Matsushita Bullish as Bold New ARTA Colors Break Cover

Nobuharu Matsushita has expressed confidence that he and ARTA teammate Tomoki Nojiri will enjoy a stronger SUPER GT season this year as the Honda squad’s bold new colors broke cover ahead of this weekend’s official test at Okayama.

ARTA’s No. 16 car (pictured top) sports a revamped livery that combines the blue-and-pink of chemical company WAKO’S — a previous sponsor of Rookie Racing and Team LeMans — with the Team Mugen-run outfit’s more usual black-and-orange.

The sister No. 8 Honda Civic Type R-GT (bottom) features a more conventional orange scheme, but with more black coloring at the back of the car compared to last year’s design.

Matsushita will once again share the No. 8 with Nojiri having delivered the car’s sole victory during its debut season at Fuji Speedway in August on their way to ninth in the GT500 standings, and a distant second-best of the Honda crews.

Looking ahead to the new season, Matsushita highlighted the fact that every team has been equipped with a fresh monocoque this year, saying that the No. 8 car has been much more responsive to setup changes in private testing so far.

“This year we did the Sepang test, which went really well for us,” he told Sportscar365.

“It was the first time for me to drive a GT car at Sepang, and it was really difficult for me to adapt to the track, because sector three is kind of long corners and a GT car is loading [the tires] everywhere. But I was able to get a lot of practice doing those things.

“We also did the Okayama and Fuji tests, so we’ve already done three tests and still we have [official] testing. In terms of mileage, we did a lot, so I am quite happy about that.

“Everyone has a new chassis this year, but we think we have a better chassis than the one we had last year, so we are hoping it’s going to work well.”

Matsushita added that ARTA will be setting its sights on lead Honda squad Team Kunimitsu, whose No. 100 Civic is now being operated directly by the HRC Sakura facility this season with assistance from Servus Japan.

“We want to surpass them for sure,” he said. I think the No. 1 [TOM’S Toyota GR Supra] will be the car to beat at Okayama, but the No. 8 is not looking too bad.

“It will be the second year of working with Nojiri, and now I have experience of working with Team Mugen. I know the engineers now, so this year we want to be a lot more consistent every weekend.

“Last year was very up-and-down, so this is the target and I am quite confident.”

The Okayama test comprises eight hours of running over two days, split into four two-hour sessions — two on Saturday and two more on Sunday.

It follows two days of running for a number of GT300 cars at the same venue across Wednesday and Thursday, with a handful of GT500 cars also getting the chance to perform shakedown runs on Thursday, including the No. 16 ARTA Honda.

A total of 41 cars are set to compete in the test, with GT300 squads Saitama Green Brave and MKS Racing the only full-season entrants to not be taking part.