Nakajima Racing Honda Prelude Fastest in Sepang Test

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Honda’s new Prelude GT500 contender set the pace in the first group test of the new SUPER GT season at Sepang as Nakajima Racing ended up with the top time.

The Dunlop-shod No. 64 Nakajima Racing Honda HRC Prelude-GT, one of seven GT500 cars present at the Malaysian track, set the best time of 1:49.211 on the third day of running on Sunday while Riki Okusa was the wheel.

Nakajima, which had both of its regular drivers Okusa and Igor Fraga taking turns at the wheel, topped four of the eight three-hour sessions held across the four-day test that commenced last Thursday, with a rest day on Saturday.

The test marked Fraga’s first mileage in a GT500 car, as well as the first time the Prelude has been tested on Dunlop tires, with all running until now with the new-for-2026 machine having taken place using Bridgestone rubber.

Okusa’s best effort was exactly three tenths shy of the best time set in last year’s Sepang test, a 1:48.911 by Tadasuke Makino in a Honda Civic Type R-GT.

Toyota’s No. 90 GR Supra test car was second-fastest over the test, its fastest time of 1:49.773 also coming on the third day.

Sho Tsuboi, Kenta Yamashita, Nirei Fukuzumi and GT500 debutant Rikuto Kobayashi are known to have driven the car over the course of the first three days of running, although it was not clear who set the car’s best lap at the time of publication.

For the final day, the No. 90 Toyota switched from Bridgestone to Yokohama tires to allow Racing Project Bandoh pair Sena Sakaguchi and Yuji Kunimoto some running.

The No. 37 TOM’S Toyota was third-fastest courtesy of a 1:49.829 set on the opening day, with paddock sources indicating that Tsuboi also drove the car as well as its regular occupants, Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi.

Nissan occupied fourth and fifth in the combined order, Team Impul’s Kazuki Hiramine setting the marque’s best lap of 1:49.866 on the third day in the No. 12 Z NISMO.

Katsumasa Chiyo set the fastest time in the No. 230 car on the second day, a 1:49.957, sharing not only with his regular teammate Mitsunori Takaboshi but also Kondo Racing duo Teppei Natori and Atsushi Miyake.

It marked Natori’s first experience of Bridgestone tires since he participated in an audition test for Nissan at Fuji in December 2023.

Rounding out the timesheets were the two remaining Preludes present at Sepang, the No. 8 ARTA car and the No. 99 HRC test car.

In the absence of co-driver Kaku Ohta, who was instead at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Hiroki Otsu did the bulk of the running in the ARTA Honda that recorded a best time of 1:50.318 on Sunday, although Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato were also present.

Honda’s test car, which recorded a best time of 1:50.635 on Friday, was driven by Team Kunimitsu pair Makino, Naoki Yamamoto, as well as Real Racing duo Koudai Tsukakoshi and Yuto Nomura, plus expected Honda reserve driver Shun Koide.

GT500 manufacturer testing continues with the first outing of 2026 on Japanese soil at Okayama International Circuit on Feb. 10-11.

All ten GT500 race cars that were not present for Sepang are expected to participate, including the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu and No. 16 ARTA Preludes.

Source: Sports Car 365