Honda Racing Corporation has announced its teams and drivers for the upcoming Autobacs SUPER GT Series GT500 class campaign.
2024 will be the debut season of the new Honda Civic Type R-GT, the company’s new GT500 vehicle which replaces the second-generation NSX-GT. Honda’s driver announcements come just hours after Toyota Gazoo Racing confirmed its GT500 drivers for 2024.
ARTA (Autobacs Racing Team Aguri) will continue to field two cars in its alliance with Team Mugen and its parent company M-TEC.
Two-time Super Formula Champion Tomoki Nojiri will begin his tenth season as the lead driver of the number 8 ARTA machine. This year, he’ll be joined by Nobuharu Matsushita, who spent the last two seasons with Astemo Real Racing.
The #16 ARTA Civic will be driven by Hiroki Otsu, one of Honda’s main title challengers this past season in GT500 – and 22-year-old Ren Sato, who returns to SUPER GT as a Honda GT500 driver.
Sato last competed in the series with ARTA’s GT300 team in 2021. Over the last two seasons, he has focused exclusively on Super Formula.
With the retirement of Toyota legend Yuji Tachikawa, Koudai Tsukakoshi is now the longest-tenured driver in an individual team. Tsukakoshi will start his 16th consecutive full season with Astemo Real Racing, now joined in the #17 Astemo Civic by Kakunoshin Ohta, who comes over after a solid first season with Modulo Nakajima Racing.
Nakajima Racing has retained the services of Takuya Izawa, the oldest driver in the Honda camp, to partner the second new addition to the manufacturer stable: 24-year-old Riki Okusa, after two impressive GT300 campaigns and a commendable Super Formula relief appearance, has now become a Honda works driver and will make his GT500 debut in 2024.
Okusa has some prior ties to Honda – he was a finalist for the Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula Scholarship in 2019, which was won by Ayumu Iwasa, who went on to star in the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships.
Finally, at Stanley Team Kunimitsu, there is no change in the line-up of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino aboard the #100 Stanley Civic.
Yamamoto appeared at Honda Racing Thanks Day in Motegi on 3 December, his first public appearance since leaving the hospital following surgery and recovery for a neck injury he sustained in the 2023 SUPER GT race at Sportsland Sugo. While he did not partake in any of the driving events that day, Yamamoto appeared to be in great spirits and should be able to start the 2024 season on time.
Nojiri, Makino, Ohta, Yamamoto, and Sato will also represent Honda in Super Formula. Iwasa and newly-crowned Super Formula Lights Champion Iori Kimura were also announced in Super Formula rides, with three seats still yet to be confirmed.
Feature image © Honda
