R&D Sport

R&D Sport

Founded	November 7, 1991 (1991-11-07)
Base	Hiratsuka, Kanagawa
Team principal(s)	Eiji Tatsumi
Current series	Super GT
Former series	JGTC
Current drivers	Takuto Iguchi, Hideki Yamauchi
Teams' Championships	1 (GT300, 2021)
Drivers' Championships	1 (GT300, 2021)
Website	www.rdsport.net

R&D Sport is a Japanese racing team currently competing in the Super GT series.

Racing history

R&D Sport was created in 1991 as a race car management, maintenance, and manufacturing company^[1] and expanded to JGTC, racing under the company's own name in 2002.

Super Formula

The team first competed in Japanese Formula 3000 in 1992 as AD Racing with Finnish driver Mika Salo. The team changed to Navi Connection Racing in 1995 with driver Masahiko Kageyama taking third place at Suzuka in 1995 and third place at Fuji in 1996. Masami Kageyama, younger brother of Masahiko Kageyama, followed his sibling to third place at Fuji in 1997. A third-place finish at Fuji in 2000 from driver Shinsuke Shibahara would be R&D Sports' last podium in Formula Nippon.^[2]

Super GT

In 2001 R&D Sport moved to the JGTC in a Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Shinsuke Shibahara and Shogo Mitsuyama. 2002 would be the first successful year of JGTC competition, changing to a new Vemac RD320R, Shibahara and Mitsuyama would win three rounds of the season, taking victory at Fuji, Twin Ring Motegi, and Mine Circuit and finishing second in the drivers' championship.^[3]

R&D moved to GT500 with a Vemac RD350R in 2003, but they would not have the success of the last season, being unable to properly compete with the factory teams of GT500. As a result, the team dedicated 2004 to further developing their new Vemac RD408R competing in only one race of the season.

2005 would see the team move back to the GT300 class, as an accident with the team's RD408R ruined the planned GT500 effort. Instead R&D Sport was forced to use their Vemac RD350R from the 2003 season in the GT300 class, as it was no longer competitive in GT500. The team ran two cars in 2006 with Shogo Mitsuyama and Nobuteru Taniguchi winning at Okayama and taking third in the drivers' championship. Drivers Shinsuke Shibahara and Hiroyuki Yagi won the next round at Fuji and finished sixth in the drivers championship.^[4]

Shinsuke Shibahara and Haruki Kurosawa achieved victory at Autopolis in 2007, finishing third in the drivers' championship.

R&D Sport began a partnership with Subaru in 2009 using an AWD Subaru Legacy B4 that debuted at the sixth round of the season at Suzuka. However the car developed problems with its front differential and was retired from the race.

2010 was a shift from the disappointing performance of the Legacy in 2009, by changing the car from an AWD setup to FR, Kota Sasaki and Tetsuya Yamano won at Suzuka.^[5] 2011 was an even better performance, with Sasaki and Yamano winning at both Suzuka and Autopolis, finishing fourth overall in the drivers' championship.

STI and R&D Sport began a joint partnership in 2012 with STI general director Eiji Tatsumi taking over as team principal and a new Subaru BRZ for the 2012 season.

In 2013 the team achieved victory at the fifth round of the season at Suzuka, with drivers Kota Sasaki and Tetsuya Yamano finishing fourth in the drivers' championship. At the eighth round of the series Tetsuya Yamano announced his retirement after the end of the 2013 season.

Yamano's replacement, Takuto Iguchi and Kota Sasaki win at Fuji and finish 5th in the drivers' championship in 2014.

The 2015 season is less successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a third place podium at Suzuka.^[6] Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season twelfth overall in the driver's championship.^[7]

The 2016 season is more successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a win at Suzuka, third place podium at Sportland Sugo and Fuji. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season sixth overall in the driver's championship.

The 2017 season is less successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a second place podium at Autopolis. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season ninth overall in the driver's championship.

