Tokyo, 20 August 2026 — Sir Jackie Stewart OBE will return to Fuji Speedway this September, sixty years after winning there in 1966, as guest of honour at a charity gala dinner opening the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji race weekend.
The gala takes place on the evening of Friday 25 September at the Fuji Speedway Hotel, in support of Race Against Dementia, the charity Sir Jackie founded in 2016. In announcing the appearance, the championship confirmed the evening is co-organised by Race Against Dementia, the FIA World Endurance Championship and Tokyo-based media and events group Hersey Shiga Global K.K., which is handling event production in Japan.
The Fuji 200, October 1966
Fuji Speedway had been open a matter of months when the Fuji 200 was run in October 1966 — the first American open-wheel race held in Japan, and one of the events that first put the country on the world motorsport map.
Stewart won it in a Lola T-90, the same car in which he had come within ten laps of winning that year’s Indianapolis 500. He was named Rookie of the Year at Indianapolis regardless. He was 27, in his second season of Formula 1, and three years away from his first World Championship.
He still holds the trophy from that day.
Credit: Stewart Foundation
Credit: Stewart Foundation
His endurance credentials run deeper than that single visit. In 1965 he shared the experimental gas-turbine Rover-BRM with fellow world champion Graham Hill at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pair finishing tenth. The following year, through his long association with Ford, he was set to drive a GT40 at La Sarthe — the race that would become one of the most celebrated in the event’s history — but was ruled out by a serious accident at the preceding Belgian Grand Prix.
Sixty years on, Sir Jackie returns to the same circuit — now 87, a three-time World Champion, and the man whose safety campaign through the 1960s and 70s fundamentally reshaped what drivers could expect from the sport. On the Sunday of the race weekend, he will wave the green flag to start the 6 Hours of Fuji.
Race Against Dementia
Sir Jackie established Race Against Dementia in 2016, following his wife Lady Helen Stewart’s diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia. Told there was no cure and no meaningful treatment available, he applied the approach that had defined his career in and out of the cockpit: attack the problem at speed, and refuse to accept that it cannot be solved faster.
The charity funds early-career scientists whose work falls outside conventional funding structures, applying Formula 1 problem-solving methodology — urgency, precision, collaborative engineering — to dementia research. It operates under the patronage of HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh, and has raised more than £20 million, funded 88 researchers and backed over 50 research projects across five continents.
Around 55 million people live with dementia worldwide, a figure projected to reach 152 million by 2050. In Japan, an estimated 4.6 million people are affected.
Announcing the appearance, FIA World Endurance Championship CEO Frédéric Lequien said the word “legend” is often overused — but that in Sir Jackie’s case it is entirely deserved, pointing not only to his record across multiple disciplines on track but to his campaigning off it, from driver safety to dementia research.
FIA World Endurance Championship, 21 August 2026
The Gala Dinner
The dinner will be held in “THE CIRCUIT,” the ballroom of the Fuji Speedway Hotel, seating 176 guests across 22 tables. Attending will be team principals and drivers from the international endurance paddock, senior figures from Japanese business and the Tokyo diplomatic community, Race Against Dementia’s UK trustees, and Sir Jackie’s son Mark Stewart, who chairs the charity’s board.
The programme includes a tribute to sixty years at Fuji, a live auction, and traditional Japanese music. Auction lots are being confirmed with teams and partners competing at Fuji and will be announced in the coming weeks; confirmed items include a signed tartan helmet from Sir Jackie and bodywork raced at Le Mans. Proceeds from donated auction lots go directly to Race Against Dementia.
The event builds on the 2025 Race Against Dementia Tokyo Charity Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, which raised over ¥10 million and brought Formula 1 leadership together with Japan’s motorsport community.
Across the Race Weekend
The gala opens a wider programme of activity across the 6 Hours of Fuji weekend. A Community Track Walk with Sir Jackie will give public supporters the chance to walk a section of the circuit alongside him. A Memory Wall installation in the fan zone will invite fans, drivers and guests to dedicate a message to someone affected by dementia. A separate charity auction of motorsport memorabilia and experiences will run online across the weekend, closing before the race.
Attendance
The gala dinner is by invitation, with a limited number of individual seats and corporate tables available. Full details are on the official event page. Enquiries regarding tables, individual seats and partnership opportunities: charity@herseyshiga.com.
The FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji runs from 25 to 27 September 2026 at Fuji Speedway. The championship’s full announcement is available here.
