New Japanese outfit Yogibo Racing will contest this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS season, entering the Silver Cup category with a Ferrari 488 GT3.
Furniture brand Yogibo and team manager Misato Haga, who oversaw MOLA’s Super GT GT300 championship in 2008 before stepping away from motorsport, have established their own operation after working with Drago Corse in Super GT throughout 2021.
“Personally, in my first year back as a team manager, I was taught a lot of things by many people and I think I was able to grow a lot,” said Haga. “In 2022, Yogibo Racing will participate in Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS with a completely different system and aim to fight on the global stage. It will be a new challenge, but I want to make use of what I’ve learned up to now and do our best to put on a show that many people can enjoy.”
Yogibo’s lineup might be one of the strongest in the field, consisting of two past GT300 champions in Kiyoto Fujinami and Naoki Yokomizo.
Fujinami won the 2020 GT300 championship in Super GT, and finished runner-up last season driving for Kondo Racing. The 26-year-old Nissan Driver Development Programme (NDDP) graduate is also a three-time overall winner of the Fuji 24 Hour race, and a two-time Super Taikyu ST-X (GT3) class champion.
Yokomizo has previously won in GT World Challenge Asia driving for CarGuy Racing, and can call upon existing experience with the Ferrari of the same team – he drove three races with CarGuy and Pacific Racing last season in Super GT. Yokomizo won the GT300 championship in 2012, and prior to that, was a GT500 class race winner at Nissan.
Yogibo Racing will take part in all six rounds of the GT World Challenge Asia season, which is due to begin at Sepang Circuit, Malaysia, on 20-22 May. However, the Japanese team and their Silver Cup lineup will not be eligible for the new Japan Cup, which is reserved for Pro-Am, Silver-Am, and all-Am teams only.
Other Japanese teams already confirmed include the aforementioned CarGuy Racing (Ferrari), D’station Racing (Aston Martin), BMW Team Studie, and ABSSA (McLaren) – with further announcements expected shortly.
