Nissan customer racing team Gainer announced their driver lineups for the 2022 season, concurrent with the news of Nissan announcing their GT500 drivers on Tuesday.
Gainer’s flagship number 11 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 will be driven by 2008 GT300 champion Hironobu Yasuda, and past GT300 race winner Keishi Ishikawa, who moves over from the number 10 car after three seasons with the team.
The number 11 Gainer TanaX GT-R recorded two pole positions, and scored a podium finish in round four at Motegi. Yasuda and Katsuyuki Hiranaka finished the season seventh in the Drivers’ Championship.
This off-season, Gainer has been tasked with filling the vacancies of Hiranaka – who has joined GT300 newcomers SHADE Racing – and the recently retired two-time GT300 champion Kazuki Hoshino.
To replace them, the number 10 TanaX Gainer GT-R will feature an all-new driver lineup, anchored by Suzuka 1000km class winner Ryuichiro Tomita, and rookie GT300 driver Riki Okusa.
Tomita raced with Gainer part-time in 2015, where he won the Suzuka 1000km alongside eventual GT300 champion André Couto and co-driver Katsumasa Chiyo. From there, Tomita raced with Gainer full-time from 2016-17. For the past two years, the 33-year-old driver has made his mark in the SRO GT World Challenge Europe with Audi and WRT – but has also competed part-time in GT300 with fellow Nissan customer squad NILZZ Racing.
The new driver in the #10 TanaX GT-R is 22-year-old Okusa, last season’s Porsche Carrera Cup Japan scholarship recipient. Okusa was fourth in the PCCJ standings, third in the Formula Regional Japanese Championship, and was part of the Porsche Team EBI Waimarama squad that finished seventh in last year’s Super Taikyu Series ST-Z (GT4) class. Okusa also won the ST-3 class title in Super Taikyu back in 2019.
Another Formula Regional Japanese Championship graduate, 23-year-old Yusuke Shiotsu, has also joined the team as a “C” driver. He’ll be on standby for long distance events including the Fuji 500km in May, and the Fuji 500 Mile Race in August.
Both Gainer Nissans will ride on Dunlop (Sumitomo Rubber) tyres as they did last season, and Kazumi Fujii will continue to manage both teams. Behind the scenes, former TGR Team SARD chief engineer Narunobu Makino has joined the team as chief engineer of the #10 car, while Yosuke Fukuda will continue to serve as chief engineer of the #11 car.
