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Yogibo takes over Honda GT300 entry from ARTA

Yogibo Racing has announced its return to SUPER GT after a year away, effectively taking over ARTA's Honda entry in the Japanese series' lower GT300 division.

#34 Yogibo NSX GT3

The furniture brand will field a car in SUPER GT under its own banner for the first time, joining forces with ARTA's previous partner outfit Servus Japan to field a Honda NSX GT3 Evo2.

Japanese youngsters Reimei Ito and Yugo Iwasawa will share driving duties for the #27 car, while Misato Haga, who led Yogibo's previous foray into SUPER GT two years ago, returns as team boss.

It means that Honda will continue to have at least a two-car presence in the GT300 class, following ARTA's decision to join forces with Mugen and field two cars in GT500 at the expense of its long-running effort in the lower division.

Servus, which also works with the UpGarage Honda team, had been known to be looking for a new partner to continue to field the NSX it had used since the 2019 season after its split with ARTA. 

Yogibo first entered SUPER GT in 2021 in partnership with Drago Corse, with team owner Ryo Michigami and Shogo Mitsuyama, a long-time associate of Haga, appointed as drivers.

The two parties went their separate ways for last year, Drago entering into a short-lived tie-up with Busou to field a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 for two races last year, while Yogibo ventured into the GT World Challenge Asia arena fielding a Ferrari 488 GT3 with support from B-Max Racing.

There was talk during the winter that Yogibo could try and bring its Ferrari to SUPER GT before a partnership with Servus was settled on.

In Ito and Iwasawa, Yogibo has recruited the two highest-placed drivers from last year's Japanese Formula 4 standings not already affiliated with either Honda or Toyota. Iwasawa was fifth overall, two places clear of Ito.

"From this season we have obtained SUPER GT entry rights, and we are able to participate as a new team," said Haga, who previously worked with the Direxiv and MOLA teams earlier in her career.

"There have been many tough days during the off-season, but I'm very grateful to all those who helped us prepare for this new entry.

"We have decided to use two young drivers who raced in Japanese F4, and my role is to create an environment that allows these young, promising drivers to display their talent, grow together and work towards winning.

"Using all the experience I have gained until now as a team boss, I'll give everything to guide the team towards victory."

Confirmed GT300 entries so far

FIA GT3 cars

#4 Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka)

#7 Team Studie BMW M4 GT3 (Seiji Ara/Bruno Spengler/Masataka Yanagida)

#10 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa)
#11 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa/Y. Shiotsu)

#18 Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Shun Koide)

#27 Yogibo Racing Honda NSX GT3 (Reimei Ito/Yugo Iwasawa)

#50 Anest Iwata Racing Lexus RC F GT3 (Igor Fraga/Yuga Furutani/Miki Koyama)

#56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/TBA)

#65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara)

#96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi)

GTA-GT300, Mother Chassis cars

#5 Team Mach Toyota 86 MC (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Takamitsu Matsui)

#25 Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota GR Supra GT (Togo Suganami/Seita Nonaka)

#30 apr Toyota GR86 GT (Hiroaki Nagai/Manabu Orido/Y. Kamimura/R. Ogawa)
#31 apr Lexus LC500h GT (Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka/Yuki Nemoto)

#52 Saitama Toyopet GB Toyota GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai)

#60 LM Corsa Toyota GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno)

#61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ GT300 (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi)

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