Tokyo Auto Salon was held this weekend in Chiba, Japan. The three-day car convention has often been the venue for manufacturers and private teams in Japan to announce their upcoming racing plans.
This year’s edition was somewhat lean in this regard, at least when it comes to the Autobacs SUPER GT Series. Toyota and Honda announced their 2024 GT500 lineups weeks ago, and Toyota’s GT300 supported teams were announced earlier in the week. And Nissan isn’t expected to announce its drivers and teams until at least later this month at the Sepang manufacturers’ test, if not later.
We did still get a few noteworthy announcements from other GT300 class teams, as well as more news in the Eneos Super Taikyu Series where high-profile ST-Q class efforts were being rolled out by manufacturers.
Subaru confirms GT300, ST-Q and N24 programmes
2021 GT300 Champions Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi were announced as the drivers of the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport, marking their tenth season together representing Subaru in GT300.
Iguchi, Yamauchi, and team General Manager Masahiro Ozawa, are eager to bounce back after a winless 2023 season which yielded just one podium finish, and eighth in the drivers’ standings.
In addition, Iguchi and Yamauchi will continue to feature as the star drivers for Subaru’s involvement in Super Taikyu with Team SDA Engineering. Supported by employee drivers from the Subaru Engineering Division, Team SDA Engineering will begin 2024 fielding the #61 Subaru BRZ CNF Concept.
Later in the year, the team will debut a new car – appearing, based upon the teaser image, to be a version of the latest Subaru WRX sports sedan.
Subaru also announced its entry into the Nürburgring 24 Hours with the SP4T-class Subaru WRX NBR Challenge. Tim Schrick, Carlo van Dam, and Kota Sasaki will all return from last year’s team, all of whom have contributed to Subaru’s six wins at the ‘Ring.
New to the STI Nürburgring effort this year is Rintaro Kubo, who won the 2020 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR86/BRZ Race Professional Series driving a Subaru BRZ. Kubo is also an ST-4 class champion in Super Taikyu and spent four seasons in GT300.
Two-car ST-Q effort from growing Mazda Spirit Racing brand
Masahiro Moro, CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation, announced that Mazda Spirit Racing will evolve into the company’s factory motorsports sub-brand, officially taking the mantle once held by Mazdaspeed in years past.
This announcement was followed by Executive Fellow Ikuo Maeda presenting Mazda Spirit Racing’s 2024 programme in the Super Taikyu Series ST-Q class, continuing with two unique cars.
Maeda will drive the #12 Mazda Roadster CNF Concept alongside pro drivers Ryohei Sakaguchi and Yuui Tsutsumi, joined by Inter Proto Series graduate Hiroshi Kawata.
The #55 Mazda3 Bio Concept, which uses renewable biodiesel fuel from Euglena, keeps its 2023 lineup of Kaoru Ijiri, Yutaka Seki, and Kazuhiro Terakawa.
“Mazda Spirit Racing Concept” versions of the Roadster and Mazda3 were also exhibited in the company booth, ahead of a likely production run in the near future.
Team UPGarage retains winning duo of Kobayashi and Koide
Honda GT300 customer squad Team UPGarage announced that Takashi Kobayashi and Syun Koide will return to drive the #18 Honda NSX GT3 Evo22, following an impressive 2023 campaign that yielded two victories.
At a rain-shortened race in Okayama, Kobayashi won in his 100th SUPER GT race while Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) prospect Koide won on his debut. They won again in the summer race at Suzuka, then took the chequered flag first again at Sugo – before being disqualified for exceeding minimum ride height.
In reference to their Sugo infraction, the good-humoured UPGarage squad gave out stickers which read “0.6mm – Not Enough!” to those who visited their booth over the weekend.
ROOKIE Racing announces full range of Super Taikyu programmes
On Sunday, ROOKIE Racing officially announced its participation plans for the 2024 Super Taikyu Series, fielding three cars across the ST-X and ST-Q classes.
The big news from their talk show at the Ogura Clutch booth on Sunday was that Kalle Rovanperä would be driving the #28 Toyota GR86 CNF Concept alongside Eisuke Sasaki, Sho Tsuboi, Kazuya Oshima, and Daisuke Toyoda at the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour Race.
The #32 team plans to alternate between using the liquid-hydrogen-fuelled Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept and the Toyota GR Yaris throughout the season. An updated version of the road-going GR Yaris was revealed at TAS which featured the eight-speed Direct Automatic Transmission (DAT) seen in last year’s Motegi 5 Hour race.
Pro drivers Masahiro Sasaki and Hiroaki Ishiura will share the full-time lineup with Toyota Chairman Akio “Morizo” Toyoda and Ogura Clutch President Yasuhiro Ogura, in an unchanged line-up. Toyota WRC Team Principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, will return for the Fuji 24 Hours, as well as another driver that will be announced later.
ROOKIE Racing will also defend its ST-X class title and Fuji 24 Hours overall victory with the #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Giuliano Alesi will replace Hibiki Taira alongside last year’s championship-winning drivers – Ryuta Ukai, Naoya Gamou, and Tatsuya Kataoka.
Not mentioned in these plans is the Toyota Prius CNF-HEV Concept, which ROOKIE Racing entered at the Thailand 10-Hour Endurance Race at Buriram in December.
Green Brave sets lineup for ST-Z title defence
Before the opening of Tokyo Auto Salon, Green Brave (formerly Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave) confirmed it will defend its Super Taikyu ST-Z class title with the #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4.
Manabu Yamazaki, Hiroki Yoshida, and Naoki Hattori will return from last year’s full-time lineup that won four races en route to the ST-Z (GT4) championship in Green Brave’s first season in the category.
Seita Nonaka, who was a guest driver in the team’s Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours class win, will now race full-time. Nonaka replaces the outgoing Kohta Kawaai in both SUPER GT and Super Taikyu.
Nissan works drivers Yasuda and Fujinami announce departures
Whatever future announcements are made in Japanese domestic competition involving Nissan, they will not involve two long-tenured works drivers who have left the manufacturer after the new year.
Hironobu Yasuda announced on New Years’ Eve that he had left Nissan, ending a 17-year tenure which began when Yasuda was one of the four original members of the Nissan Driver Development Programme (NDDP).
Yasuda won the 2008 SUPER GT GT300 Championship and then went on to race for nine years in GT500, finishing as the championship runner-up in 2015 with Team Impul. He’s spent the last six years with Nissan GT300 team Gainer and also took overall honours at the 2018 Fuji 24 Hours.
In recent years, he has nurtured the talents of young drivers such as Togo Suganami, Tadasuke Makino, Kazuto Kotaka, and Riki Okusa through his driver management label Hirotex.
The other departure is Kiyoto Fujinami, who originally joined the NDDP on a scholarship in 2012. Since then Fujinami has won two SUPER GT GT300 Championships with Kondo Racing, plus two Super Taikyu ST-X titles and three Fuji 24 Hours with GTNET Motor Sports.
But his final year under contract with Nissan was marred by an off-season altercation with a member of his privateer team KF Motorsports – one which cost him a promotion to the Nissan GT500 fleet and forced him into a year of exile from SUPER GT competition.
Fujinami’s former GT World Challenge Asia team, Yogibo Racing, is understood to be an option for him to make his GT300 return in 2024 – hopefully, as a stronger and more mature driver than the one we’ve seen before.
Feature image © Tokyo Auto Salon Association
Additional images © GTA, STO, Subaru, Mazda, Toyota, Nissan, and Gainer
