Rookie Racing Co., Ltd. (stylized as ROOKIE Racing) is a Japanese racing team that competes in Super Formula, Super GT, and Super Taikyu. Rookie Racing is a sister team of Toyota Gazoo Racing and based close to Fuji Speedway.
History
In 2017, Tatsuya Kataoka launched a private team "T's Concept" for the purpose of training young and gentleman drivers. T's Concept participated in the Super Taikyu ST-4 class with two Toyota 86's sponsored by Ogura Clutch. Drivers such as Ogura Clutch's President Yasuhiro Ogura and Miki Koyama competed with T's Concept on the team's inaugural season on Super Taikyu. T's Concept continued to field two cars for the 2018 season and signed Masahiro Sasaki to compete alongside Ogura in the #29 team while Tohjiro Azuma and Daisuke Matsunaga competed in the #28 team. One of the T's Concept cars was later rebranded into "ROOKIE Racing" in 2019 with Daisuke Toyoda, son of Toyota president Akio, and former GT500 champion Akira Iida joining the team as Rookie's lead drivers in the 2019 Super Taikyu season.
In 2020, Akio Toyoda purchased the team in its entirety and entered both Super Formula and Super GT after Team LeMans left from both series at the end of the 2019 season. While the team had previously entered rookie drivers that was part of the Toyota Young Driver Programme, Rookie's name was taken from Akio's pet dog "Rookie". In the team's first year on Super GT, Rookie's entry was run as part of Team Cerumo. Kazuya Oshima drove in both the Super Formula and Super GT championship with Sho Tsuboi acting as Oshima's teammate in Super GT. In 2021, Rookie took full charge of the team from Cerumo. Oshima stayed with the team, competing in both series and was paired up with Kenta Yamashita for 2021 Super GT season. For 2022, the team set up a new factory base close to Fuji Speedway.
In the 2026 Super GT Series, Rookie Racing expanded into the GT300 class by entering a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with drivers Hiroaki Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki. Suzuki, however, missed the second round after his car license was suspended, with two time FIA WEC champion Kamui Kobayashi replacing him for that race.
Rookie is set to be one of the first four factory-backed teams to run the Toyota GR GT3 in 2027, both in Super GT GT300 and at the Nürburgring 24 Hours as part of a two-pronged approach alongside KCMG.
Race results Complete Super GT results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year CarTyres Class No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89 Pos Points 2020 Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 14 Kazuya Oshima Sho Tsuboi FUJ FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ 7th 47 2021 Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 14 Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita OKA FUJ MOT SUZ SUG AUT MOT FUJ 5th 52 2022 Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 14 Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 5th 49 2023 Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 14 Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 7th 45 2024 Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 14 Kazuya Oshima Nirei Fukuzumi OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 11th 382025Toyota GR Supra GT500GT50014 Kazuya Oshima Nirei Fukuzumi OKA FUJ SEP FUJ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 4th 54.5 2026Toyota GR Supra GT500GT50014 Kazuya Oshima Nirei Fukuzumi OKA FUJ FUJ SUZSUGAUTMOTTBD—Mercedes-AMG GT3 EvoGT30032 Hiroaki Ishiura Tokiya Suzuki Kamui KobayashiOKAFUJFUJSUZSUGAUTMOTTBD— ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. * Season still in progress.
Complete Super Formula results YearDriver12345678910111213DCPts 2020 Kazuya OshimaMOTOKASUGAUTSUZSUZFUJ19th5 2021 Kazuya Oshima FUJ SUZ1 AUT SUG MOT1 MOT2 SUZ2 19th 2.5 2022 Kazuya Oshima FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT MOT SUZ SUZ 21st 0 2023 Kazuya Oshima FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT SUZ SUZ 14th 13 2024 Kazuya Oshima SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ 19th 02025 Kazuya Oshima SUZ SUZ MOT MOT AUT FUJ FUJ SUG FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ SUZ14th192026 Nirei FukuzumiMOTMOTAUTSUZSUZFUJFUJSUGFUJFUJSUZSUZTBD— * Season still in progress.
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