Tomoki Nojiri

Tomoki Nojiri
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1989-09-15) September 15, 1989 Ibaraki, Japan
Super GT GT500 career
Debut season	2015
Current team	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri
Car number	8
Starts	59 (60 entries)
Wins	8
Podiums	11
Poles	10
Fastest laps	7
Best finish	2nd in 2021
Super Formula career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Team Mugen
Car number	16
Former teams	Dandelion Racing
Starts	68 (71 entries)
Championships	2 (2021, 2022)
Wins	7
Podiums	17
Poles	11
Fastest laps	6
Best finish	1st in 2021, 2022
Previous series
2013–2014 2011–2013	Super GT GT300 All-Japan Formula Three

Tomoki Nojiri (野尻智紀, Nojiri Tomoki, born September 15, 1989) is a Japanese racing driver for the Honda Motor Company. He currently drives in the GT500 class of the Autobacs Super GT Series, and the Super Formula Championship, where he is the 2021 and 2022 series champion.

Racing career

Early career

Nojiri began his karting career in the All-Japan Karting Championship in 2003, and in 2006, he became the FA class champion. Nojiri moved to Europe to race in the European championship, the Italian Masters, and World Cup KF1 in 2007. In 2008, Nojiri was the top graduate from the Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula, earning him a scholarship to compete in Formula Challenge Japan (FCJ) for 2009. He finished fifth in the FCJ standings in 2009, and again in 2010, while also finishing fifth in the JAF Formula 4 West Series in 2009.

In 2011, Nojiri graduated to the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship National Class with HFDP Racing. He won three times, including in his first start at Suzuka Circuit, and finished second in the championship to Katsumasa Chiyo. In 2021, Nojiri stepped up to the main level championship in Japanese F3; he finished fifth in the standings, and won the tenth round at Okayama International Circuit. Nojiri moved to Toda Racing in 2013, where he finished fourth in the championship.

Super Formula (2014–present)

Nojiri's championship-winning 2021 car on display

In 2014, Nojiri joined Docomo Team Dandelion Racing in the Japanese Super Formula Championship. In the sixth and penultimate round of the championship at Sportsland Sugo, Nojiri scored his first career victory in just his seventh race. He finished the year tenth in the championship, and won Rookie of the Year honours ahead of Formula One veteran Vitantonio Liuzzi, and reigning Japanese F3 champion Yuichi Nakayama. Nojiri remained with Dandelion Racing from 2015 to 2018. He finished seventh in the championship in 2015, ninth in 2016, and seventh in 2018. Over these four seasons, Nojiri won three pole positions, recorded four podiums, and two fastest laps.

For the 2019 season, Nojiri transferred to Team Mugen, in a swap for reigning champion Naoki Yamamoto (who took Nojiri's place at Dandelion Racing). The move to Mugen, along with the introduction of the new Dallara SF19 chassis, paid dividends for Nojiri. He finished a career-best fourth in the championship, while also ending a five-year winless drought at the season-ending JAF Grand Prix in Suzuka. He finished fifth in the championship in 2020, winning the fourth round at Autopolis from pole position.

Nojiri won back-to-back races at Fuji Speedway and Suzuka to open the 2021 season. He then went on to win the fifth round at Mobility Resort Motegi from pole position. In the next race at Motegi, Nojiri finished fifth to clinch his first Super Formula drivers' championship, becoming the first driver since Loïc Duval in 2009 to clinch the Japanese top formula championship before the final round of the season.

His form carried into 2022: Nojiri opened the season with a win and second place finish at the doubleheader weekend at Fuji, along with a pole position in round two. He strung together four consecutive pole positions, six podiums and never finished lower than fourth in the first eight races of the season. At the JAF Grand Prix Suzuka, Nojiri won the pole for the first race, and clinched his second consecutive championship with a second place finish. He completed the season with a pole-to-win victory, his second of the season. Nojiri became the first driver since Tsugio Matsuda to win consecutive championships in Japanese top formula racing.

Super GT (2013–present)

The Honda NSX-GT with which Nojiri took his first Super GT win in 2017

Nojiri's first Super GT start came in the GT300 class, driving Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA)'s Honda CR-Z GT300 at the 2013 Suzuka 1000km. He stepped up to full-time Super GT competition in 2014 with Team Mugen, taking over for reigning GT300 champion Hideki Mutoh. Nojiri and co-driver Yuhki Nakayama finished tenth in the GT300 championship, with a third place finish at the Fuji 500km.

In 2015, Nojiri moved up to the GT500 class with ARTA. He finished fourth in his top class debut, at Okayama. Two years later, Nojiri won his first GT500 pole in the fourth round at Sugo, and then won the fifth round at Fuji Speedway (with co-driver Takashi Kobayashi) to take his first career GT500 victory. Takuya Izawa transferred to ARTA as Nojiri's new co-driver in 2018. Nojiri and Izawa won the third round at Suzuka, and the eighth and final round at Motegi, en route to a third place finish in the GT500 championship. They won the rain-shortened opening round at Okayama in 2019, but fell to tenth in the standings at the end of the season.

For 2020, Nirei Fukuzumi joined ARTA as Nojiri's co-driver. After a difficult start to the season, Nojiri and Fukuzumi strung together four top five finishes to finish the year fifth in the championship; this included a win at the seventh round at Motegi. Nojiri and Fukuzumi returned to ARTA for the 2021 season. One week after clinching the Super Formula championship, Nojiri won the sixth round of the Super GT series at Autopolis alongside Fukuzumi, then won the following round at Motegi. They finished the year second in the drivers' championship.

