Anest Iwata Racing held its annual Blue Link Festival event at its corporate headquarters in Yokohama, presenting to the world a brand-new car, a new alliance with one of the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ most accomplished GT300 teams, and a refreshed driver line-up.
Through an expanded partnership with championship-winning team Gainer, Anest Iwata will run a Nissan Fairlady Z (RZ34) constructed by Gainer to GTA-GT300 regulations. Retaining the mainframe of the road-going Z, the blue and white #26 Anest Iwata Gainer Z is powered by the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine from the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, and will run on Yokohama tyres.
Anest Iwata Gainer Racing, as the team is now known, has competed in SUPER GT since 2023 with the Lexus RC F GT3. The team gave drivers such as Igor Fraga and Miki Koyama their first opportunities to race in the series from their inaugural season. In 2025, after two seasons partnered with Arnage Racing, Anest Iwata Racing acquired the entrant rights from its former partner at Arnage, and forged a new partnership with Gainer to serve as its maintenance partner in 2025.
That year, Fraga and veteran driver Hironobu Yasuda would give the team its first podium in a wet-weather race at Okayama International Circuit.
Yasuda, who spent 17 years as a Nissan factory driver, will reunite with the brand and continue as Anest Iwata Gainer Racing’s veteran lead driver in his 20th season in the series, and second with the team. The 42-year-old won the 2008 SUPER GT GT300 Championship on his way to a nine-year stay in GT500 where he won four races and finished second in the 2015 standings.
Yasuda returned to GT300 in 2018, finishing third in the 2019 championship with Gainer. He now has five victories and 13 podiums for his career in the category.
Following Fraga’s promotion to GT500, Anest Iwata Gainer Racing has chosen Lee Jung-woo of South Korea to be Yasuda’s new co-driver.
The 31-year-old from Daegu has spent most of his racing career split between his home country, in the SuperRace Championship, and in Japan, where he has won back-to-back Super Taikyu Series ST-TCR Championships in 2024 and 2025. He raced alongside Yasuda in last year’s Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour Race, the crown jewel of the Super Taikyu calendar.
Lee will be only the third Korean-born driver to race in SUPER GT, following Hwang Jin-woo and Kim Han-bong, and plans to be the first to run full-time in the series.
Images © Anest Iwata Racing
