Racing Project Bandoh

 

Created in 1990 by Masaaki Bando, Racing Project Bandoh raced in the All Japan Touring Car Championship from 1987 (as an earlier organization created by Bando until 1990) to 1997^[1] and entered the Japanese Grand Touring Championship in 1997, competing with a Nissan Silvia S14 in the GT300 class winning five consecutive podiums. In the team's first year of competition, drivers Hideo Fukuyama and Manabu Orido won the GT300 class championship. The next year Bandoh switched to a Toyota Celica, but could not recreate the success of the previous year, taking no podiums with driver Manabu Orido placing second in the drivers' championship. Racing Project Bandoh won the first race of the season at the Suzuka GT 300, and ended the season with drivers Takahiko Hara and Manabu Orido taking third in the drivers championship. Three points behind the winner, Morio Nitta. Bandoh would win one race in 2000 at Sportsland SUGO, and one race in 2001 at Twin Ring Motegi.

2003 brought more success for the team after changing to a new Toyota Celica mid-way through the season, taking wins at Mt. Fuji and Suzuka and drivers Takayuki Aoki and Minoru Tanaka finishing fourth in the championship. Bandoh won one race at Sportsland SUGO in 2004.

It was not until 2007 that Racing Project Bandoh would achieve victory again, winning the fifth round of the season at Sportsland SUGO. In 2008 the team won the seventh round of the season at Motegi. The same year Masaaki Bando's son Masataka Bando took over operations of the team after Masaaki Bando was appointed as the chairman of the Super GT series.^[2] The following year in 2009 drivers Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka in a Lexus IS350 took five podiums including one win. As a result, Racing Project Bandoh won both the team and drivers championship by 3 points over Nobuteru Taniguchi and Ryo Orime in the GT300 class.^[3]

In 2011 Racing Project Bandoh moved to the GT500 class competing in a Lexus SC430 under the name LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH.^[4]

In 2015 and 2016 the team fielded both a Lexus RC F in the GT500 class and a Toyota 86 in the GT300 class in conjunction with UP GARAGE.

Racing Project Bandoh has long been associated with the team's main sponsor WedsSport, a Japanese aftermarket wheel manufacturer.

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

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos	Pts
1997	Nissan Silvia S14	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Hideo Fukuyama	SUZ 1	FUJ 2	SEN 2	FUJ 3	MIN 1	SUG 5			1st	90
1998	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Max Angelelli   Katsumi Yamamoto	SUZ	FUJ	SEN	FUJ 7	MOT 2	MIN 2	SUG 3		2nd	46
1999	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Takahiko Hara	SUZ 1	FUJ 2	SUG Ret	MIN 3	FUJ Ret	OKA 5	MOT 2		3rd	70
2000	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Shigekazu Wakisaka   Takahiko Hara	MOT 3	FUJ Ret	SUG 1	FUJ Ret	OKA 3	MIN 15	SUZ 17		5th	44
2001	Toyota MR-S	Y	GT300	19	Minoru Tanaka   Satoshi Goto	OKA DNA	FUJ 16	SUG 10	FUJ 3	MOT 1	SUZ 17	MIN 13		9th	33
2002	Toyota MR-S	Y	GT300	19	Minoru Tanaka   Satoshi Goto	OKA 18	FUJ 5	SUG Ret	SEP 6	FUJ 22	MOT 6	MIN 6	SUZ 12	10th	31
2003	Toyota MR-S	Y	GT300	19	Takayuki Aoki   Minoru Tanaka	OKA 8	FUJ DNQ							4th	63
	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19				SUG 20	FUJ 5	FUJ 1	MOT 8	AUT 16	SUZ 1
2004	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Takayuki Aoki   Nobuteru Taniguchi	OKA 4	SUG 1	SEP NC	TOK 7	MOT 13	AUT 5	SUZ 5		6th	48

