Yasuda Parts Ways with Nissan After 17 Years

SUPER GT racer Hironobu Yasuda has announced the end of his tenure as a Nissan driver after a 17-year stint with the Japanese manufacturer.

The 40-year-old revealed the news via a brief statement on his Instagram account early on Sunday morning, bringing down the curtain on a relationship that yielded the 2008 GT300 title and a total of nine race wins across both the GT300 and GT500 classes.

“My contract as a Nissan driver expires at the end of 2023,” he wrote. “Including the time I spent as a junior driver, we have worked together for more than 15 years.

“I was able to win the championship in GT300 and take four victories in GT500 driving Nissan cars. While I was driving for Team Impul, I had the experience of being in the pressure of a title fight [in GT500], which is something I am grateful for.

“Since returning to GT300, I was sent by Nissan to drive for Gainer. For six years the team warmly accepted me and I have made many memories racing with my teammates.

“From 2024 I will remain active as a racing driver in a new environment, so I ask for your continued support.”

Yasuda was signed by Nissan in 2006 to contest the now-defunct Formula Challenge Japan series, which he combined with a first season in SUPER GT driving for the MOLA team in a 350Z.

He made his GT500 debut in 2007 on a one-off basis driving for the works NISMO team in the Suzuka 1000km before returning to MOLA in 2008 to embark on a title-winning campaign alongside Kazuki Hoshino.

That success earned Yasuda a place in Nissan GT500’s roster for 2009, when he scored his first win in the top category for Hasemi Motorsport at Sepang, sharing a cockpit with Ronnie Quintarelli.

He would spend the next four seasons at Kondo Racing, but it wasn’t until he joined Team Impul in 2014 that he emerged as a a regular frontrunner. He and teammate Joao Paulo de Oliveira won two races as a duo and finished runner-up in the 2015 standings.

In 2018, Yasuda returned to the GT300 ranks with Gainer, where he would score four wins alongside Katsuyuki Hiranaka and take a best championship finish of third in 2019.

He and new teammate Riki Okusa suffered a difficult 2023 season, ending up 17th in the standings with a best finish of fifth.

Yasuda’s exit from Nissan coincides with Gainer radically overhauling its structure for 2024. One of its entries will be run under the PONOS Racing banner, while the team has also been linked to running a new Z built to GT300 rules.