The 2006 Autobacs Super GT Series was the fourteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the second season as the Super GT series. It was also the twenty-fourth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on March 19 and ended on November 5, 2006 after 9 races. Juichi Wakisaka, André Lotterer, and Toyota Team TOM's won the GT500 drivers' and teams' championships, in the debut season for the new Lexus SC430. Tetsuya Yamano, Hiroyuki Iiri, and RE Amemiya Racing won the GT300 drivers' and teams' championships in their Mazda RX-7. The championship battle was decided on the final lap of the season, with Yamano and Iiri winning the drivers' title on a tiebreaker over Kazuho Takahashi and Hiroki Katoh of Cars Tokai Dream28. Drivers and teams GT500 GT300 Vehicle changes GT500 Toyota introduced the Lexus SC430 as their new GT500 vehicle, replacing the fourth-generation Toyota Supra. This coincided with the introduction of the Lexus nameplate for the Japanese market in July 2005. Four teams (TOM's, Cerumo, LeMans, and Kraft) would run the new SC430, while SARD and Tsuchiya Engineering continued to use the Supra. Team Goh planned to enter the series with a Maserati MC12 GT1 driven by Seiji Ara and Jan Magnussen. Competing as Stile Corse, they participated in the pre-season test at Suzuka on 3-4 March, but after lacklustre results, the team scrapped their plans to race in GT500. GT300 Mooncraft Engineering and Cars Tokai Dream28 introduced the Shiden MC/RT-16, a prototype racing car based upon the Riley Mk.XI Daytona Prototype powered by a Toyota 1UZ-FE V8 engine. Team changes GT500 Kondo Racing, owned by Japanese musician and former racing driver Masahiko Kondo, entered Super GT for the first time as a Nissan factory team. Toyota teams TOM's and Kraft scaled back to single-car teams after running two cars each in 2005. Hitotsuyama Racing and their privately-entered Ferrari 550 GTS and McLaren F1 GTR withdrew from the series. GT300 M-TEC (Mugen) closed their GT300 team to focus on their ongoing technical alliance with Team Kunimitsu in GT500. Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) closed their GT300 team. apr, who operated ARTA's GT300 programme, signed ARTA drivers Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi to drive their number 101 Toyota MR-S sponsored by Toy Story