After a break in real-world racing following the controversial events at the end of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 championship, Igor Fraga will be returning to action this season in Japan’s major national racing series.
Fraga — the Super Formula esports ambassador — will be racing in Super GT, in the GT300 category, for brand-new outfit Anest Iwata Racing With Arnage.
Anest Iwata is a well-known machinery manufacturer in Japan, producing pumps, compressors, and liquid application systems, but has no experience in racing. To that end it has enlisted the very experienced Arnage team, which has campaigned Super GT for a decade.
The team will run a Lexus RC F GT3 car, and Fraga will be one of three drivers across the 2023 championship — all of whom are rookies to the Super GT series — with testing at Fuji already underway.
Joining him at all the core races this year will be 22-year old Yuga Furutani. Furutani was the 2021 Formula Regional Japanese Championship winner, and secured five podium finishes in the Super Formula Lights championship in 2022.
For the longer, 450km (280mi) races at Fuji and Suzuka, the team will have a third driver, Miki Koyama. She’s the reigning Formula Regional Japanese Championship champion, and a former W Series racer — and will become the first female driver to race in Super GT in over a decade.
Interestingly, Anest Iwata Racing With Arnage has chosen to reveal the car’s livery by way of some Gran Turismo 7 photomode images, with the livery design made both in-game and in reality by its series partner, Polyphony Digital. A full car reveal will take place on February 12 at Anest Iwata’s HQ in Kanagawa.
Fraga had already been announced as part of the B-MAX outfit’s plans for the Super Formula Lights championship for 2023, and as the two championships don’t clash we may see him race both series this year.
It’ll be the third time a Gran Turismo champion has raced in Super GT, with both Lucas Ordonez and Jann Mardenborough taking part in previous editions of the championship.
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