PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Kondo Racing
Founded	2000
Base	Gotemba, Shizuoka
Team principal(s)	Masahiko Kondo
Founder(s)	Masahiko Kondo
Current series	Super GT; Super Formula;
Former series	Super Taikyu; Nürburgring 24 Hours;
Current drivers	Super Formula: Kenta Yamashita; Kazuto Kotaka; ; Super GT GT500: Tsugio Matsuda; Teppei Natori; ; Super GT GT300: Daiki Sasaki; João Paulo de Oliveira; ;
Website	kondo-racing.jp

Kondo Racing is an automobile racing team founded, owned and headed by Masahiko Kondo. The operating body is MK Company Co., Ltd. MK is an abbreviation for Masahiko Kondo. The team competes in Super Formula as well as in Super GT in both the GT500 and GT300 classes.

History

Kondo Racing was founded in 2000 by Japanese pop star Masahiko Kondo, also known as "Matchy". Kondo himself had raced for many years since the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.^[1] In 1998 Kondo launched "Masahiko Kondo Racing Project" together with Teams TMS, a team with which he raced at the time, to compete in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1998 and 1999. While working to develop young drivers, Kondo himself learned how of run a racing team as a team manager. Based on that experience, in 2000 he established the "Kondo Racing Team" and began participating in Formula Nippon.

Super Formula

In 2000, Kondo Racing began competing in Formula Nippon, the premier Japanese open-wheel series, and the team has continued racing in the series ever since, with the series having rebranded as Super Formula in 2013. Since 2006, Kondo Racing has raced with Toyota engines. The team has not won a drivers' championship title, but came second overall with Nick Cassidy^[2]^[3]^[4] in 2018 and with Sacha Fenestraz in 2022.^[5]^[6] Kenta Yamashita has been one of the long standing driver for Kondo's Super Formula, as he has competed since 2017 with one win to his name, along with couple of podiums. For 2024 Yamashita, paired once again with last season's driver Kazuto Kotaka.^[7]

Super GT – GT500

Kondo Racing entered Super GT in the top GT500 class with Nissan in 2006. From the first year, Yokohama Tire joined Kondo till now. Also with the introduction of a strong lineup of former F1 driver Eric Comas and Nissan's own driver Masataka Yanagida. Since there was no data available, the first priority was to develop tires. Comas temporarily withdrew due to back pain and was replaced by Seiji Ara. Although Comas returned for the sixth race, he was unable to regain his form and was forced to stay out for the rest of the season, leaving Ara to team up with Yanagida until the final race. In the final race, he fought for 2nd place with some help from his machine, and then finished in 3rd place, earning his long-awaited first podium. Throughout the years the team has won several races, but has never been a serious championship contender.^[8]

Super GT – GT300

Since 2012, it has been participating in the Super Taikyu together with five Nissan Automobile College schools (Tochigi, Yokohama, Aichi, Kyoto, and Ehime). Kondo Racing also participated in the Nürburgring 24 endurance race with a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, marking the team’s first overseas competition. Kondo’s Nurburgring 24 driver lineup was Tsugio Matsuda, Mitsunori Takaboshi, Tomonobu Fujii and Tom Coronel.^[9]

In 2019, Kondo Racing entered the GT300 class of Super GT with Kazuki Hiramine and Sacha Fenestraz as their drivers in the class in the second-generation Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.^[10] The pair came close to winning the fourth round in Buriram, battling for the win until the final lap, but ultimately finished second.^[11]

In 2020, Kondo Racing won its first titles in the category with the driver pairing of Kiyoto Fujinami & João Paulo de Oliveira.^[12]^[13]^[14] After being in title contention again in 2021,^[15] the team returned to the top of the standings in 2022, clinching the titles after their main rivals lost a decisive position on the final lap of the last race.^[16] For 2023, de Oliveira stayed with the team, while Fujinami was replaced by Teppei Natori after he was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with another driver in the smaller Vita Pro series.^[17]^[18]

