 | |
| Founded | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Base | Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan |
| Team principal(s) | Katsutomo Kaneishi |
| Current series | Super GT |
| Former series | |
| Current drivers | |
| Teams' Championships | Japanese F3: 2 (N-Class: 2009, 2010) |
| Drivers' Championships | Japanese F3: 3 (C-Class: 2014; N-Class: 2009, 2010) |
| Website | www |
Real Co., Ltd., better known as Real Racing, is a Japanese company headed by former racing driver Katsutomo Kaneishi.
In 2007 Katsutomo Kaneishi had a tie-up with the Japanese version of Rolling Stone to launch Real Racing. The team name originates from their policy of "delivering real motorsports activities and fun to as many people as possible." Hiroshi Tanaka, former representative of Heroes Racing, was invited to be the manager. In its debut season in 2007, the team participated in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship and Super GT's GT500 class. In 2009, the Japanese F3 team began racing under the team name HFDP Racing as part of the Honda Formula Dream Project, Honda's young driver development project, and the team also started participating in Formula Nippon with the same name (Real Racing Team was launched in 2011). From that season onwards, Katsutomo Kaneishi has devoted himself to being the manager
Real Racing competed in Formula Nippon under the HFDP Racing banner in 2009 and 2010 with Koudai Tsukakoshi as the driver. In 2011, the team made their debut as Real Racing, fielding cars for Takashi Kobayashi and Hideki Mutoh. For the following season their drivers were Yuhki Nakayama and Toshihiro Kaneishi, the cousin of Katsutomo Kaneishi. Tsukakoshi returned to the team in 2013 in place of Kaneishi, and in 2014 former Italian Formula One driver Vitantonio Liuzzi took over Nakayama's seat and raced with the team for a single season. Takuya Izawa replaced Liuzzi for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, with Tsukakoshi maintaining the other seat. The team opted to race with one car from 2017 to 2019. [1] They only fielded Tsukakoshi during these seasons, except in 2019 when Tristan Charpentier was supposed to race the full season, but got axed after the first round, with Tsukakoshi returning to the team to complete the remaining rounds of the season. [2] [3] In 2020, Real Racing announced it was withdrawing from the 2020 season. [4]
In 2007, Real Racing competed in the GT500 with Honda as their choice of car manufacturer. Kaneishi himself took the wheel as an owner-driver along with his cousin Toshihiro Kaneishi. The F3 engine and Super GT vehicle were both manufactured by Honda, while the tyres came from Bridgestone. The team maintained its F3 cars in-house, although Super GT maintenance was outsourced from ARTA. In 2009, Keihin became the title sponsor of the team in Super GT, a role which it held until the end of the 2020 season. Keihin merged with a number of other companies to form Hitachi Astemo, a joint venture between Hitachi and Honda, and Astemo replaced Keihin as the title sponsor for Real Racing in 2021. [5] Nobuharu Matsushita rejoined Honda as a factory driver for 2022 and signed with Astemo Real Racing. [6] He replaced Bertrand Baguette, who left Honda at the end of 2021. [7] For 2024, Real Racing would have Kakunoshin Ohta as the replacement for Matsushita. [8]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. * Season still in progress.
Note: Non-championship races (NC1, NC2) are major races that do not count towards the championship.
Bertrand Marcel Nicolas Baguette is a Belgian professional racing driver. In 2013, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class and the FIA WEC LMP2 class title. In 2017, he won the final running of the Suzuka 1000km in Super GT. Bertrand is the 2022 Super GT 500 Champion with Nissan.
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) is a joint racing project formed between former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki and Autobacs in 1997. The team's original name was "ARTA F1 Project," but due to trademark claims based on the usage of the word "F1", the name has since been shortened to "ARTA". ARTA was the 2007 Super GT GT500 series champion in both the drivers' and team championship.
Koudai Tsukakoshi is a Japanese racing driver for Honda Racing Corporation who currently competes in Super GT for Astemo Real Racing.
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Nobuharu Matsushita is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in Super GT for ARTA and Super Formula for TGM Grand Prix.
The 2019 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the twenty-seventh season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the fifteenth season the series has competed under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-seventh overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 14 and ended on November 24, after 8 championship races & 2 non-championship races.
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The 2020 Autobacs Super GT Series was motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the twenty-eighth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the sixteenth season the series to compete under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-eighth overall season of a JAF national sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.
The 2021 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the twenty-ninth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era, and the seventeenth season under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-ninth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship, dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.
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The 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars, sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the thirtieth season of the JAF Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the eighteenth season under the Super GT name. It was also the fortieth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.
Iori Kimura is a Russian Japanese racing driver who is the current Super Formula Lights champion and competed in Super GT.
The 2023 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars, sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and ran by the GT Association (GTA). It was the thirty-first season of the JAF Super GT Championship, which included the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the nineteenth season under the Super GT name. It was also the forty-first overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.
Kakunoshin Ohta is a Japanese racing driver for Honda Motor Company who currently competes in Super GT for Astemo Real Racing and in Super Formula for docomo Team Dandelion Racing.
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The 2024 Autobacs Super GT Series is a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It is the thirty-second season of the JAF Super GT Championship, which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the twentieth season under the Super GT name. It is also the forty-second overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.
Drago LLC, also known as Drago Corse, is a Japanese racing team, competing in Super Formula. The team was founded by long-time Honda driver and 2000 JGTC champion Ryo Michigami in 2014.
