Three-time Tremendous System champion Naoki Yamamoto has introduced his choice to retire from the sequence following this weekend’s season finale at Suzuka.
The Nakajima Racing driver, 36, made the announcement by way of a put up on his Instagram web page on Tuesday.
It successfully calls time on a 15-season spell in Japan’s high single-seater sequence for the manufacturing facility Honda ace which yielded titles in 2013, 2018 and 2020, 9 race wins and 13 pole positions.
“It wasn’t a simple choice to make, however I’m extraordinarily grateful for the possibility to have competed in Japan’s high class for the final 15 years and all of the assist I’ve had,” Yamamoto wrote.
“I made the announcement presently so that each one the followers watching would know this weekend is the final time it is possible for you to to see me driving a components automotive. I consider that is additionally one of many methods I’m able to pay everybody again.
“Regardless of the final result of those closing races, I need to step down from Tremendous System having proven my actual stage of efficiency and having given it my all with this staff.”
Yamamoto made his debut in what was then often called System Nippon in 2010 with Nakajima earlier than switching to Group Mugen the next season, occurring to assert his first two titles with the staff.
Yamamoto received his second Tremendous System title in 2018
Photograph by: Yasushi Ishihara
He elected to change to Dandelion Racing for 2019 instantly following his second title, which collectively along with his success in Tremendous GT earned him a System 1 apply call-up for the Japanese Grand Prix with Toro Rosso.
After successful the 2020 title for Dandelion, Yamamoto returned to Nakajima for the 2021 season, however has struggled to recapture his earlier kind since then.
His final win got here within the moist at Motegi in 2022, though he has loved a slight upturn in kind this 12 months, sitting seventh within the standings heading into this weekend’s Suzuka double-header.
Yamamoto’s choice to step down from Tremendous System follows the neck and spinal injuries he suffered in a serious crash in final 12 months’s SUGO Tremendous GT spherical, and which required surgical procedure to permit him to delay his profession.
A press release from Honda says that Yamamoto will proceed to race in Tremendous GT subsequent season. He at the moment shares a Group Kunimitsu Honda Civic Kind R-GT with Tadasuke Makino, with the pair sitting second within the standings with one race to go this season.