Nürburgring 24 Hours

Race results

Complete Super GT Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Points
2006	Nissan Fairlady Z	Y	GT500	24	Masataka Yanagida Érik Comas Seiji Ara	SUZ 10	OKA 10	FUJ 10	SEP 8	SUG 10	SUZ 5	MOT 6	AUT 14	FUJ 3		12th	33
2007	Nissan Fairlady Z	Y	GT500	24	João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara	SUZ Ret	OKA 15	FUJ Ret	SEP 1	SUG 10	SUZ 10	MOT 5	AUT Ret	FUJ 5		12th	47
2008	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara	SUZ 5	OKA 8	FUJ 11	SEP 1	SUG 8	SUZ 7	MOT 14	AUT 16	FUJ 15		11th	56
2009	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara	OKA 1	SUZ 8	FUJ 4	SEP 5	SUG 13	SUZ 11	FUJ 13	AUT 3	MOT 11		7th	69
2010	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	João Paulo de Oliveira Hironobu Yasuda	SUZ 1	OKA 12	FUJ 8	SEP 9	SUG 5	SUZ Ret	FUJ C	MOT 10	NC1 4	NC2 10	10th	48
2011	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Hironobu Yasuda Björn Wirdheim	OKA 9	FUJ 7	SEP 4	SUG 4	SUZ 10	FUJ 11	AUT 5	MOT 12	NC1 Ret	NC2 9	11th	50
2012	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Hironobu Yasuda Björn Wirdheim	OKA 11	FUJ 14	SEP Ret	SUG 10	SUZ 3	FUJ 13	AUT 4	MOT 11	NC1 9	NC2 5	14th	38
2013	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Hironobu Yasuda Michael Krumm	OKA 13	FUJ 12	SEP 13	SUG 5	SUZ Ret	FUJ 10	AUT 6	MOT 9	NC1 10	NC2 10	13th	32
2014	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Michael Krumm Daiki Sasaki	OKA 12	FUJ 4	AUT 13	SUG 10	FUJ 15	SUZ 9	BUR 2	MOT 4			8th	51
2015	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Daiki Sasaki Lucas Ordóñez Michael Krumm	OKA 11	FUJ 11	CHA Ret	FUJ 1	SUZ 13	SUG 3	AUT 15	MOT 12			12th	43
2016	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Daiki Sasaki Masataka Yanagida	OKA 13	FUJ 9	SUG 1	FUJ Ret	SUZ 12	CHA 13	MOT 1	MOT 10			7th	57
2017	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Daiki Sasaki João Paulo de Oliveira	OKA 10	FUJ 12	AUT 9	SUG Ret	FUJ 13	SUZ 5	CHA Ret	MOT 12			14th	24
2018	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	João Paulo de Oliveira Mitsunori Takaboshi	OKA 6	FUJ 13	SUZ 9	CHA Ret	FUJ 6	SUG 6	AUT 7	MOT 10			12th	42
2019	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Mitsunori Takaboshi Jann Mardenborough	OKA 5	FUJ 14	SUZ 8	BUR 4	FUJ Ret	AUT 9	SUG 15	MOT 10	NC1 17	NC2 12	13th	34
2019	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	Kazuki Hiramine Sacha Fenestraz	OKA 5	FUJ 4	SUZ 18	BUR 2	FUJ 7	AUT 8	SUG 5	MOT 6	NC1	NC2	5th	69
2020	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Mitsunori Takaboshi Jann Mardenborough	FUJ 10	FUJ 12	SUZ 11	MOT 13	FUJ 14	SUZ 8	MOT 14	FUJ 13			15th	19
2020	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	Kiyoto Fujinami João Paulo de Oliveira	FUJ 4	FUJ 5	SUZ 9	MOT 20	FUJ 1	SUZ 16	MOT 1	FUJ 2			1st	95
2021	Nissan GT-R	Y	GT500	24	Mitsunori Takaboshi Daiki Sasaki	OKA 14	FUJ 12	MOT 12	SUZ 3	SUG 6	AUT 14	MOT 7	FUJ 11			13th	40
2021	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	Kiyoto Fujinami João Paulo de Oliveira	OKA 1	FUJ 7	MOT 26	SUZ 8	SUG 3	AUT 11	MOT 3	FUJ 5			2nd	77
2022	Nissan Z	Y	GT500	24	Daiki Sasaki Kohei Hirate	OKA 14	FUJ 8	SUZ 6	FUJ 3	SUZ 10	SUG 14	AUT 3	MOT Ret			10th	46
2022	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	Kiyoto Fujinami João Paulo de Oliveira	OKA 1	FUJ 7	SUZ 3	FUJ 6	SUZ 13	SUG 4	AUT 5	MOT 19			1st	74.5
2023	Nissan Z	Y	GT500	24	Daiki Sasaki Kohei Hirate	OKA 14	FUJ 15	SUZ 8	FUJ 10	SUZ 13	SUG 5	AUT 12	MOT 14			15th	25
2023	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	João Paulo de Oliveira Teppei Natori	OKA 10	FUJ 1	SUZ 4	FUJ 4	SUZ Ret	SUG 10	AUT 5	MOT 6			3rd	70
2024	Nissan Z	Y	GT500	24	Tsugio Matsuda Teppei Natori	OKA 12	FUJ 13	SUZ 9	FUJ 14	SUG 13	AUT 12†	MOT 8	SUZ 15			14th	22
2024	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	Y	GT300	56	Daiki Sasaki João Paulo de Oliveira	OKA 15	FUJ 2	SUZ 16	FUJ 3	SUG 11	AUT 12	MOT 8	SUZ Ret			6th	49