The 2018 season is more successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a third place podium at Suzuka and win at Sportland Sugo. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season eighth overall in the driver's championship.

The 2019 season is very worst successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a third place podium at Suzuka. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season eighteenth overall in the driver's championship.

The 2020 season is very more successful than the previous year with the year's best finish being a second place podium at Fuji and third place podium at Twin Ring Motegi. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season fifth overall in the driver's championship.

The 2021 season is The 1st Champion than the previous year with the year's best finish being win at SUGO, a second place podium at Fuji and third place podium at Fuji and Autopolis. Drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi finished the season first overall in the driver's championship.

Results

Complete JGTC Results^[8][9]

(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	Pos	Pts
2001	Porsche 911 GT3-R	D	GT300	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Yasuhisa Fujiwara Shogo Mitsuyama	OKA 7	FUJ Ret	SUG 9	FUJ 11	MOT 5	SUZ 6	MIN 4		7th	39
				63	"OSAMU" Takamasa Nakagawa	OKA 9	FUJ 8	SUG 6	FUJ 17	MOT 17	SUZ 5	MIN 7
2002	Porsche 911 GT3-R	D	GT300	61	Yasuo Miyagawa Hiroaki Suga Tsubasa Kurosawa Atsushi Katsumasa	OKA 20	FUJ 10	SUG DNA	SEP 17	FUJ 21	MOT	MIN	SUZ	17th	1
				62	Shinsuke Shibahara Shogo Mitsuyama	OKA Ret								2nd	85
	Vemac RD320R				Shinsuke Shibahara Shogo Mitsuyama		FUJ 1	SUG 15	SEP Ret	FUJ 13	MOT 1	MIN 1	SUZ 7
	Porsche 911 GT3-R			63	"OSAMU" Takamasa Nakagawa	OKA 17	FUJ Ret	SUG 3	SEP 15	FUJ 17	MOT 13	MIN 10	SUZ DNS
2003	Porsche 911 GT3-R	D	GT300	61	Atsushi Katsumata Takeyuki Kishi Keiko Ihara	OKA	FUJ Ret	SUG DNP	FUJ	FUJ 16	MOT 12	AUT	SUZ	NC	0
	Vemac RD350R		GT500	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Shogo Mitsuyama	OKA	FUJ 11	SUG 15	FUJ 9	FUJ Ret	MOT Ret	AUT	SUZ 16	14th	2
2004	Vemac RD408R	D	GT500	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Shogo Mitsuyama	OKA	SUG	SEP	TOK	MOT	AUT	SUZ 13		NC	0

Complete Super GT Results^[10][11]

