Honda Development Car to Run Dunlops in Suzuka Test

Photo: Uncredited

Honda’s SUPER GT development car will utilize Dunlop tires in a two-day test organized by the GT Entrants’ Association (GTE) this week at Suzuka Circuit.

The plain-liveried No. 99 Honda Civic Type R-GT, which ran during the pre-season with Bridgestone tires, will be used to help Dunlop achieve its allocation of 44 hours of in-season testing on Wednesday and Thursday at the famous figure-of-eight venue.

It will also allow Dunlop to boost development by using a car with a different set-up to that of the regular No. 64 Nakajima Racing Honda, which is the only GT500 car in the field that the Sumitomo Rubber-owned brand supplies.

The No. 99 will be one of three GT500 cars in action in this week’s test along with the two Yokohama-shod cars, the No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota GR Supra and the No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan Z NISMO.

A single three-hour session will take place on Wednesday, with a further five hours of running split across two sessions planned for Thursday.

Eight GT300s will also be taking to the track this week, all Yokohama users.

These are the Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Goodsmile Racing, Pacific Racing and Team UpGarage Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos, the Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota GR Supra, the No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the Velorex Ferrari 296 GT3 and the Helm Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

Three hours of running are available on Wednesday across two sessions, partly overlapping with the GT500 session, with five hours of on-track action scheduled the next day, featuring both mixed and single-class running.

A separate GTE test is taking place next week, on May 13-14, for Bridgestone, Dunlop and Michelin GT300 teams, with four-and-a-half hours of track time per day.

All four Bridgestone GT300 teams — Inging, Saitama Green Brave, LEON Racing and apr — are set to participate, along with the full contingent of six Dunlop teams: LM Corsa, K-tunes Racing, Subaru, Gainer, D’station Racing and PONOS Racing.

Michelin will be represented by the Shade Racing and apr Toyota GR86 GTs, plus an additional test car fielded by apr, the No. 300 that appeared in a pre-season GTE test in February at Fuji Speedway as a Toyota Prius PHV GR Sport.

It’s understood that the test was split into two to accommodate Yokohama, which was unavailable for May 13-14.

Bridgestone’s eligible GT500 teams will have their own test at Suzuka on July 22-23.

Traditionally this test has taken place in April, but the fact the Mie Prefecture venue is only hosting one round of the championship this year in late August has caused the test to be moved in hopes of running in more representative conditions.