How Iori Kimura rescued his place on Honda's Super Formula roster
Iori Kimura looks ahead to his rookie Super Formula season after securing a chance to drive for B-Max Racing by the skin of his teeth...
Photo: JRP
For much of last season, Iori Kimura’s place on the Honda roster was looking decidedly shaky. Beaten by fellow Honda junior Kakunoshin Ohta in Super Formula Lights in 2022, he was forced to do a second season in the feeder category last year while Ohta stepped up to the big leagues with Dandelion Racing. And the message for Russian-Japanese driver Kimura was clear: nothing less than the title would do.
The year started well enough with a triple victory in Autopolis, but after that Kimura lost momentum, and Toyota junior Hibiki Taira gained the upper hand in the title race. Worse than that, Kimura’s new rival within Honda, Shun Koide, threatened to usurp him in the title race as he scored a triple win of his own at Okayama in early September. Ahead of the deciding round at Motegi, Taira led Kimura by 10 points (with 35 on offer) and Koide was just six points behind Kimura.
Then something significant happened that may just have altered Kimura’s career trajectory. Naoki Yamamoto suffered a huge crash in the Sugo SUPER GT round, and his injuries forced him out of the final two races of the season at Autopolis and Motegi. Kimura got the call to partner Tadasuke Makino aboard the Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT, and while the results weren’t great on paper, Kimura did earn plaudits from Honda project leader Masahiro Saiki for his performances.