Toyota and Honda have already announced their 2023 SUPER GT programmes in the GT500 class, which leaves Nissan as the last of the “big three” manufacturers to announce their GT500 lineups for next season. That will likely happen in January during the annual Tokyo Auto Salon.
Meanwhile, the GT300 grid is very slowly being pieced together with a few select announcements in the weeks since the 2022 season came to an end.
Goodsmile Racing & Team UKYO
The first announcement was made almost a month ago on 15 November, when perennial fan-favourites Goodsmile Racing & Team UKYO confirmed their 2023 lineup.
Three-time GT300 Drivers’ Champions Nobuteru Taniguchi (above, left) and Tatsuya Kataoka (right) will drive the No. 4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3. It is Taniguchi and Kataoka’s 12th consecutive season as team mates at Goodsmile Racing.
With Ukyo Katayama (centre) returning as team manager, Takao Kohno and RS Fine returning as chief engineer and vehicle maintenance partners, respectively, and a continued partnership with Yokohama Advan tyres – the core of the team remains completely intact from previous seasons. The team will look to build on a victory in the Suzuka 450km race, their first in over five years, through their strengthened bond with HWA AG in Germany.
The design of next year’s Hatsune Miku character that will adorn their car will be revealed this weekend, on 17 December.
Team UPGarage
As part of Honda’s SUPER GT announcements on 12 December, it was announced that the manufacturer will continue to support customer racing efforts in GT300 with the latest Honda NSX GT3 Evo22.
Only one Honda GT300 programme was announced, for Team UPGarage – who finished seventh in the GT300 Teams’ Championship.
Takashi Kobayashi, a race winner in both classes of SUPER GT, will stay with the team for a sixth season aboard the No.18 UPGarage NSX GT3. 23-year-old Syun Koide will make his SUPER GT debut next year, taking the place of GT500-bound Kakunoshin Ohta.
Koide arrives as a top prospect of the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) driver training programme. He is the reigning FIA F4 Japanese Champion, and has experience in multi-class sports car racing in Super Taikyu.
ARTA
The new alliance of ARTA and Team Mugen (M-TEC) in GT500 has led to the dissolution of ARTA’s GT300 programme – an expected, but still disappointing consequence, bringing the end of ARTA’s 25-year history in GT300, when including the programme’s roots as A’PEX Racing.
The No. 55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 of Hideki Mutoh and Iori Kimura won its final race at Motegi from pole position. That victory elevated ARTA to 13th in the final GT300 Teams’ Championship standings, enough to secure an “A” seed for the 2023 season – which would have guaranteed them entry into every race next season.
That guaranteed berth is now likely to be available to any new prospective entry.
Mutoh calls time on SUPER GT driving career
The 2022 finale at Motegi was also Mutoh’s last race as a full-time SUPER GT racing driver. He announced his retirement from the series on 15 November, less than two weeks after winning in his 100th race. However, he intends to continue racing in some capacity outside of SUPER GT.
Mutoh debuted in GT500 for Honda and Nakajima Racing in 2006, and took his first top class victory in the season finale at Fuji Speedway. He then went to America to compete in Indy Lights and IndyCar, where he won IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in 2008.
After returning to Japan in 2011, Mutoh raced and developed the groundbreaking Honda CR-Z GT300 Hybrid that debuted in 2012, and in 2013, he and Yuhki Nakayama won the GT300 Championship for Team Mugen in the CR-Z Hybrid. This led to a move back up to GT500 from 2014, to 2021 – where he raced for all five of Honda’s current teams, Nakajima, ARTA, Team Kunimitsu, Real Racing, and Mugen (plus Drago Corse).
In an odd statistical quirk, Mutoh’s win at Motegi officially counts as his first GT300 victory in the SUPER GT record books – as the GTA does not count his and Nakayama’s class win in the 2013 Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Fuji, despite the fact that it counted for the GT300 championship that year!
This is also farewell, for now, to young HFDP driver Kimura – who is set to focus exclusively on a second season in Super Formula Lights as it stands.
So far, that’s two confirmed out of as many as 30 entries that will compete in GT300 this year – but reports from outlets such as auto sport Web suggest that the number will be closer to the 27-28 entries seen this season.
Over in Super Taikyu, there are a few entries that have already been announced for the 2023 season to come.
ROOKIE Racing
Toyota-backed ROOKIE Racing announced their 2023 Super Taikyu programmes a day before the 2022 season finale on 26 November.
Their continued involvement in developing innovative concept vehicles in the arena of racing is no surprise. ROOKIE Racing will continue to develop and race the Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept, a hydrogen combustion engine vehicle, for the ST-Q class.
The next evolution for the hydrogen Corolla will be a switch from using compressed hydrogen gas to liquid hydrogen, a development Toyota first hinted at after the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours in June.
Two-time Super Formula Champion, Hiroaki Ishiura, will be the team principal and one of four drivers of the No.32 GR Corolla H2 Concept, joining pro driver Masahiro Sasaki, Yasuhiro Ogura of Ogura Clutch, and a fourth driver to be named later.
They will also continue to race with the Toyota GR86 CNF Concept, another ST-Q class vehicle running on renewable carbon neutral fuel.
GT500 and GT300 Champion, Kazuya Oshima, will have a similar driver/principal role to Ishiura, driving the No.28 GR86 CNF Concept alongside his 2019 GT500 Championship-winning team mate, Kenta Yamashita, and two more drivers to be named later.
In fact, both cars will be heading to Thailand to compete in the 25-hour Idemitsu 1500 Super Endurance Race at Chang International Circuit in Buriram this weekend, before returning to Japan in preparation for 2023.
But what is a surprise is the addition of an ST-X entry – something far away from the Toyota extended family, a Mercedes-AMG GT3!
In a partnership between ROOKIE Racing and Chinese automotive retailer Zhongsheng Group Holdings Limited, this ST-X class entry will compete as Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing in 2023.
One could reasonably infer that this new project will also influence the development of the upcoming Toyota GR GT3 Concept.
The aforementioned Tatsuya Kataoka will be the driver/principal of the No.14 Mercedes-AMG, joined by 2018 GT300 Champion Naoya Gamou, and Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) academy member Hibiki Taira. As an ST-X class entry, they must be joined by a gentleman driver to round out their lineup.
D’station Racing
Japanese super privateer D’station Racing have their full range of 2023 racing plans laid out. On top of their Asian Le Mans Series plans, the team announced on 5 December that they will again enter two cars in the Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook.
Their ST-X class No.777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 will once again be driven by team owner Satoshi Hoshino, lead driver and managing director Tomonobu Fujii, and Tsubasa Kondo. The same driver trio that won the ST-X championship in 2021.
There is also no change to the driver lineup of the ST-1 class No.47 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT8R, which will be shared by Tatsuya Hoshino, two-time GT300 Champion Manabu Orido, Kenji Hama, and Jake Parsons of Australia.
Hoshino and Fujii will also lead D’station’s renewed programme in the GT World Challenge Asia Japan Cup, competing in the Pro-Am category with another Vantage GT3.
Honda Civic Type R in ST-Q
Finally, another point from Honda’s announcements this week: The company will enter the ST-Q class in Super Taikyu with a vehicle based on the newest Honda Civic Type R (FL5).
Specifics of this project have yet to be revealed. Honda R&D Challenge, the privateer team run by members of Honda R&D, debuted the new Civic Type R in the Suzuka finale, and finished third in the ST-2 class.
