Honda Explains Decision to Bring Ohta Back to GT500

Honda has explained its decision to bring Kaku Ohta back to SUPER GT for next season while scaling back on his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program.

On Tuesday, Honda revealed its GT500 lineup for the all-new HRC Prelude-GT’s debut season, headlined by the return of Ohta after a single season away, during which time he took on a partial five-race schedule in the WeatherTech Championship.

Ohta will drive the works-supported No. 8 Team HRC ARTA Mugen car alongside Hiroki Otsu, effectively replacing Nobuharu Matsushita within the two-car ARTA stable.

The 26-year-old will continue to race in Japan’s other major series, Super Formula, but is currently slated to make only two outings for Acura Meyer Shank Racing next year, in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

HRC race operations general manager Tetsuhiro Kuwata offered an explanation of the move during the brand’s press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, stating the aim is to harness the experience Ohta has gained from being part of MSR’s HRC US-backed No. 93 car in order to improve the structure for the No. 8 ARTA car next year.

“Our philosophy [with the No. 8 car] is similar to the semi-works structure that HRC US has put in place with the No. 93 car in IMSA,” said Kuwata.

“We want to adopt some of HRC US’s knowhow. That’s why we have decided to add Ohta, who will be able to make use of the experience he has gained in IMSA with the semi-works No. 93 car, to the lineup of car No. 8.

“While serving as a bridge between our Japanese and American operations, and with an eye on the future, he will also continue his activities in the U.S next year.”

This year, Ohta participated in an additional two WeatherTech Championship rounds at Sebring and Road America for the Era Motorsport LMP2 team in addition to his three outings in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 at Daytona, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis.

Asked by Sportscar365 whether further races at the wheel of an LMP2 could be added to Ohta’s schedule in 2026, Kuwata replied: “Of course, racing full-time in Japan means his schedule is already busy, but we are evaluating the possibilities.

“It’s possible he may end up doing just those two races [Daytona and Watkins Glen] but equally we could add further races to his schedule. It’s not decided yet.”

It was revealed on Tuesday that the No. 8 HRC Prelude-GT will carry a livery blending HRC’s identity and that of ARTA, with the partnership intended as the next step towards the establishment of a full HRC factory team in the long term.

It follows HRC taking over car maintenance at Team Kunimitsu this year from previous contractor ATJ — albeit without any involvement in the engineering side.

Kuwata explained that a dedicated HRC engineer working underneath newly-presented technical director Akihiro Hasegawa will be assigned to the No. 8 car to work alongside the existing Mugen crew to hone car set-up, tire selection and strategies.

He added that Hasegawa’s role as technical director will be to “ensure that the car performs to its full potential, to work closely with each team and driver, and to work with the development team to quickly address any issues that arise on-site”, while promoting “cross-team communication” between Honda’s four GT500 outfits.

ARTA’s No. 16 car will remain a purely Mugen-operated car, but changes to the technical structure are expected amid Kaito Tsuji, the race engineer of the No. 8 this year, departing parent company M-TEC to join new Super Formula team Delightworks Racing.

The engineer of the No. 16 car this year, Kimitoshi Sugisaki, is expected to stay on.