Honda Racing Thanks Day Returns; NSX-GT ‘Type S’ Makes Public Debut

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, one of Japan’s ‘big three’ manufacturers were able to host an end-of-year racing festival in front of fans. Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-22 was held today at Suzuka Circuit. It is the first Honda Racing Thanks Day to be held since November 2019, back when the event was held at Motegi.

Though virtually none of Honda’s factory drivers and riders from abroad were able to attend the event, many of Honda’s top domestic competitors who will race this upcoming season were in attendance and participated in a number of exhibitions across the Suzuka compound. This included Honda’s roster of ten GT500 drivers in the Autobacs Super GT Series.

And, to the point, HRTD 2022 was also the site of the public unveiling of a redesigned Honda NSX-GT that will make its Super GT debut this season.

The front of the NSX-GT has been redesigned in the shape of the latest Honda NSX Type-S, which is the final road-going version of the second-generation NSX. The limited production run of the NSX Type S has already begun, and will end in December.

Its GT500 counterpart has already been testing privately for several months, including at a private manufacturers’ test at Suzuka on 25-26 January. Along with a redesigned front end, the 2022 NSX-GT features a number of aerodynamic improvements over the 2020-21 spec, along the sides and below the wheel arches.

The introduction of this updated NSX-GT follows the debut of the new Nissan Z GT500, and Toyota are expected to introduce a significant aero update for their fifth-generation GR Supra this year.

The NSX-GT will once again be powered by the two-litre, turbocharged HR-420E four-cylinder engine. This powerplant drove Honda to six wins from seven races in the Super Formula Championship, with Tomoki Nojiri claiming his first title.

In GT500, Honda won four out of eight races last season, the most of any manufacturer. But an unfortunate collision with a GT300 class Honda NSX GT3 in the final race resulted in Honda missing out on the championship.

This was just part of the action to feature Honda’s top domestic talents. Hiroki Otsu (pictured above) and British Superbike rider Takumi Takahashi won the Kart Attacker Cup around Suzuka’s amusement park karting venue.

Takuya Izawa and Koudai Tsukakoshi won the Civic Battle around the Suzuka East circuit; Izawa and Naoki Yamamoto drove the second leg of the race in the new Civic Type R prototype.

Nobuharu Matsushita, who re-joined Honda as a factory driver this year, won the N-ONE Owners’ Cup race, and Ren Sato, who is part of Honda’s Super Formula fleet in 2022, won the HRS-Formula Cup race.

These events were part of a “Team Red versus Team Blue” showdown, consisting of seven events. Team Blue, which had Izawa, Tsukakoshi, Sato, Nirei Fukuzumi, Toshiki Oyu, and Tadasuke Makino, won the contest over Team Red, which featured Yamamoto, Nojiri, Otsu, Matsushita, and Ukyo Sasahara.

You can watch all eight hours, 43 minutes of Honda Racing Thanks Day 2021-22 – with English commentary for most events – on the Honda Racing Global YouTube channel:

Feature image courtesy of Team Kunimitsu

All other images courtesy of Honda