For the second consecutive season, one-half of the reigning Autobacs SUPER GT Series GT300 Champions will stay at their current team to defend their championship, while the other is not expected to race in the series at all.
It’s a difficult situation for 29-year-old Kohta Kawaai to come to grips with, as it is for his supporters. But the reigning GT300 Champion is using an unfortunate set of circumstances as an opportunity to branch out into international sportscar racing and managing drivers in the Japanese grassroots scene.
Since he was hired by Saitama Toyopet Green Brave in 2020, Kawaai has become an important member of the dealer-owned team in multiple Japanese championships. In his very first race with his new team, Kawaai and his co-driver Hiroki Yoshida won the first race of the pandemic-affected SUPER GT season at Fuji Speedway. In doing so, Kawaai became part of a very exclusive club of drivers that had won in their first-ever start in the series.
It was also Green Brave’s first GT300 win, the first win for Yoshida that actually counted for points and personal records (since he didn’t drive in the 2012 Suzuka 1000km), and the first win for the team’s brand-new, V8-powered Toyota GR Supra. They’d win the final round at Fuji and finish the year second in the championship standings, and the wins and podiums continued to roll in over the following years – not only in SUPER GT but also in the Super Taikyu Series.
By this point, Kawaai was now established as the Green Brave’s explosively quick young charger, perfectly complementing the leadership and adaptability of his veteran co-driver Yoshida.
Then in 2023, it all came together beautifully. In SUPER GT, consistent results in the first five races put Yoshida and Kawaai in a tight battle at the top of the GT300 standings. Then they reeled off back-to-back wins at Sportsland Sugo and Autopolis to break clear of the pack, and at the final round in Motegi, Green Brave and its two drivers won their first GT300 Championship titles.
In Super Taikyu, Green Brave moved classes into ST-Z/GT4 – and in their first year with the Toyota GR Supra GT4, they won their class at the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, then clinched the ST-Z series championship before the final round of the season.
After all that success together, it was a surprise to many fans when, on 10 January, Toyota Gazoo Racing and the newly-renamed Saitama Green Brave announced their racing plans for 2024 – and Kawaai’s name was nowhere to be found. His name didn’t appear in any other team’s plans either, not on that day – or in the days and weeks that followed.
And as teams have now finalised their 2024 plans ahead of SUPER GT’s premiere at Okayama next week and Super Taikyu’s opening round at Sugo the week after, it’s now clear that Kohta Kawaai won’t be on the grid fighting for one of Japan’s two biggest national sportscar racing championships.
But why?
Back in January when the decision was made to replace Kawaai with Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) trainee Seita Nonaka, Saitama Green Brave told the Japanese media that it was due to the team’s standing policy of promoting young drivers to competitive racing opportunities.
Despite some struggles in GT300 and Super Formula Lights, Nonaka still has plenty of upside: The 23-year-old won the 2021 FIA F4 Japanese Championship, made a very good impression in cameo appearances with Green Brave last year – and to sweeten the deal, he’s a Saitama native driving for his home team.
So if Saitama Green Brave was ready to make a change, where was the interest from other teams in the ultra-competitive GT300 class, or elsewhere in Super Taikyu, which isn’t short of professional-grade drivers in any of its classes?
Count me as one of the people who was surprised by Kawaai’s absence from the SUPER GT grid, so I reached out to get his perspective. The way he explains it, Kawaai was ready to take on a new challenge even before his time at Saitama Green Brave came to an end. And he’ll be looking outside Japan for his next opportunity – when he intends to race at the Nürburgring for the first time this summer.
“I won the GT300 class championship in 2023, and achieved one of my goals there,” Kawaai told DSC. “Hence, I would like to try racing overseas and expanding my possibilities.
“I am preparing to take part in an endurance race at the Nürburgring this summer because I would like to obtain a license for other races at the Nürburgring,” he said. “I have not signed to any team yet – so I think the first race will be a spot start.
“Moreover, I would like to try racing in various series including WEC, GT series, and so on.”