In 2022, Nojiri and Fukuzumi won a shortened Golden Week race at Fuji Speedway.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2009	Formula BMW Pacific	TopSpeed Racing Shanghai	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2010	Formula BMW Pacific	EuroInternational	1	0	0	0	1	0	NC†
2011	Japanese Formula 3 Championship - National	Honda Formula Dream Project	14	3	5	2	10	89	2nd
2012	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Honda Formula Dream Project	15	1	2	1	6	49	5th
2013	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	TODA Racing	15	0	0	0	7	50	4th
	Super GT - GT300	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Asian Le Mans Series - SGT		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2014	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	9	1	0	0	1	10	10th
	Super GT - GT500	Team Mugen	8	0	0	0	1	26	11th
2015	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	8	0	0	2	2	19	7th
	Super GT - GT500	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	8	0	0	0	0	10	14th
2016	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	8	0	1	0	1	14.5	9th
	Super GT - GT500	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	8	0	0	0	0	16	15th
2017	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	8	0	1	0	0	2	17th
	Super GT - GT500	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	8	1	3	2	1	37	9th
	Super Taikyu - ST-X	K's Frontier	3	0	0	0	0	36‡	7th‡
2018	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	7	0	1	0	1	12.5	7th
	Super GT - GT500	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	8	2	3	2	3	71	3rd
2019	Super Formula	Team Mugen	7	1	0	0	1	24	4th
	Super GT - GT500	ARTA	8	1	0	0	0	31	10th
	Super Taikyu - ST-TCR	Modulo Racing with Dome	1	0	1	0	0	88‡	2nd‡
2020	Super Formula	Team Mugen	7	1	2	0	1	47	5th
	Super GT - GT500	ARTA	8	1	0	0	3	54	5th
	Super Taikyu - ST-TCR	Floral Racing with Uematsu	1	0	0	0	1	194‡	1st‡
2021	Super Formula	Team Mugen	7	3	2	2	4	86	1st
	Super GT - GT500	ARTA	8	2	1	0	2	60	2nd
2022	Super Formula	Team Mugen	10	2	6	1	8	154	1st
	Super GT - GT500	ARTA	4	1	0	0	1	21*	7th*

^† As Nojiri was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
^‡ Team standings.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super GT results

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

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
2013	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda CR-Z	GT300	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ Ret	FUJ	FUJ Ret	AUT	MOT	NC	0
2014	Team Mugen	Honda CR-Z	GT300	OKA 9	FUJ 3	AUT 5	SUG 11	FUJ 18	SUZ 8	BUR 9	MOT 13		10th	26
2015	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX Concept-GT	GT500	OKA 4	FUJ 13	CHA Ret	FUJ Ret	SUZ 10	SUG 12	AUT 14	MOT 11		14th	10
2016	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX Concept-GT	GT500	OKA Ret	FUJ 6	SUG 14	FUJ 6	SUZ 9	CHA 8	MOT 11	MOT 13		15th	16
2017	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA DNS	FUJ 9	AUT Ret	SUG 5	FUJ 1	SUZ 8	CHA 11	MOT 9		9th	37
2018	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 11	FUJ 8	SUZ 1	CHA Ret	FUJ 4	SUG 2	AUT 12	MOT 1		3rd	71
2019	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 1‡	FUJ 9	SUZ 4	CHA Ret	FUJ 7	AUT 5	SUG 12	MOT 13		10th	31
2020	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	FUJ 8	FUJ 14	SUZ 13	MOT ret	FUJ 3	SUZ 3	MOT 1	FUJ 5		5th	54
2021	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 7	FUJ 8	MOT 5	SUZ 11	SUG 10	AUT 1	MOT 1	FUJ 6		2nd	60
2022	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT "Type S"	GT500	OKA 10	FUJ1 1	SUZ1 7	FUJ2 5	SUZ2	SUG	AUT	MOT		7th*	21*

‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2014	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 9	FUJ Ret	FUJ 15	FUJ 12	MOT 9	AUT 9	SUG 1	SUZ 12	SUZ 9		10th	10
2015	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 8	OKA 3	FUJ 8	MOT 6	AUT 10	SUG 3	SUZ 5	SUZ Ret			7th	19
2016	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 9	OKA 4	FUJ 13	MOT Ret	OKA 4	OKA 16	SUG 3	SUZ 4	SUZ Ret		9th	14.5
2017	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 16	OKA 13	OKA 10	FUJ 10	MOT 8	AUT 14	SUG 12	SUZ C	SUZ C		17th	2
2018	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 3	AUT C	SUG 7	FUJ 14	MOT 8	OKA 4	SUZ 9				7th	12.5
2019	Team Mugen	SUZ 4	AUT 18	SUG Ret	FUJ 4	MOT 8	OKA 9	SUZ 1				4th	24
2020	Team Mugen	MOT 7	OKA 10	SUG 4	AUT 1	SUZ 7	SUZ 5	FUJ Ret				5th	47
2021	Team Mugen	FUJ 1	SUZ 1	AUT 5	SUG 6	MOT 1	MOT 5	SUZ 3				1st	86
2022	Team Mugen	FUJ 2	FUJ 1	SUZ 2	AUT 4	SUG 3	FUJ 3	MOT 3	MOT 4	SUZ 2	SUZ 1	1st	154

^* Season still in progress.

External links

• Official website
• driverdb
• Honda Racing profile