Subaru’s Yamauchi Joins Pro K-Tunes Lexus Suzuka Effort

Subaru factory driver Hideki Yamauchi has been revealed as part of K-tunes Racing’s driver lineup for the Suzuka 1000km, as the team steps up to the Pro class.

Yamauchi, the all-time pole position record holder in SUPER GT’s GT300 class and the 2021 title winner, was one of two drivers revealed for the No. 96 Lexus RC F GT3 on Thursday morning together with fellow GT300 regular Takamitsu Matsui.

The pair join the previously-announced Sena Sakaguchi, a Toyota driver in SUPER GT’s GT500 class, for what is now an all-Pro effort.

It means Lexus becomes the seventh marque to have a car contending for outright Suzuka honors after Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Corvette, Nissan and Ford.

Yamauchi has been a mainstay of the Subaru stable since he joined the R&D Sport-run team in 2015, and his last full season at the wheel of GT3 machinery came in 2018 in Super Taikyu for the Endless Sports team in a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

“I’m really happy to have this opportunity,” said Yamauchi. “It will be my first time driving the RCF GT3 and driving with K-tunes, so I’m looking forward to it.

“It’s a new challenge for me, I want to return this favor of having such an opportunity by giving it my utmost to deliver the best result possible.”

Matsui, the 2016 GT300 champion, drives for the Tsuchiya Engineering squad in a GTA GT300-spec Toyota Supra GR GT3, but he has more recent GT3 experience courtesy of two seasons in a Porsche 911 GT3 R with his current employer in 2020-21.

“The Suzuka 1000km is a very tough, top-level race, but I’m grateful to have such an opportunity to challenge myself in a race like this,” Matsui said. “A big thanks to K-tunes Racing and all the sponsors involved.

“I want to do my best and improve as I drive in each session. We’ll go full throttle until the very end without giving up, so we ask for your support.”

Sakaguchi is a regular for K-tunes in the SRO Japan Cup, but didn’t start a race in his only appearance of the year so far at Sportsland Sugo, where the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that he was due to share with Kazunori Suenaga was withdrawn.

K-tunes campaigned a Ferrari 296 GT3 in last year’s Suzuka 1000km in the Bronze class for Shinichi Takagi, Sean Walkinshaw and Daisuke Yamawaki.