With five wins, five more podiums, and 21 top-tens in 31 races, Kawaai’s GT300 track record alone would make him a credible candidate to make the step up to SUPER GT’s premier category, GT500.
But in the overwhelming majority of cases, the big three Japanese automakers tend to promote drivers from within their junior driver programmes – or sign drivers from rival manufacturers that already have top-level experience. There are only 15 cars and 30 full-time seats available in GT500, with no sign of expansion coming any time soon. These factors make it very difficult for an independent driver like Kawaai to step up to GT500.
Kawaai also expressed a desire to continue and advance his single-seater career. “To be honest, I want to continue with formula racing – so Formula E and IndyCar are my goals right now,” Kawaai explained.
He was the 2015 Motegi Super FJ series champion (Japan’s equivalent to Formula Ford 1600s). He then spent the next four years in the FIA F4 Japanese Championship – and he was the top-ranked driver who wasn’t sponsored by Honda or Toyota in 2018 and 2019. In an effort to draw the attention of the top-level teams in series such as Super Formula, Kawaai put together a budget to run two-thirds of the 2022 Super Formula Lights season at independent team Rn-sports. He even won the pole position for his first race at Suzuka.
“In addition, I’ll also be involved in training female drivers as a director of a new team in Kyojo Cup,” Kawaai adds, “as well as EV touring car racing in Japan.” This new team, announced today, is HIGHSPEED Étoile Racing – sponsored by the new futuristic motorsports anime that will premiere on 6 April.
Kawaai will manage HIGHSPEED Étoile Racing’s parallel programmes in Kyojo Cup (Japan’s all-women’s racing championship) and the co-ed FCR Vita series, with drivers Kotomi Maeda and Ai Shimizu. Both championships run on the same weekends at Fuji Speedway, using Vita-01 light prototypes. The new team will also race in the All-Japan EV-GP Series and the All-Japan Karting Championship’s EV class.
So with his new responsibilities as a team principal and his motivation to take his talents to the international stage, does Kohta Kawaai still want to return home, to try again at racing in Japan’s top categories? “Absolutely yes!” he exclaimed.
“I hope to obtain many new skills and knowledge while I’m racing overseas. Finally, I plan to come back as a regular driver in GT500 and Super Formula.”
One recent development that could aid Kawaai in his goal of racing in GT500 is SUPER GT’s new reserve driver system. It allows any team to nominate up to two drivers that can substitute for a team’s regular driver in case of a sudden illness or injury.
There’s a more-than-zero-percent chance that Kawaai could end up being selected as a team’s reserve driver, and be pressed into top-class action if needed. In recent years, Katsumasa Chiyo used a relief driver appearance in 2019 to restore his place in the Nissan GT500 fleet, and Riki Okusa turned a one-off paid drive in the 2023 Super Formula JAF Suzuka Grand Prix into his first full factory deal with Honda in GT500.
It’s still going to be strange not seeing Kohta Kawaai racing at Okayama next weekend, but he still looks forward to the 2024 SUPER GT campaign – particularly in GT300.
“In my opinion, it will be a tough but exciting season,” he says. “Because the qualifying method has changed, I think the teams on Bridgestone tyres could have an advantage.” That would, of course, include his old team at Saitama Green Brave, as well as championship runners-up Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira at muta Racing INGING.
In a way, Kohta Kawaai turning his attention towards the international scene mirrors the path of another of last year’s SUPER GT champions, Ritomo Miyata. After winning both the GT500 and Super Formula Championships in the same season, Miyata has already settled into his post-Japanese racing career and will soon make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in June. Kawaai just won’t have the full might of Toyota Gazoo Racing guiding him in his efforts as Miyata does.
But he’s willing to take the leap of faith and test himself in new environments, with the hope that if he lands the right opportunity, he’ll get the opportunities that he’s been seeking.
Images © SFL Association, GTA, Saitama Green Brave, and Platinum Factory Co. Ltd.
