Honda Set for Sprint Cup Debut With Nova Race

Italian customer team Nova Race will return Honda to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS grid and bring it into the Sprint Cup series for the first time.

The Varese-based squad has announced plans to run two Honda NSX GT3 Evo22s in the five-round Sprint Cup this year, marking Honda’s first appearance in the competition.

Previously, the Japanese marque had only been represented in the Endurance Cup.

The entry will also represent the first GTWC Europe program for the most recent evolution update of the long-lived Honda GT3 model, which runs as an Acura in the U.S.

Reigning Italian GT Sprint champions Jacopo Guidetti and Leonardo Moncini form one of the pairings, while Erwan Zanotti and Diego di Fabio complete the all-Italian lineup in the sister car.

“We’re aware this will be a difficult journey,” commented Nova Race team principal Christian Pescatori.

“We’ll take it on with a lot of humility, but above all poised to give all we have to prove we belong.

“I am really keen that we have onboard four very young Italian drivers who will be in their maiden Fanatec GT season after proving their worth in our cars in the national series.

“Therefore,  I’m very pleased to give them and all of us this opportunity to make our mark in the most important GT3 championship in Europe.”

The last Honda entry in GTWC Europe outright came from Jenson Team Rocket RJN, which contested the Endurance Cup in 2019. The British team raced in the Silver Cup class with a lineup that included current Acura LMDh test driver Matt McMurry.

Additionally, Honda’s European factory affiliate JAS Motorsport ran a three-year program at the 24 Hours of Spa, which concluded in 2020 with a ninth-place finish for Dane Cameron, Mario Farnbacher and Renger van der Zande.