#16 ARTA MUGEN Finishes Fifth at Fuji
Fuji SpeedwayThree Honda PRELUDE-GT cars finish inside the points during round two of the season
Round 2 of the 2026 SUPER GT Series was held at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture from 3-4 May. The race was a three-hour contest, with each driver required to complete more than one hour of driving. In difficult conditions, with both air and track temperatures changing during the race, the #16 ARTA MUGEN car driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato finished fifth, the highest result among the HRC PRELUDE-GT entries.
Qualifying
Qualifying began on the afternoon of Sunday 3 May in strong winds. In Q1, which reduced the field from 14 cars to 10, Tadasuke Makino in the #100 STANLEY set the benchmark among the HRC PRELUDE-GT entries with a time of 1m26.725s. All five HRC PRELUDE-GT cars progressed to Q2.
As Q2 got under way, rain began to fall on parts of the circuit and the conditions changed slightly. This appeared to affect the tyres, and the HRC PRELUDE-GT cars were unable to improve their times as expected. The best of the group was Riki Okusa in the #64 Modulo, who qualified fifth. He was followed by Kakunoshin Ohta in the #8 ARTA MUGEN, Naoki Yamamoto in the #100 STANLEY, Ren Sato in the #16 ARTA MUGEN and Koudai Tsukakoshi in the #17 Astemo.
Race
Blue skies appeared before the race on Monday 4 May, with the air temperature rising to 24°C and the track temperature climbing sharply to 43°C. When the race began at 2:00pm, Riki Okusa started fifth in the #64 Modulo but gradually lost positions. On lap 13, Tomoki Nojiri in the #16 ARTA MUGEN passed Hiroki Otsu in the #8 ARTA MUGEN at the end of the main straight, moving up to fifth as the leading HRC PRELUDE-GT entry.
After 39 minutes of racing, on lap 26, the #8 ARTA MUGEN, which had dropped to 11th, made an early pit stop. The team changed all four tyres without changing drivers. During the opening hour, the HRC PRELUDE-GT cars continued to trade positions, but the strong pace of the #16 ARTA MUGEN allowed Nojiri to move up to fourth.
After 40 laps and one hour of racing, many teams began to pit for their driver changes. The #16 ARTA MUGEN also came in at the end of lap 41, shortly after briefly moving into the lead, with Nojiri handing the car over to Sato. Sato rejoined in eighth on lap 42, but with his tyres not yet up to temperature, he was passed by the #23 Nissan and #24 Nissan and dropped to 10th. By lap 69, he was seen moving the car from side to side while managing tyre pick-up, where rubber debris from the track sticks to the tyres and reduces grip. The #38 Toyota closed to within one second, but Sato held fifth position.
At the end of lap 75, with around two-thirds of the race completed, Sato brought the #16 ARTA MUGEN in for its second pit stop. The team completed the required tyre change and refuelling, with Sato staying in the car. He had been holding fifth, but dropped to eighth after the #38 Toyota successfully completed an overcut.
On lap 82, the #38 Toyota, Sato in the #16 ARTA MUGEN and the #24 Nissan became locked in a three-way battle on the main straight, exchanging positions several times. At Turn 1 on lap 84, Sato initially lost out to both cars, but achieved a stronger exit and passed both of them in one move to retake fifth place. In the closing stages, he came under intense pressure from the #24 Nissan, but defended successfully and completed 115 laps to take the chequered flag in fifth.
The #100 STANLEY finished eighth and the #17 Astemo finished ninth, meaning three HRC PRELUDE-GT cars scored championship points.
The next round, Round 4 of the series, is scheduled to take place at Fuji Speedway on 1-2 August.
There are still areas of the PRELUDE-GT that we do not fully understand, and as this was our first time at Fuji with the car, we did not know how we would compare with our rivals. In qualifying, we were not quite able to adapt to the conditions, so we pushed hard to make up for that in the race. I think we did everything we could in the race, but I still feel that we need to continue exploring and understanding how to make the PRELUDE-GT faster. We will review what we learned from Round 2 and prepare so that we can deliver a higher level of performance.
