INGING Motorsport and muta Japan, in cooperation with Cars Tokai Dream28, announced their 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series programme and with it, the introduction of a third Toyota GR86 GT300 to the field in 2022.
Constructed by apr Racing, the Toyota GR86 GT made its debut at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. The #2 muta Racing GR86 GT will join the two previously announced entries from apr themselves, and from series newcomers SHADE Racing.
The new 5.4 litre V8 powered GR86 GT will have the task of succeeding the race winning Lotus Evora MC (Mother Chassis), originally constructed by Mooncraft Engineering. After Cars Tokai Dream28 introduced and competed with the Evora from 2015 to 2020, INGING Motorsports – who had raced in 2020 with the Dome-built Toyota MC86 – invested in the team to form muta Racing INGING. The restructured team continued to use the mid-engined Evora MC last season, and won the fourth round at Motegi thanks to a well-timed full course yellow.
Clad in the now familiar gold and black colours of apparel company muta, the muta Racing GR86 GT will carry Bridgestone Potenza tyres – a highly-coveted tyre supplier in the GT300 ranks. Brake constructor Advics will further develop their braking system, which INGING cited as a factor in their victory last season.
The driver lineup will once again be led by veteran and two-time GT300 championship runner-up Hiroki Katoh, who enters his 24th season of JGTC/Super GT competition, and his second consecutive season driving the #2 car in GT300 – going back to the first season of Cars Tokai Dream28 with the Mooncraft Shiden MC16!
Katoh, who turns 54 later this month, will have a new co-driver as 26-year-old Yuui Tsutsumi arrives from Max Racing for his second full season of Super GT competition. Tsutsumi also drove for three different teams across 2020, including one race in INGING’s MC86 at Motegi in November. He won his first GT300 race this past August at Suzuka, and in their press release, INGING expect that their two drivers can and will compete for the championship in 2022.
Tsutsumi and co-driver Atsushi Miyake finished fifth in last year’s GT300 Drivers’ Championship with Max Racing, while Katoh and his previous co-driver Ryohei Sakaguchi were 11th in the standings.
muta Racing INGING will be led by director Tomohiro Yamamoto, and helping to extract the most out of the new car in its first season will be an engineering braintrust led by technical advisor Kotaro Tanaka of Cerumo, and tenured chief engineer Shintaro Watanabe, who’s been with the team since they were Cars Tokai Dream28.
