Craft-Bamboo Racing has officially announced its return to the Eneos Super Taikyu Series empowered by Bridgestone, beginning with this weekend’s Suzuka Super Taikyu 5 Hour Race.
Jeffrey Lee was already confirmed as one of the drivers of the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Today, the Hong Kong-based team has confirmed that Lee will be joined by Honda factory driver Kakunoshin “Kaku” Ohta and Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver Jayden Ojeda for the first race of their season.
Craft-Bamboo Racing has said there will be small shuffles to the driver line-up that will be announced as the season progresses.
Ohta is the current Super Formula Championship leader following his win at the most recent race at Mobility Resort Motegi, but North American audiences are beginning to become familiar with the 25-year-old Japanese driver.
He made his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut earlier this year at the 63rd annual Rolex 24 At Daytona, as part of a five-race campaign split between Acura Meyer Shank Racing in GTP, and Era Motorsport in LMP2.
Previously in Super Taikyu, Ohta won the 2022 ST-Z (GT4) class championship for Mercedes-AMG customer Team 5Zigen. He has since led Craft-Bamboo to a second-place finish in last year’s ST-X (GT3) class standings with two wins at Autopolis and Okayama.
“I am very excited to be able to participate in the Super Taikyu series again this year as a member of Craft-Bamboo Racing. Last year, we performed particularly well in the qualifying and were able to win two races in the season, but this year we will do our best to achieve even better results than last year,” Ohta said.
Australian driver Ojeda (pictured above, left of Lucas Auer and Maximilian Götz) made three appearances for Craft-Bamboo in last year’s Super Taikyu Series, including their win at the Okayama 3 Hour race. He finished fifth overall in this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour for Craft-Bamboo, and will also be racing in the Australian and Asian GT World Challenge series.
“I am super excited to be joining the Super Taikyu series at Suzuka! We had a very competitive season last year, so I think we all share some high ambitions again this year. It will be my first time driving on the iconic Suzuka circuit so this will be a very cool opportunity and another fantastic Japanese circuit that I will get to learn,” Ojeda added.
Shuichi Hatakeyama, the General Manager of Craft-Bamboo Racing Japan, commented: “We’re very pleased to kick off the Super Taikyu season. This series is a true test of teamwork, consistency, and strategic precision—values we hold in the highest regard. Each race presents a new challenge, and we are fully committed to giving our all from the opening round as we fight for victory.”
Images © Craft-Bamboo Racing, SRO Motorsports Group
