Honda Motor Corporation announced on 12 December their 2023 motorsport programmes, which includes their team and driver lineups for the upcoming Autobacs SUPER GT Series.
Through the unified Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), the manufacturer will continue to support a fleet of five teams in the GT500 class. Last season, an updated version of the Honda NSX-GT GT500 race car, with new styling cues derived from the Honda NSX Type S, won three races including back-to-back victories in the last two rounds.
Team Kunimitsu retain their lineup of two-time GT500 Champion, Naoki Yamamoto (34), and 2020 GT500 Champion, Tadasuke Makino (25). Racing in memory of the legendary Kunimitsu Takahashi, Yamamoto and Makino won the season finale at Mobility Resort Motegi, and finished third in the GT500 Drivers’ Championship, the best of the five Honda teams.
Astemo Real Racing have also retained their driver lineup from last season, comprised of Koudai Tsukakoshi (36), who will begin his 15th full season as a GT500 driver for Real Racing, and Nobuharu Matsushita (29), who joined Tsukakoshi last season as both drivers won the penultimate round in Autopolis, and finished fourth in the championship.
The most significant change within the Honda camp for 2023 is the formation of a synergetic partnership between ARTA and Team Mugen (M-TEC Co. Ltd.), in which two cars will enter under the ARTA banner. Both cars will receive technical support from Mugen/M-TEC, and Bridgestone will supply tyres to both the No. 8 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT, and the No. 16 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT (as they are both listed in a separate press release from ARTA and parent company Alnex.)
The two-car effort is similar to the two car TOM’s programme for Toyota, and the NISMO and NDDP Racing teams for Nissan – and also evokes memories of the short-lived Team Honda Racing project that ran from 2005 to 2006, which put ARTA and Dome’s GT500 efforts under one unified super team.
The No. 8 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT will be led by ace driver Tomoki Nojiri, the two-time and defending Super Formula Champion. Nojiri, 33, has driven for ARTA (formerly Autobacs Racing Team Aguri) since his GT500 class debut in 2015. He has eight career victories in SUPER GT’s premier category – including his most recent, at the Fuji 450km Golden Week race.
His new co-driver is 24-year-old Toshiki Oyu, who recorded his first career GT500 podium this past September when he finished third in a wet race at Sportsland Sugo. He debuted in SUPER GT with ARTA in GT300 back in 2020, before stepping up to GT500 with Team Mugen the following season.
In exchange, Nirei Fukuzumi, 25, will head to the overhauled No. 16 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT. The 2019 GT300 Champion has won four races since making his GT500 debut with ARTA in 2020. Nojiri and Fukuzumi finished runner-up in the 2021 GT500 championship standings together.
Also joining the No. 16 team is Hiroki Otsu, 28, who spent his first three seasons in GT500 with Modulo Nakajima Racing. Otsu finished second at Motegi in November 2020, his first career podium finish in GT500.
With these aforementioned moves, as well as the departure of Ukyo Sasahara, Honda have called up Kakunoshin Ohta – a top prospect of the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) driver training programme, to a full-time GT500 drive with Modulo Nakajima Racing.
Ohta, 23, had a stellar debut season in GT300 with Team UPGarage – with two podium finishes including a second place on debut at Okayama, he finished eighth in the GT300 Championship standings. Ohta also won the Super Taikyu Series ST-Z (GT4) class championship and finished runner-up in Super Formula Lights this past season.
He will join veteran lead driver Takuya Izawa, 38, at Nakajima Racing – who are now the sole remaining GT500 team running on Dunlop (Sumitomo Rubber) tyres this coming season. Izawa is also entering his 15th full season as a Honda GT500 driver.
Nojiri, Fukuzumi, Matsushita, Yamamoto, and Makino will also represent Honda in Super Formula this coming season, as will Ohta, who will make his debut in that series. Former GT300 driver Ren Sato, Red Bull Racing reserve driver Liam Lawson, and Formula Regional Americas Championship scholarship recipient Raoul Hyman will also drive for Honda in Super Formula.
- #8 – ARTA – Tomoki Nojiri / Toshiki Oyu – Bridgestone
- #16 – ARTA – Nirei Fukuzumi / Hiroki Otsu – Bridgestone
- #17 – Astemo Real Racing – Koudai Tsukakoshi / Nobuharu Matsushita – Bridgestone
- #64 – Modulo Nakajima Racing – Takuya Izawa / Kakunoshin Ohta – Dunlop
- #100 – Team Kunimitsu – Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino – Bridgestone
Images © Honda
