Honda GT300 Team Yogibo Racing Announces Withdrawal

Yogibo Racing has announced it will not participate in SUPER GT in 2024.

The Honda GT300 team owned by the Japanese arm of American furniture brand Yogibo made a brief statement on social media on Thursday, effectively ending a three-year tenure involved in GT3 competition in Japan and Asia.

“Due to a change in corporate strategy, Yogibo Racing will suspend its involvement in SUPER GT in 2024,” read the statement.

“We deeply apologize to all the fans that were looking forward to seeing us compete. We will make announcements in due course regarding our future activities.

“We thank everyone for their support over these three seasons, including in GT World Challenge Asia. Yogibo will continue to support the world of motorsport!”

Yogibo Racing was one of two teams running the Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 in the GT300 class, and its withdrawal means there will be only one example of the car on the grid this season, that of Team UpGarage.

The team first participated in SUPER GT in 2021 with an NSX run in partnership with Drago Corse, but that alliance came to an end upon the conclusion of that season.

With no entry rights, Yogibo spent a year competing in Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS with a Ferrari 488 GT3 run by B-Max Racing in 2022, but was able to return to SUPER GT in 2023 by buying out ARTA’s GT300 entry, entering into a new partnership with Servus Japan.

However, the team struggled for performance with rookie pairing Reimei Ito and Yugo Iwasawa, who finished 20th in the drivers’ standings with a best finish of fourth in a wet Okayama season opener.

Yogibo’s withdrawal most likely leaves Ito and Iwasawa facing a year on the sidelines, with only a handful of GT300 teams left still to announce their plans for 2024.