Photo Gallery: Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-2022

Fresh off winning the Formula 1 World Championship, Honda invited their fans to celebrate the marque’s motorsport programme on both four and two wheels last Sunday. They were the first of Japan’s big three to hold such a festival since the start of the pandemic. The Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-2022 also marked the first public running of the „Type S“ version of the GT500 Honda NSX-GT.

Photo by Y. Sezaki

Unlike the previous Honda Racing Thanks Day in 2019 at Motegi, the event was held at Suzuka Circuit instead. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 wasn’t able to travel to the legendary Grand Prix circuit located in the Mie Prefecture the last two years, which also meant that the Japanese fans couldn’t witness Honda’s striking special livery they designed for their final official appearance on home soil. Last Sunday, the marque corrected that by having both Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB16 as well as Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri AT02 on display. Despite queues with a waiting time of over two hours, the many fans eagerly waited in line to catch a snapshot of both machines. Of course, that wasn’t everything. A big day of celebration meant several on- and off-track activities. Japan’s current travel restrictions meant that the likes of Max Verstappen, Marc Marquez as well as the other international works drivers and riders couldn’t make the trip to Suzuka. But a star-studded line-up of domestic drivers and riders, including Honda’s entire Super GT and Super Formula roster with the likes of Naoki Yamamoto, Tomoki Nojiri, Nobuharu Matsushita, Nirei Fukuzumi and Koudai Tsukakoshi, more made up for it.

Photo by Y. Sezaki

Despite cold temperatures around 5°C, hundrets of fans went on a pilgrimage to Suzuka Circuit. Not even a brief snowfall with sleet in the afternoon could interrupt the fantastic atmosphere. After a lot of private tests in the previous months, Honda’s new weapon for Super GT’s GT500 class made its public appearance. The evolution of the Honda NSX-GT is based on the Type S model of the car, a heavily limited edition to bid the second-generation NSX farewell. Its GT500 counterpart is equipped with an updated aerodynamic and most noteably a new, more aggressive looking front end based on the Type S model. With the updated model, the marque hopes to win their third Super GT championship in five years. Last year, Honda won four out of eight races – the most out of any manufacturer. However, an unfortunate collision in the season finale involving Honda’s GT300 rookie Ren Sato and Naoki Yamamoto caused the latter’s title ambitions to end in tears. Naoki Yamamoto isn’t wasting anymore time about what could’ve been though and at a driver’s talk show, the two-time Super GT and three-time Super Formula champion showed great sportsmanship when he jokingly looked back at 2021 by saying „A lot has happened“ before finding words of encouragement for Sato, taking the 20-year old into his arm, who will only be competing in Super Formula for Team Goh this year. In 2022, Naoki Yamamoto is set to lead the Honda camp in both premier categories again. All drivers showed their competitive nature, which was especially true for reigning Super Formula champion Tomoki Nojiri, who vowed that he will be aiming to beat Naoki Yamamoto’s records. Fans can eagerly await a healthy and exciting rivarly between the two Honda pilots.

Photo by Y. Sezaki

The show runs of the various machineries such as Honda’s GT500 and Super Formula line-up took place on the much shorter East Circuit layout. Due to the cold temperatures, the drivers complained about having problems getting heat into the tyres, showing that even during an exhibition, they are true racers at heart. They could showcase their competitive side in a total of seven racing events. Among them was a thrilling kart competition in the Kart Attacker Cup at Suzuka Circuit’s amusement kart venue, which was won by both Hiroki Otsu and British Superbike Rider Takumi Takahashi. The drivers also faced off in the Civic Battle featuring the first public running of Honda’s new Civic Type R model. Takuya Izawa and Koudai Tsukakoshi formed a duo and ended up being victorious. Nobuharu Matsushita, who joined Honda as a works driver again this year after being part of the Nissan camp in 2021, put his stamp on the N-ONE Owners‘ Cup race – a fun competition featuring Honda’s N-ONE kei car. As part of the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) rebranding, combining their automobile and motorcycle efforts under one banner, the Suzuka Racing School (SRS) got renamed to the Honda Racing School (HRS). At the Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-2022, they held competitions for both motorcycles and formula cars. The latter HRS-Formula Cup race was won by Ren Sato.

The racing events were part of the Team Red vs Team Blue competition. In addition, fans could apply a „fan boost“ by voting for their favorite team on Twitter, which added to the tally. In the end, Team Blue, which consisted of the likes of Koudai Tsukakoshi, Takuya Izawa, Ren Sato, Nirei Fukuzumi, Tadasuke Makino and Toshiki Oyu won with 145:135 against Team Red featuring Tomoki Nojiri, Naoki Yamamoto, Nobuharu Matsushita, Hiroki Otsu and Ukyo Sasahara among others.

Friend of the show Y. Sezaki provided us with some fantastic impressions from the Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-2022. In addition, you can catch a replay of the entire event on Honda’s official YouTube channel.

Copyright Photos: Y. Sezaki, Honda Racing Corporation