Kondo Racing has announced that it will return to the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2025, the Japanese team’s first entry into the event in six years.
However, instead of running a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 as the team did last time – and has done since 2019 in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series – Kondo Racing will field a brand-new Ferrari 296 GT3 in collaboration with Rinaldi Racing.
Transportation and logistics company Realize Corporation, Kondo Racing’s title sponsor in SUPER GT and the Super Formula Championship, will extend its title sponsorship to the new project, and the team will run with Yokohama Advan tyres, continuing a long-term partnership.
The new car went through a shakedown test at Suzuka Circuit the Monday after the SUPER GT season finale, undertaken by Team Owner and namesake Masahiko Kondo and veteran Japanese sports car racer Shigekazu Wakisaka.
“I’m full of excitement to take on the Nürburgring again,” said Kondo. “We will be racing to improve on our brilliant ninth-place overall finish in 2019.
“Of course, we will aim to win the Nürburgring, but we will also strengthen our domestic Super Formula and SUPER GT programmes to become an even stronger team in 2025.”
The quartet of Tom Coronel, Tomonobu Fujii, Tsugio Matsuda, and Mitsunori Takaboshi drove the Nissan GT-R to that ninth-place finish in 2019, and the team planned to return for the 2020 edition before abandoning those plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The alliance with Rinaldi Racing puts Kondo Racing’s entry in good hands: The German team prepared the Frikadelli Racing Ferrari that famously won the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2023, the first overall win at the event for Ferrari.
Drivers for the programme will be announced at a later date.
Images © Kondo Racing (MK Company Ltd.)
