Honda Racing Corporation has announced its four-wheeled motorsports programmes for 2025, including its line-ups for the Autobacs SUPER GT Series GT500 Class.
The manufacturer will continue to run five Honda Civic Type R-GTs in the premier class of SUPER GT. The striking successor to the NSX-GT, the Civic Type R-GT took its first victory in the Fuji GT 350km Race this past August and will hope to build on that success in its second season.
The major change within the fleet is at Astemo Real Racing, where Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) graduate Syun (pronounced “Shun”) Koide replaces Kakunoshin Ohta within the stable. As Ohta moves on to focus on his new endurance role in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Koide will move up to the premier class of SUPER GT.
Koide, 25, won the 2022 FIA F4 Japanese Championship and is just weeks removed from winning the 2024 Super Formula Lights Championship. He spent two seasons in SUPER GT’s GT300 class, driving a Honda NSX GT3 for Team UPGarage. During his rookie season in 2023, Koide won his debut race at Okayama and won again in the summer at Suzuka Circuit, as he finished fifth in the GT300 Championship standings.
He’ll join veteran driver Koudai Tsukakoshi in the #17 Astemo Civic next season. Tsukakoshi returns for his 18th season (and 17th full season) at Real Racing, the longest active tenure with a single team in SUPER GT.
ARTA will once again field two cars supported by Team Mugen (M-TEC), with Tomoki Nojiri, Nobuharu Matsushita, Hiroki Otsu, and Ren Sato all returning to the team. However, no announcement has been made on which drivers will drive the #8 and #16 cars, respectively.
Stanley Team Kunimitsu, last year’s GT500 Championship runners-up, retain the pairing of two-time GT500 Champion Naoki Yamamoto and 2020 Champion Tadasuke Makino for a sixth season. Yamamoto will continue as a Honda GT500 factory driver after retiring from the Super Formula Championship after 15 seasons and three Drivers’ Championships.
And finally, Modulo Nakajima Racing retains the pairing of senior driver Takuya Izawa and sophomore Riki Okusa in the #64 car.
The aforementioned Makino, Ohta, Nojiri, and Sato will also drive for Honda in Super Formula, as will Ayumu Iwasa who returns for a second year in the series. Drivers for three additional Honda-powered seats will be announced later, with Super Formula testing currently ongoing this week at Suzuka.
Team HRC will continue to participate in the Super Taikyu Series’ ST-Q class for manufacturer-supported development vehicles. Specifics of the programme including the car and drivers will be confirmed at a later date.
Images © Honda
