Goodsmile Racing & Team UKYO announced their participation in the 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series during an event in Tokyo on Christmas Day. The announcement was also broadcast live via YouTube.
The fan-favourite team behind the colourful Hatsune Miku race cars will look to return to their championship winning form through an expanded partnership with HWA AG, the firm responsible for development and support of the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing programme and its cars. Goodsmile Racing have been communicating remotely with HWA engineers in Germany since 2020, who have helped to maximise the performance of their Mercedes-AMG GT3 despite difficulties with their Balance of Performance (BoP) setting. This partnership has helped GSR overcome their BoP disadvantage to finish on the podium three times in the last two seasons.
As part of this deepening bond, Goodsmile Racing have also ordered a new Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the upcoming 2022 season – the same model that they’ve used since 2016 – with the current Evo package.
With this, Goodsmile Racing will aim to end a near five-year winless drought, and add to their run of championships from 2011, 2014, and 2017.
Otherwise, the core of Goodsmile Racing & Team UKYO remains completely unchanged from seasons past.
Three-time GT300 Drivers’ Champions, Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka, will return for their eleventh consecutive season as drivers of the number 4 GSR Hatsune Miku AMG.
Japanese racing legend Ukyo Katayama will continue to serve as Team Director, working alongside Team Owner Takanori Aki (President and CEO of Good Smile Company), who will be hands-on with the team as usual.
Chief Engineer Takao Kohno and his racing garage RS Fine will return to provide vehicle maintenance, and Yokohama Rubber will continue as the team’s tyre partner.
This year’s rendition of the Racing Miku character, which will adorn the 2022 version of the Hatsune Miku AMG, was designed by illustrator ‘neco’. GSR will reveal their 2022 livery based around this design at the upcoming Tokyo Auto Salon on 14-16 January.
Images courtesy of Goodsmile Racing / Crypton Future Media Inc.
