the time the final chequered flag fell at Fuji, the championship was theirs by a massive margin.

And so the Hololive GT3 Japan Series closes its 2026 chapter with a champion, a dramatic final weekend and more than a few unanswered “what ifs” scattered across the paddock.