Gainer (racing team)

GAINER Co, Ltd. is a Japanese racing team that competes in Super GT.



History
GAINER was founded in 1999. They made their debut in the 2000 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship with the Ferrari F355. For 2003, GAINER changed the team name to "Jim Gainer Racing" where they participated with the aim of becoming the series champion with a Ferrari 360. In 2007 the team changed to the Ferrari F430, which was completely designed and manufactured in-house by GAINER itself. In 2009, Tetsuya Tanaka and Katsuyuki Hiranaka raced with the team achieving a win at Autopolis along with two other podium finishes. In 2010 the team switched to Dunlop tires. The team won the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup.

In 2012 The team name was changed to GAINER and switched to the Audi R8 LMS ultra. They managed to finish 7th place in the standings, achieving another win, this time in the season opener at Okayama. GAINER switched cars once again, this time using the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 for the 2013 season. The line up consisted of two cars. The number 11 driven by Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Bjorn Wirdheim, who had experience in GT500, while Number 10 was driven by Tetsuya Tanaka and Masayuki Ueda. In 2014 The No. 11 car of Hiranaka and Wirdheim, took pole position at the final round in Motegi and took the win, despite having the same amount of points as champions GOODSMILE Racing, it finished second in the drivers' title after losing a tie-breaker as they had less wins. However, they won the team's championship with by one point. In 2015, GAINER raced with 1 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 retaining Hiranaka & Wirdheim, while also racing a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 with André Couto and Katsumasa Chiyo as the line up. The Nissan car had two wins, and won the long-awaited overall GT300 driver/team title. The champion driver was Couto, as Chiyo raced couple of rounds while Ryuichiro Tomita drove whenever Chiyo wasn't available. The Mercedes also put up a strong showing, finishing 5th overall with three podium finishes.

In 2018, GAINER became an official Nissan team, retiring the SLS, replacing it with another GTR. Car No. 11 was driven by Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Hironobu Yasuda, just like the previous year. Car No. 10 featured Kazuki Hoshino and Keishi Ishikawa. Car No. 11 finished 3rd in the ranking with 2 wins. Car No. 10 was 14th in the ranking with one win. In 2022, Car No. 11 was driven by Hironobu Yasuda and Ishikawa. While car No. 10 was driven by Tomita, Riki Okusa, and Yusuke Shiotsu. Car No. 11 ranked 5th, while car No. 10 came close at winning the GT300 title, finishing 2nd in the points. As a team, they achieved five podium finishes, including one win. Okusa clinced third place in driver's standings. In 2023, the line up reshuffled where Yasuda was paired with Okusa along with new manager Yorikatsu Tsujiko who sponsored the car with PONOS, while car 11 had Ishikawa and Tomita being the main drivers along with Shiotsu being the third driver.

For 2024, GAINER is set to run a Ferrari 296 GT3, as PONOS Racing with Kei Cozzolino and Ferrari factory driver Lilou Wadoux. Additionally, GAINER set to return with a GT300 version of the Nissan Fairlady Z with Ryuichiro Tomita and Keishi Ishikawa as the drivers for car number 11.