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

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Points
2005	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Hiroki Kato   Nobuteru Taniguchi	OKA 7	FUJ 6	SEP 7	SUG 7	MOT 2	FUJ 6	AUT 3	SUZ 9		7th	54
2006	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Koji Matsuda   Shigekazu Wakisaka	SUZ 4	OKA 10	FUJ 17	SEP 3	SUG 18	SUZ 19	MOT 16	AUT 12	FUJ 2	10th	35
2007	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Akira Iida   Yuhi Sekiguchi	SUZ 14	OKA 19	FUJ Ret	SEP 9	SUG 1	SUZ 12	MOT 18	AUT 4	FUJ 16	9th	46
2008	Toyota Celica	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Tsubasa Abe	SUZ 7	OKA Ret								11th	48
	Lexus IS350	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Tsubasa Abe   Yuhi Sekiguchi			FUJ 9	SEP Ret	SUG 15	SUZ 19	MOT 1	AUT 10	FUJ 5
2009	Lexus IS350	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Tatsuya Kataoka	OKA 1	SUZ 8	FUJ 5	SEP 2	SUG 5	SUZ 6	FUJ 4	AUT 3	MOT 3	1st	112
2010	Lexus IS350	Y	GT300	19	Manabu Orido   Tatsuya Kataoka	SUZ 3	OKA 14	FUJ 4	SEP 9	SUG Ret	SUZ 4	FUJ C	MOT 7		8th	49
2011	Lexus SC430	Y	GT500	19	Tatsuya Kataoka   Seiji Ara	OKA 3	FUJ 15	SEP 11	SUG 8	SUZ 11	FUJ 13	AUT 7	MOT 11		13th	37
2012	Lexus SC430	Y	GT500	19	Seiji Ara   André Couto	OKA 12	FUJ 13	SEP 9	SUG 12	SUZ 6	FUJ 3	AUT 3	MOT 5		9th	55
2013	Lexus SC430	Y	GT500	19	Seiji Ara   André Couto	OKA 14	FUJ 11	SEP 15	SUG 9	SUZ 6	FUJ Ret	AUT 13	MOT 10		14th	25
2014	Lexus RC F	Y	GT500	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi   Juichi Wakisaka	OKA 11	FUJ 7	AUT 8	SUG 12	FUJ 11	SUZ Ret	BUR 6	MOT 6		13th	32
2015	Toyota 86	Y	GT300	18 20	Yuhki Nakayama   Yuji Ide   Marko Asmer   Nick Cassidy   Kota Sasaki	OKA 19	FUJ Ret	CHA Ret	FUJ Ret	SUZ 21	SUG 15	AUT 9	MOT Ret		28th	2
	Lexus RC F	Y	GT500	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi   Juichi Wakisaka	OKA 10	FUJ 7	CHA 9	FUJ 10	SUZ 4	SUG 5	AUT 9	MOT 10		10th	47
2016	Toyota 86	Y	GT300	18	Yuhki Nakayama   Shinnosuke Yamada	OKA 15	FUJ 4	SUG 8	FUJ 10	SUZ 4	CHA 22	MOT 12	MOT 9		12th	46
	Lexus RC F	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Yuhi Sekiguchi	OKA 9	FUJ 8	SUG 5	FUJ 10	SUZ 5	CHA 1	MOT 5	MOT 3		4th	79
2017	Toyota 86	Y	GT300	18	Yuhki Nakayama   Shintaro Kawabata	OKA 12	FUJ 9	AUT Ret	SUG 17	FUJ 11	SUZ 15	CHA 7	MOT 16		18th	23
	Lexus LC500 GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi   Yuji Kunimoto   Kenta Yamashita   Kamui Kobayashi	OKA 6	FUJ 10	AUT 8	SUG 12	FUJ 7	SUZ 4	CHA 12	MOT 15		12th	41
2018	Lexus LC500 GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Kenta Yamashita	OKA 9	FUJ 12	SUZ 13	CHA 3	FUJ 10	SUG Ret	AUT 3	MOT 5		11th	50
2019	Lexus LC500 GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Sho Tsuboi	OKA 6	FUJ 13	SUZ 7	BUR 3	FUJ 9	AUT 8	SUG 13	MOT 7		11th	46.5
2020	Toyota GR Supra GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Ritomo Miyata	FUJ 9	FUJ 15	SUZ 10	MOT Ret	FUJ 7	SUZ 9	MOT 11	FUJ 10		14th	27
2021	Toyota GR Supra GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Ritomo Miyata	OKA 12	FUJ 7	MOT 2	SUZ 13	SUG Ret	AUT 13	MOT 2	FUJ 13		11th	53
2022	Toyota GR Supra GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Sena Sakaguchi	OKA 13	FUJ 6	SUZ 5	FUJ 9	SUZ 7	SUG 15	AUT 5	MOT 7		11th	44
2023	Toyota GR Supra GT500	Y	GT500	19	Yuji Kunimoto   Sena Sakaguchi	OKA 9	FUJ 12	SUZ 1	FUJ 12	SUZ 9	SUG 8	AUT 13	MOT 8		11th	49

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