Fraga Eyes Ending Dunlop Losing Streak in Final Tire War Year

Honda driver Igor Fraga has set his sights on trying to end a nine-year losing streak for Dunlop in SUPER GT’s final year of open tire competition after stepping up to the top GT500 class with Nakajima Racing.

Fraga was chosen to replace the retiring Takuya Izawa as Riki Okusa’s co-driver aboard the Dunlop-shod No. 64 Honda HRC Prelude-GT this year after three seasons in the GT300 division with the Anest Iwata Racing Lexus team.

The Brazilian had his first taste of the car in testing at Sepang in January, where Okusa set the fastest time, and racked up further mileage in last week’s Fuji GT500 test.

Nakajima’s No. 64 car is one of just two in GT500 not using Bridgestone tires this season, and SUPER GT’s decision to end its long-running tire war after the 2026 season means time is running out for both the team and Dunlop to score its first win since the 2017 Suzuka 1000km with confidential tires.

Against that backdrop, Fraga says he is keen to take advantage of the effort being made by both Honda with its all-new Prelude challenger and Dunlop in the final year of tire competition to try and reach the top step of the podium.

“I think everyone is pushing really hard to score a good result this year,” Fraga told Sportscar365. “Honda was not able to achieve huge success with the Civic, so they are determined to do something good with the Prelude.

“Also, this being the last year of tire competition, Dunlop is pushing quite hard to deliver performance through the tires.

“It’s all coming together, and everyone is making a lot of effort to make things happen. This is a good starting point and we’ll see what we can do.”

Asked about specific goals for the year, Fraga replied: “SUPER GT is always hard to predict, because so many things can happen. If you don’t select the tires well, you already start on the back foot. But we want to be fighting for the podium.

“My goals are similar to Super Formula [in which he scored a win as a rookie last year]; to always be there and then, when we get a chance, to go for the win.

“It’s a very difficult category to win the championship, but at least one victory during the year, it’s something that we really want to achieve.

“If possible, we want to be fighting [to win]. That’s going to be really important.”

Fraga leaves behind the GT300 class and Anest Iwata Racing — which has dispensed with its Lexus RC F GT3 in favor of a Gainer-run Nissan Z this year — having scored a single podium in last year’s Okayama opener with Hironobu Yasuda.

The 27-year-old believes the lessons he learned with the Yokohama-shod Lexus should stand him in good stead for his move up to the top class, even if the results were not what he had hoped over the course of his three-year run with the team.

“It was not an easy three years racing in GT300, but I was able to learn a lot,” Fraga said.

“We had quite a difficult tire to manage in terms of the temperature range. But I think this experience will help me with going to GT500.

“With the Dunlop tires the transition has been very smooth, I think I was able to understand them well since the beginning.

“It was a difficult three years but not a waste, I would say. I think I have been able to make good use of this experience.”