Motegi repurposes parts of historic oval while retaining the rest for now

October 7, 2026

Parts of Motegi’s historic speedway have been given a new lease of life as spectator areas, but much of the oval remains intact as part of a phased redevelopment plan.

Earlier this year, circuit owner Honda began dismantling parts of Motegi’s 1.5-mile oval that previously served as the home for IndyCar and NASCAR’s forays to Japan.

Work to redevelop the oval began in May, with new spectator facilities completed in time for the track’s biggest event, MotoGP, on 4 October.

This allowed Motegi to put more tickets on sale, in anticipation of increased demand following Ai Ogura’s breakthrough success with Trackhouse Aprilia.

Over the last five months, Honda’s subsidiary Mobilityland built a new ‘Green Campsite’ at Turn 1 and a large viewing deck at Turn 5, covering two of the biggest overtaking points on the road course.

But the biggest change has come at the other end of the track, where a premium ‘Victory Corner Deck’ has been added at the top of the hill, offering fans a panoramic view of the final sector and the long start/finish straight leading up to Turn 1.

A new spectator area has been installed where the banking previously stood

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

However, contrary to what some may have expected, the entire banking hasn’t been dismantled. While asphalt has been replaced by grass on some sections, parts of the oval remain intact and were again used for parking during last weekend’s Japanese GP.

Motorsport.com understands that no further changes to the oval are planned in the coming months, including for the Super GT finale on 7-8 November.

The oval is therefore expected to look largely unchanged for the foreseeable future, although it remains unclear if or when the other sections will also be repurposed further down the line.

“We are gradually redeveloping parts of the oval and working to utilise these areas as new spectator and accommodation spaces,” Mobilityland said in a statement provided to Motorsport.com.

“The redevelopment plan is being implemented in phases, and some areas will continue to be used for operational purposes, including parking and service facilities, as needed.

“We are proceeding with the phased redevelopment of the oval area as a whole. However, some details regarding future construction work and scheduling are still under consideration.”

Parts of Motegi oval continue to be used for parking

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

The circuit now known as Mobility Resort Motegi was built in 1997 by Honda, featuring a banked 2.5km oval and a longer 4.8km road course that runs around it.

The oval played host to the Indy Japan 300 from 1998 and was the scene of Danica Patrick’s sole IndyCar win in 2008.

Motegi was already set to be dropped from the IndyCar calendar in 2011 when the oval was heavily damaged by the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that claimed the lives of nearly 20,000 people. Motegi moved the 2011 race to the road course for its final IndyCar event, which was won by Scott Dixon in a Honda-powered Chip Ganassi car.

With IndyCar not planning on returning to Japan, and NASCAR having also left the country after hosting two races in the 1990s, there was little incentive for Honda to revive the oval.

Since then, the oval has only sporadically been used for demonstration events, including most famously Takuma Sato’s run aboard his Indy 500-winning car in 2017.

The oval was officially decommissioned in 2022, when Honda dropped the Twin Ring Motegi name that it had used for 25 years. The circuit has since been rebranded as Mobility Resort Motegi to promote the hotel and amusement park facilities built around the road course.

Before Motegi began dismantling the oval, Japanese racing stars Ryo Michigami and Hikaru Miyagi drove a pair of classic Honda GT500 cars around the banking in May for a farewell demo run.