Matsushita will drive TGM’s #55 SF23 from this weekend’s opening round of the year at Suzuka, replacing Turkish driver Cem Bolukbasi in the team’s line-up.
The announcement completes the 2024 Super Formula grid, with Matsushita the 21st and the final driver to be named for the upcoming campaign that features nine races across Suzuka, Autopolis, Sugo, Fuji and Motegi.
The identity of TGM’s second driver had been a question mark for months, with the squad maintaining secrecy over who would partner young Japanese sensation Juju Noda this year.
It provided seat time to both Matsushita and Swedish racer Rasmus Lindh in December’s post-season test at Suzuka, amid dwindling chances of Bolukbasi continuing in the series for a second year due to a lack of budget.
Lindh, the 2019 Indy Pro runner-up, has been competing on the Road to Indy ladder for several years and also has experience of prototype machinery thanks to a number of outings in the now-defunct LMP3 class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Raoul Hyman, who raced at B-Max Racing alongside Matsushita last year, also appeared to be in the running after getting an opportunity to test the #55 Honda-powered SF23 in the official pre-season test last month.
However, TGM has now settled in on Matsushita, who has become a mainstay of Super Formula and SUPER GT since competing in his fifth and final season in GP2/Formula 2 in 2020.
First joining B-Max Racing in the latter part of 2020, Matsushita scored three podiums at as many venues before finally notching up a maiden victory at Suzuka in ‘22.
But the 2023 season was nothing short of a disappointment for the Honda racer, who broke inside the points only once all year despite B-Max expanding to a two-car team again.
The 30-year-old will be hoping to rediscover his mojo at TGM, the reborn Team Goh outfit that showed so much promise in its new guise in 2023.
The Honda squad was rapid over a single lap throughout last year, but a combination of operational mistakes and driver errors meant it could muster just a solitary podium finish, with Toshiki Oyu finishing third at Motegi.
Oyu was eventually replaced for the final two races of 2023 by Riki Okusa and has now found a new life at Inging following an off-season switch to the Toyota camp that will also see him racing with Cerumo in SUPER GT this year.
Matsushita will dovetail his Super Formula commitments with another campaign in SUPER GT’s GT500 class after moving across from Real Racing to join Tomoki Nojiri in ARTA’s #8 Honda Civic Type R.
