Natori to make SUPER GT return in Motegi finale

Natori will share the #360 Tomei Sports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 with Takayuki Aoki for the eighth and final round of the 2022 campaign, marking his first outing in the series since last year's Fuji curtain-closer.

He becomes Aoki's third different teammate of the season after Atsushi Tanaka and Yusaku Shibata. The team's best results so far this year are a pair of 10th places in the two Fuji races, in which all three drivers were entered.

Natori was left without a drive in SUPER GT at the end of last season after an impressive rookie campaign for Honda GT300 team UpGarage, which he combined with a successful Super Formula Lights title assault.

That was after a planned move to FIA F2 with the Trident team fell through amid a split with his backer Buzz.

 

Natori was linked to a potential berth in the Nissan fold for 2022 but his failed bid to return to the European single-seater scene meant he lost out on a potential drive with the Gainer GT300 team.

The 22-year-old has spent 2022 so far racing in Super Taikyu with Nissan ST-3 outfit Team ZeroOne, also making a one-off outing for the Max Racing squad with the Nissan Z Concept in the ST-Q class at Motegi.

Elsewhere in the GT300 class, Augusto Farfus (BMW Team Studie) and Ryuichiro Tomita (Gainer) both return to their respective teams for the Motegi finale as usual after skipping the previous race at Autopolis due to a clash with the Barcelona round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

While most cars are carrying zero handicap weight, two cars that missed races earlier in the season, namely the #25 Tsuchiya Engineering and #244 Max Racing Toyota GR Supras, are both carrying 2kg of success ballast.

A total of 42 cars are set to contest the Motegi finale on November 6 across both classes.

• Stream every qualifying session and race of the 2022 SUPER GT season only on Motorsport.tv.