Autobacs Racing Team Aguri
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| Founded | October 1997 |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Aguri Suzuki |
| Team principal(s) | Aguri Suzuki |
| Current series | Super GT |
| Former series | JGTC, Formula Nippon |
| Current drivers | Takashi Kobayashi, Tomoki Nojiri, Shinichi Takagi, Sean Walkinshaw |
| Teams' Championships |
1 (GT500, 2007) |
| Drivers' Championships |
2 (JGTC GT300, 2002/GT500, 2007) |
| Website | http://www.autobacs.com/motorsports/ |
AUTOBACS Racing Team AGURI (ARTA) is a joint racing project formed between former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki and Autobacs Seven Co. in 1997. The team's original name was "ARTA F1 Project," but due to copyright claims based on the usage of the word "F1," the name has since been shortened to "ARTA." ARTA was the 2007 SuperGT GT500 series champion in both the drivers' and team championship.
The team was created with the objective of developing drivers that could compete in the highest levels of F1 racing. In addition to competing in racing competitions such as Formula Nippon and Super GT, the team also holds its youth kart racing competition, the "ARTA Challenge," to find the next generation of competitive race drivers.
Toshihiro Kaneishi, a driver who received support from ARTA, won the German Formula Three Championship in 2001.
As of 2007, the team competed in, or offered support to other drivers who competed in the following categories:
The team maintained a close relationship with Aguri Suzuki's F1 team, Super Aguri F1, before they were forced to withdraw from Formula One in 2008. ARTA is currently the largest racing team in Japan.
The team participated with the Nissan Skyline GT-R from 1998 to 1999. In 2000, the team joined up with Honda, and began using the Honda NSX. Owner Aguri Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya drove in the first year with Honda, and Katsutomo Kaneishi replaced Aguri in 2001. In 2003, Kaneishi moved on to participate in the DTM series, and his cousin, Toshihiro Kaneishi, took over as driver. Tsuchiya also announced his retirement the same year. Katsutomo Kaneishi returned from DTM in 2004, and became driver along with Daisuke Ito. Tsuchiya became team director this year, but various mechanical failures caused the team to win only 2 points in the entire competition. In 2005, ARTA became a Honda team (Team Honda Racing), along with Takata Dome NSX. Aguri returned as team director, with Ito and Ralph Firman as drivers. The team took pole position 3 times, and was competitive all season. The team won the 7th race at Autopolis. ARTA kept the same drivers for 2006, but was unable to win the competition despite taking the pole position several times. The team did win the 4th race at Sepang. Team Honda Racing was dissolved in 2007, and ARTA participated in the competition with the same lineup as 2006. They won 3 races during the season on their way to championship victory. For 2008 Firman is joined by class newcomer Takuya Izawa while former driver Daisuke Ito left the team to drive for ENEOS TOYOTA Team LeMans.
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