Drago Corse Terminates Partnership With Title Sponsor Busou

Three months after finishing second at this year’s Fuji 450km during Golden Week, Drago Corse have terminated their partnership with title sponsor Busou effective immediately, and will not take part in the upcoming Fuji GT 100 Lap Race this weekend.

A statement released by Drago Corse team owner Ryo Michigami confirms the separation between his squad and the vehicle customising company, a little over six months after the partnership was originally announced.

While not mentioned in the press release, there have been rumours suggesting that Busou and parent company Creare Corporation have come upon a sudden financial hardship that made their continued participation untenable.

The now-dissolved Busou Drago Corse alliance saw the traditionally Honda-backed squad switch to a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, the formation of a veteran driver lineup of two-time GT500 and GT300 champion Masataka Yanagida and GT300 runner-up Yuji Ide, plus a new tyre partnership with Dunlop (Sumitomo Rubber) and hiring Team Kunimitsu’s former championship-winning race engineer Hitoshi Iyoki.

In a shortened Fuji 450km race, Yanagida and Ide finished in second place, and followed that result with a sixth-place finish at the Suzuka 300km. Heading into the summer break, Yanagida and Ide were sixth in the GT300 Drivers’ Championship, and Drago Corse were fifth in the Teams’ Championship.

Michigami says that while the team are hoping to return for the upcoming Suzuka 450km on 28 August, he is not sure whether or not the team will be able to continue racing in the SUPER GT Series for the remainder of the 2022 season without a new sponsor. The team’s future in the series was in the air after previous title sponsor, Yogibo, parted ways in order to start their own independent racing team in GT World Challenge Asia.

Drago Corse will be one of two notable GT300 teams missing the fourth round of the SUPER GT season: Hoppy Team Tsuchiya (Tsuchiya Engineering) have also confirmed their withdrawal from the next race, due to damage sustained in a testing accident at Suzuka Circuit on 21 July.

Feature image © GTA