Honda’s Ohta Closing on GT500 Return with ARTA
Photo: Honda
Honda factory driver Kaku Ohta looks set to drive for ARTA upon his SUPER GT return next year, and is expected to be one of three new faces on the marque’s GT500 roster.
As previously reported by Sportscar365, Ohta is poised to return to Japan’s top sports car racing competition after a year away, alongside a slimmed-down two-race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program for Acura Meyer Shank Racing.
Ohta also tested Honda’s new HRC Prelude-GT, which replaces the Civic Type R-GT next year, at Fuji Speedway last month alongside Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto.
However, while it was previously believed that there were plans to pair Makino and Ohta together, Honda appears to have had a change of heart regarding its lineups.
Makino and Yamamoto, the 2020 champions, are now looking set to remain a pair at Team Kunimitsu, with Ohta instead now set to join the two-car ARTA stable.
It comes at the expense of Nobuharu Matsushita, who is understood to be out of a drive in GT500 after spending four seasons as part of the Honda roster – including the last two seasons sharing the No. 8 ARTA Civic with Tomoki Nojiri.
Prior to that, Matsushita drove for Nissan squad Team Impul for a single season.
Nojiri, Ren Sato and Hiroki Otsu meanwhile all look set to remain at the two-car Team Mugen-run ARTA team, although in what configuration remains to be seen.
Real Racing is also set to have a new lineup for 2026 as Yuto Nomura looks poised to step up from GT300 to replace Shun Koide, who raced this year alongside Koudai Tsukakoshi in his rookie season after filling the seat vacated by Ohta.
Koide has been tipped to remain on Honda’s books as a GT500 reserve driver.
As well as Nomura, Brazilian Igor Fraga is also set to graduate from GT300 and take over from the now-retired Takuya Izawa at Nakajima Racing alongside Riki Okusa.
Official confirmation of Honda’s GT500 lineups is anticipated to arrive this month.
Testing of the Prelude-GT is set to continue at Sepang next month as part of the traditional off-season test at the Malaysian venue alongside Toyota and Nissan.
Four days of running are scheduled across Jan. 22-26 (with a break on Jan. 24) with the No. 8 ARTA car, the Nakajima Racing car and the No. 99 test car all set to participate.
The Sepang test will therefore mark the Prelude-GT’s debut on Dunlop tires, with all running up to now – at Sugo and Fuji – having taken place on Bridgestones.
Ohta will miss the Sepang test as he will instead be taking part in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with MSR as well as the preceding Roar Before the 24.
Team UpGarage Set for Real Racing Tie-up
Honda-linked GT300 team Team UpGarage is set to have a new service provider next season as its relationship with Servus Japan has come to an end.
Paddock sources have linked UpGarage, which has run a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the lower category since the beginning of this year, with a move to Real Racing.
It brings to an end a six-year relationship with Servus, which began working with the team in 2019 upon its switch to the Honda NSX GT3, and continued to run the operation upon its switch to Mercedes-AMG machinery with Ryo Hirano the lead engineer.
It remains unclear who will replace Honda junior driver Nomura, who will also race in Super Formula next year, alongside Takashi Kobayashi in the team’s 2026 lineup.
Servus, which provides engineering support to Team Kunimitsu, will continue to have a presence in GT300 through its relationship with CarGuy MKS Racing.
Source: Sports Car 365