There are still areas of the PRELUDE-GT that we do not fully understand, and as this was our first time at Fuji with the car, we did not know how we would compare with our rivals. In qualifying, we were not quite able to adapt to the conditions, so we pushed hard to make up for that in the race. I think we did everything we could in the race, but I still feel that we need to continue exploring and understanding how to make the PRELUDE-GT faster. We will review what we learned from Round 2 and prepare so that we can deliver a higher level of performance.
When I first took over the car, the air temperature was still high and I was able to run at a very positive pace. But in the second half, the temperature dropped, the tyres were more prone to picking up rubber, and there was also some graining, so I could not raise the pace and had to defend. In the closing stages, the #24 car could have passed me at any time, but I defended as hard as I could. We did not have strong straight-line speed, so I focused on making sure he could not get close to me through the final corner. The set-up we tried this time had both positives and negatives, but overall we are still not quite at the level of our rivals. We will work with the team, address each issue one by one, and prepare for the next race. The next Fuji round will be held in midsummer, so the conditions will be different, but I feel we can continue to improve. Next time, I will do my best to reach the podium.
When I first took over the car, the air temperature was still high and I was able to run at a very positive pace. But in the second half, the temperature dropped, the tyres were more prone to picking up rubber, and there was also some graining, so I could not raise the pace and had to defend. In the closing stages, the #24 car could have passed me at any time, but I defended as hard as I could. We did not have strong straight-line speed, so I focused on making sure he could not get close to me through the final corner. The set-up we tried this time had both positives and negatives, but overall we are still not quite at the level of our rivals. We will work with the team, address each issue one by one, and prepare for the next race. The next Fuji round will be held in midsummer, so the conditions will be different, but I feel we can continue to improve. Next time, I will do my best to reach the podium.
All of our cars made it through Q1, but in the end our best result was fifth with the #64 car. Our rivals improved their times from Q1 to Q2, but perhaps because the track temperature dropped suddenly, we were not able to do the same, which was disappointing. In the race, even within the same stint, the track temperature changed depending on the time of day, and there were moments when the car suddenly lost pace. There were also periods when the PRELUDE-GT ran at a good pace, but we did not have enough speed to pass other cars easily or pull away from them. There is a long interval before the next race, so we will make the most of that time, analyse the data we gained this weekend carefully, and work to improve.
All of our cars made it through Q1, but in the end our best result was fifth with the #64 car. Our rivals improved their times from Q1 to Q2, but perhaps because the track temperature dropped suddenly, we were not able to do the same, which was disappointing. In the race, even within the same stint, the track temperature changed depending on the time of day, and there were moments when the car suddenly lost pace. There were also periods when the PRELUDE-GT ran at a good pace, but we did not have enough speed to pass other cars easily or pull away from them. There is a long interval before the next race, so we will make the most of that time, analyse the data we gained this weekend carefully, and work to improve.
GT500 Race Result
Pos. | No. | Team | Drivers | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 36 | TGR TEAM au TOM’S | Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita | 3h00’31.710 |
2 | 14 | TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE | Nirei Fukuzumi / Kazuya Oshima | +8.786 |
3 | 23 | NISMO | Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi | +41.398 |
4 | 39 | TGR TEAM SARD | Yuhi Sekiguchi / Sacha Fenestraz | +42.460 |
5 | 16 | ARTA MUGEN | Tomoki Nojiri / Ren Sato | +54.657 |
6 | 24 | KONDO RACING | Teppei Natori / Atsushi Miyake | +55.127 |
8 | 100 | STANLEY TEAM KUNIMITSU | Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino | +1’31.568 |
9 | 17 | Astemo REAL RACING | Koudai Tsukakoshi / Yuto Nomura | +1 Lap |
11 | 8 | Team HRC ARTA MUGEN | Kakunoshin Ohta / Hiroki Otsu | +1 Lap |
12 | 64 | Modulo Nakajima Racing | Riki Okusa / Igor Omura Fraga | +3 Laps |