(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	Pos	Points
2005	Vemac RD350R	Y	GT300	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Tadao Uematsu Hiroyuki Yagi	OKA Ret	FUJ 8	SEP 11	SUG Ret	MOT 10	FUJ DSQ	AUT 16	SUZ 22		13th	6
2006	Vemac RD320R	Y	GT300	61	Shogo Mitsuyama Nobuteru Taniguchi	SUZ	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ	MOT 6	AUT 20	FUJ 13	22nd	5
	Vemac RD408R			62	Shinsuke Shibahara Hiroyuki Yagi Haruki Kurosawa	SUZ 18	OKA 7	FUJ 1	SEP 13	SUG Ret	SUZ 7	MOT 3	AUT 6	FUJ 14	5th	49
2007	Vemac RD408R	Y	GT300	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Haruki Kurosawa	SUZ 5	OKA 8	FUJ Ret	SEP 14	SUG 5	SUZ 3	MOT 2	AUT 1	FUJ 4	3rd	91
2008	Vemac RD408R	Y	GT300	62	Shinsuke Shibahara Haruki Kurosawa Shogo Mitsuyama	SUZ DNS	OKA 5	FUJ 6	SEP 8	SUG 11	SUZ 4	MOT 12	AUT 14	FUJ 2	9th	56
2009	Subaru Legacy B4	Y	GT300	62	Shogo Mitsuyama Tetsuya Yamano	OKA	SUZ	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ DNS	FUJ 18	AUT	MOT Ret	25th	1
2010	Subaru Legacy B4	Y	GT300	62	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano	SUZ 13	OKA 12	FUJ Ret	SEP	SUG 13	SUZ 1	FUJ C	MOT 10		11th	30
2011	Subaru Legacy B4	Y	GT300	62	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano	OKA 18	FUJ 8	SEP 8	SUG Ret	SUZ 1	FUJ 6	AUT 1	MOT 6		4th	75
2012	Subaru BRZ	Y	GT300	61	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano	OKA Ret	FUJ 9	SEP 8	SUG 10	SUZ Ret	FUJ 6	AUT 4	MOT 15		12th	33
2013	Subaru BRZ	M	GT300	61	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano Takuto Iguchi	OKA 5	FUJ Ret	SEP 4	SUG 6	SUZ 1	FUJ 9	AUT 7	MOT 3		4th	87
2014	Subaru BRZ	M	GT300	61	Kota Sasaki Takuto Iguchi	OKA 21	FUJ 12	AUT 2	SUG 14	FUJ 1	SUZ 9	BUR 5	MOT 17		6th	60
2015	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 17	FUJ 8	CHA 6	FUJ 8	SUZ 3	SUG 5	AUT Ret	MOT 11		10th	49
2016	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 23	FUJ 11	SUG 3	FUJ 3	SUZ 1	CHA Ret	MOT 23	MOT 13		6th	62
2017	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA Ret	FUJ 13	AUT 2	SUG 9	FUJ 4	SUZ 7	CHA Ret	MOT Ret		9th	45
2018	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 18	FUJ Ret	SUZ 3	CHA Ret	FUJ Ret	SUG 1	AUT 15	MOT 6		11th	49
2019	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 4	FUJ 28	SUZ 3	BUR 11	FUJ 10	AUT Ret	SUG 28	MOT 12		13th	34
2020	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	FUJ Ret	FUJ 2	SUZ 4	MOT 3	FUJ 16	SUZ 12	MOT 5	FUJ 8		6th	64
2021	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 15	FUJ 2	MOT 11	SUZ 10	SUG 1	AUT 3	MOT 6	FUJ 3		1st	87
2022	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 9	FUJ 3	SUZ 12	FUJ 1	SUZ 18	SUG 8	AUT 2	MOT 20		3rd	68
2023	Subaru BRZ	D	GT300	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	OKA 22	FUJ 11	SUZ 6	FUJ 6	SUZ 3	SUG 4	AUT 4	MOT 10		7th	59

Super Formula (Formula Nippon, Japanese Formula 3000)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	Drivers' rankings
1992	AD Racing	Reynard 92D	Mugen Honda	Mika Salo	14th
1993	AD Racing	Lola T93/50	Mugen Honda	Mika Salo	17th
1995	NAVI CONNECTION	Reynard	Mugen Honda	Masahiko Kageyama / Masahiko Kondo	17th
1996	NAVI CONNECTION	Reynard	Mugen Honda	Masahiko Kageyama / Masahiko Kondo	15th
1997	NAVI CONNECTION	Reynard	Mugen Honda	Masami Kageyama / Katsumi Yamamoto	5th
1998	Team LeyJun	Reynard	Mugen Honda	Shinsuke Shibahara / Osamu / Taichiro Oonishi	24th
1999	Team LeyJun	Reynard 99L	Mugen Honda	Peter Dumbreck / Osamu / Shinsuke Shibahara	7th
2000	Team LeyJun	Reynard 2KL	Mugen Honda	Shinsuke Shibahara / Osamu	11th
	TAKAGI B-1	Reynard 99L	Mugen Honda	Tetsuji Tamanaka	19th
2001	TAKAGI B-1	Reynard 2KL	Mugen Honda	Tetsuji Tamanaka / Masahiko Kageyama	18th

References

This page was last edited on 7 November 2023, at 19:35