B-Max Racing Team

B-Max Racing
Founded	2010
Base	Ayase, Kanagawa
Founder(s)	Ryūji Kumita
Current series	Super Formula; Super Formula Lights; F4 Japanese Championship;
Former series	Japanese Formula 3 Championship; F3 Asian Championship; Formula Regional Japanese Championship; GT World Challenge Asia;
Current drivers	Super Formula: Iori Kimura; ; Super Formula Lights: Kaylen Frederick; Syun Koide; Nobuhiro Imada; "Dragon"; Makoto Fujiwara; Yasuhiro Shimizu; Rin Arakawa; ; F4 Japanese Championship: Ryota Horachi; Yuto Nomura; ;

B-Max Racing Co., Ltd also known as B-Max Racing Team and B-Max Engineering is a Japanese race car constructor and racing team headquartered in Ayase, Kanagawa, Japan.

Quick Facts Founded, Base ...

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Byobugaura Kogyo Co., Ltd. established the race division "B-Max Engineering" in 2009, and started participating in Super FJ and Porsche Carrera Cup Japan in 2010. Since then, the participation category has been expanded. Ryūji Kumita, the president and team representative, competes in the race himself under the pseudonym "Dragon".

In 2014, the team name was changed to "B-Max Racing Team" (Vehicle Division). In addition, B-Max Racing participate in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship.^[1] In November 2017, spun off from Byobugaura Kogyo Co., Ltd. as B-MAX RACING Co., Ltd.^[2]

Super Formula

The team have also participated in Super Formula Championship from 2017 with Takashi Kogure their first driver.^[3] In 2019, they participated in Super Formula with two cars, in collaboration with the German racing team Motopark Academy.^[4] For 2021, B-Max & Motopark ended their partnership, and the team did not race for first round of the season. Nobuharu Matsushita: joined B-Max Racing from the second round at Suzuka. He was initially denied an engine lease from Honda, after signing a factory racing contract with Nissan in the Super GT Series. This prevented him from racing in the opening round at Fuji. Honda would reverse their decision after Masaya Nagai replaced Hiroshi Shimizu as the Director of Motorsport at Honda.^[5] They planned to enter two cars, after running just one car for Nobuharu Matsushita in 2021. They confirmed on 4 March that they would continue to run one car, after a failed attempt to enter a non-Japanese driver in their second car, as 2021 Formula Regional Americas Championship champion Kyffin Simpson declined the opportunity offered by Honda Performance Development (Honda's United States motorsport operation, which supplies engines to the Formula 4 United States and Formula Regional Americas championships) to the series champion because of pandemic-related restrictions. ^[6] Raoul Hyman was awarded a Honda Super Formula scholarship for winning the 2022 Formula Regional Americas Championship title, and drove for B-Max Racing. The team is currently scheduled to downsize from running two cars in 2023 to a single-car entry in 2024, to be piloted by reigning Super Formula Lights champion Iori Kimura.^[7]

Super GT

B-Max Racing venture in Super GT started in 2014 where they are set up with NDDP Racing which is the NISMO Nissan Driver Academy as they discontinued their partnership with Nova Engineering. Kazuki Hoshino as the leading senior driver, he has partnered up with Lucas Ordóñez, and Jann Mardenborough who won the Nissan Gran Turismo Academy. Mitsunori Takaboshi raced as well for two seasons. In 2018 NDDP Racing moved up to the GT500 class, entering as NDDP Racing with B-Max. They take the place of MOLA, who withdrew from the series at the end of 2017.^[8]^[9] B-Max formed an all-new driver lineup: Kohei Hirate transferred to Nissan and secured his return to GT500 after a seventeen-year association with Toyota, while former Honda GT500 driver Frédéric Makowiecki returned to the series for the first time since 2014.^[10] For 2020 Katsumasa Chiyo, who raced full-time in the Intercontinental GT Challenge for Nissan in 2019, returns to GT500 on a full-time basis at NDDP Racing with B-Max, replacing Makowiecki.^[11] In 2022, NISMO takes over the NDDP Team, thus ends B-Max Racing program in Super GT.

Super Formula

More information Year, Chassis ...

Year	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	D.C.	T.C.	Pts
2017	Dallara SF14	Honda HR-414E I4 t	Takashi Kogure	7	0	0	0	0	0	18th	11th	0
2018	Dallara SF14	Honda HR-414E I4 t	Katsumasa Chiyo	6	0	0	0	0	0	18th	11th	0
2019	Dallara SF19	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Lucas Auer	7	0	0	1	1	14	9th	8th	20
2019	Dallara SF19	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Harrison Newey	7	0	0	0	1	6	15th	8th	20
2020	Dallara SF19	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Nobuharu Matsushita	4	0	0	0	1	16	15th	9th	16
			Sérgio Sette Câmara	1	0	1	0	0	3	20th
			Charles Milesi	3	0	0	0	0	0	21st
			Mitsunori Takaboshi	1	0	0	0	0	0	26th
			Teppei Natori	0	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2021	Dallara SF19	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Nobuharu Matsushita	6	0	1	0	2	33.5	8th	8th	29.5
2022	Dallara SF19	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Nobuharu Matsushita	10	1	0	0	1	21	13th	9th	21
2023	Dallara SF23	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Nobuharu Matsushita	9	0	0	0	0	4	19th	12th	4
2023	Dallara SF23	Honda HR-417E I4 t	Raoul Hyman	9	0	0	0	0	0	25th	12th	4

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In detail

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

More information Year, Drivers ...

Year	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	T.C.	Points
2017		SUZ	OKA	OKA	FUJ	MOT	AUT	SUG	SUZ	SUZ		11th	0
2017	Takashi Kogure	15	18	15	13	17	12	14	C	C		11th	0
2018		SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT	OKA	SUZ				11th	0
2018	Katsumasa Chiyo	14	C	Ret	17	19	15	10				11th	0
2019		SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT	OKA	SUZ				8th	20
	Lucas Auer	7	11	3	Ret	7	5	11
	Harrison Newey	Ret	17	Ret	16	19	3	20
2020		MOT	OKA	SUG	AUT	SUZ	SUZ	FUJ				9th	16
	Teppei Natori	DNS
	Mitsunori Takaboshi		14
	Sérgio Sette Câmara			Ret
	Nobuharu Matsushita				6	Ret	14	3
	Charles Milesi				15	11	13	DNS
2021		FUJ	SUZ	AUT	SUG	MOT	MOT	SUZ				8th	29.5
2021	Nobuharu Matsushita		13	3‡	4	3	7	12				8th	29.5
2022		FUJ	FUJ	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT	MOT	SUZ	SUZ	9th	21
2022	Nobuharu Matsushita	Ret	19	1	10	Ret	Ret	11	11	17	Ret	9th	21
2023		FUJ	FUJ	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT	SUZ	SUZ		12th	4
	Nobuharu Matsushita	13	12	12	Ret	Ret	13	Ret	13	7
	Raoul Hyman	16	18	18	17	18	Ret	15	21	18

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