Team Mach Signs Former Honda Junior Arao

Photo: SUPER GT

Team Mach has completed its SUPER GT lineup for the upcoming season by signing ex-Honda and Red Bull junior driver Souta Arao.

Team owner Tetsuji Tamanaka revealed on social media that Arao, 20, will partner Yusuke Shiotsu at the wheel of the minnow squad’s No. 5 Toyota 86 Mother Chassis.

Arao replaces Iori Kimura, who has moved on to join the Kondo Racing Nissan team, and is set to drive for the team for the first time in next month’s first official pre-season test at Okayama International Circuit on March 6-7.

While mostly known for his single-seater exploits in French Formula 4, GB3 and Super Formula Lights, Arao also contested a single Super Taikyu round in 2024 aboard Team HRC’s ST-Q class Honda Civic Type R CNF Concept.

He lost his Honda backing at the end of that year and spent most of 2025 on the sidelines, except for a single Super Formula Lights outing at the start of the season and then a surprise appearance in Super Formula’s end-of-season Suzuka test for ThreeBond Racing, for which he subsequently signed as reserve driver.

Team Mach is heading into the 2026 season off the back of scoring its first-ever win in the GT300 class after two decades of trying in last year’s Motegi finale.

That result propelled Shiotsu and Kimura to eighth in the drivers’ standings, the duo having also scored a podium earlier in the year at Suzuka.

The team runs the championship’s sole remaining car conforming to SUPER GT’s Mother Chassis regulations — based around a standard Dome-built tub and powered by the out-of-production Nissan VK45DE engine (branded the ‘GTA V8’).

Tamanaka revealed last year after his team’s historic first win that it still has two fresh units at its disposal as the car enters its 12th season in service.

Arao’s confirmation at Team Mach means only Tomei Sports has yet to confirm its drivers plans for the upcoming season.

The team’s No. 360 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 will be driven in the Okayama test by Rin Arakawa, Yu Kanamaru and gentleman driver Atsushi Tanaka.

Kohei Hirate, who left Kondo Racing following the conclusion of his Nissan contract, confirmed on social media on Sunday that he will not be racing in SUPER GT this year.

It means the 2013 and ’16 GT500 champion will be missing from the grid for the first time since 2007, having been an ever-present fixture since 2008.

Source: Sports Car 365