Manabu “MAX” Orido, one of the most successful and longest-tenured drivers in the history of the Autobacs Super GT Series – and indeed, one of the most popular figures across all of Japanese motorsport – announced on Monday that he will not return to drive for Team JLOC in the 2018 season.
“My plans for Super GT this season are unknown, but I will continue to visit the circuit this year,” Orido said in an Instagram post confirming his departure – along with his sabbatical from the series after 22 consecutive seasons and over 150 career races.
Team JLOC will go to the first official test at Okayama International Circuit on march 17-18 with what will most likely be their full-time driver lineups for the upcoming season. Lamborghini Squadra Corse factory driver Marco Mapelli will join the returning Kazuki Hiramine in the #88 ManePa Lamborghini Huracán GT3, and in the #87 Lamborghini (sponsor TBD), will be Kimiya Sato and Yuya Motojima.
Neither Orido, nor Shinya Hosokawa, who drove the #87 Lamborghini last season, will return to the team in 2018, and the latter’s plans for the 2018 racing season are not yet known.
Orido first came to prominence outside of circuit racing in 1991, when the young street and mountain racer won a drift driving competition sponsored by CARBOY magazine and organised by Masaaki Bandoh – now the president of the GT Association. Over time, his exploits in the drift and tuning community caught the attention of the “Drift King” Keiichi Tsuchiya, who picked him as his successor.
That success led to his circuit racing debut, and in 1996, Orido made his debut in what was then known as the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship at Fuji Speedway. His first full-time opportunity came in 1997, where he won the GT300 Drivers’ Championship driving for Racing Project Bandoh alongside Hideo Fukuyama. He then spent the next two seasons driving for Bandoh in GT300, aboard their new WedsSport Toyota Celica, before making the step up to GT500 in 2000 with Tsuchiya Engineering.
Twice, Orido climbed to the top step of the podium in Super GT’s premier category, the first time in 2003 at Autopolis with Toyota Team SARD, and the second, at the 2005 season opener – the first race held under the Super GT name – at Okayama International Circuit with Tsuchiya Engineering. In eight GT500 seasons, his best finish in the championship was 6th in 2003.
Orido then took the step back to GT300, reuniting with Racing Project Bandoh and their new mid-engined Lexus IS350 GT300 car. In 2009, Orido and co-driver Tatsuya Kataoka started the season with a win at Okayama, then went on to score three more podiums and six top-5 finishes for the season – for Orido to win his 2nd GT300 title.
When Racing Project Bandoh stepped up to GT500 in 2011, Orido parted ways with the team to move to Team JLOC, scoring a podium finish in his first race with the team. And at a rainy Sportsland SUGO in 2014, Orido made a late-race charge to win alongside Takayuki Aoki – giving JLOC just their second-ever Super GT race victory in their 25-year history.
Orido finished 10th in the GT300 Drivers’ Championship in 2017, scoring a 2nd place finish at the Suzuka 1000km and 28 points total for the season. It was Orido’s 25th career GT300 class podium.
Orido has 163 career Super GT race entries and 162 career starts, putting him third on the all-time list for career appearances. In 13 seasons as a GT300 driver, he took 6 victories and 59 top-10 finishes, finishing in the top 3 of the championship standings four times (2nd in 1998, 3rd in 1999). Add that to his eight seasons as a GT500 driver, with 2 wins, 7 podiums, 2 fastest laps, and 34 top-10 finishes.
But Orido has also achieved popularity outside of circuit racing, both as the co-host of the Best Motoring and Hot Version video car magazines with Keiichi Tsuchiya and Nobuteru Taniguchi, and as a competitor in the D1 Grand Prix from 2005 to 2015.
The 49-year-old isn’t retiring from racing by any stretch of course – Orido will be racing in the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series for D’station Racing in the ST-1 class – his team led their class in the pre-season test day at Fuji Speedway.
But it will be a much different landscape in Super GT as one of the all-time greats steps away – at least for the forseeable future.
Super GT World 