Rising through adversity: Honda Prelude GT wins Super GT Championship in debut season, giving Honda's first title since 2020

Honda's new Prelude-GT has won the 2026 Super GT GT500 drivers' and teams' championships in its debut season, following victory at the season finale at Mobility Resort Motegi, Japan, on November 8.

The No. 100 Stanley HRC Prelude-GT, driven by Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino of Stanley Team Kunimitsu, qualified on pole position before winning the 53-lap race, securing Honda's first GT500 championship since 2020.

The pair led 42 of the 53 laps, with Makino crossing the finish line 1.705 seconds ahead of the No. 17 Astemo HRC Prelude-GT. The result gave Honda a one-two finish, with the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 of Team Impul completing the podium.

From difficult start to championship glory

The achievement is particularly significant considering the Prelude GT's difficult start to the season.

Introduced as a replacement for the Civic Type R-GT, the Prelude GT initially struggled against its established rivals, particularly Toyota's GR Supra GT500.

However, development work by Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) helped improve the car's competitiveness, with a major breakthrough arriving at Fuji Speedway in August, where Stanley Team Kunimitsu claimed its first victory.

The manufacturer eventually recorded five race victories and six pole positions across its five Prelude-GT entries during the season, with all five wins coming in the final six races.

Championship decided at Motegi

The title battle went down to the final weekend, which featured two races on November 7 and 8.

Saturday's race was the postponed third round, originally scheduled to take place at Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit.

Yamamoto and Makino finished fifth, moving ahead of championship rivals Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita in the No. 36 au Tom's GR Supra, who finished tenth.

That gave Honda a narrow championship advantage heading into Sunday's finale, where the No. 100 Prelude-GT qualified on pole with a lap time of 1:36.135.

Yamamoto established an early lead before handing the car to Makino, who maintained the advantage and secured the championship with victory. The result marked Yamamoto's third GT500 drivers' title and Makino's second, having previously won the championship together in 2020.

Honda's first championship in 6 years

Speaking in Honda's official post-race announcement, Stanley Team Kunimitsu team director Kazuhiro Kojima credited the engineers at Honda and HRC for transforming the Prelude-GT's performance during the season.

Kojima explained that improvements introduced during the summer break helped the team overcome its difficult opening rounds, while the victory at Fuji provided the momentum needed to challenge for the championship.

HRC president Koji Watanabe also congratulated the drivers and development team, recognising the work involved in securing the championship with a newly introduced race car.

The achievement was particularly meaningful for Stanley Team Kunimitsu, which had finished runner-up in the GT500 drivers' standings in both 2024 and 2025.

With five race victories, six pole positions and both championship titles in its first season, the Prelude-GT has given Honda a successful return to the top of Japan's premier GT racing category, ending its six-year championship drought at the first attempt.