Australian motorsport competitor Jure Portelli will spend the remainder of the year in Japan, after securing two highly sought after opportunities to close out 2025.

After passing the selection process, Portelli is now the first Australian driver (man or woman) to be accepted into the Step1 program of the Suzuka Honda Racing School, the same school current Red Bull Formula One driver Yuki Tsunoda graduated from in 2016.

Portelli said being accepted into Step1 of the Honda Racing School is now a major milestone on the driver’s racing resume.

“I put a lot of effort into my racing and to be recognised on the World Stage is satisfying,” Portelli revealed.

“To be selected I guess shows my effort is being noticed.

“There’s a saying in Japanese that I like, “Ganbarimasu”, which means I will do my best, I will work hard, and never give up.

“Honda Racing School is a stepped program with in the Suzuka Honda Racing School and I will do my best to go through the stages. Even through Step1, the first step in the overall program, I will learn as much as possible and take away as much as I can.”

Honda Racing School Suzuka is the racing school supervised by Honda Racing with the aim of development of racing riders and racing drivers who will be active all over the world.

With a system that allows for seamless instruction from training at school through to actual racing, the school aims to develop racing riders and racing drivers not only in their riding and driving skills, but also in the mental strength and experience required to compete at the top levels of motorsport in the world.

Portelli has been driving cars competitively for the past two years dating back to start of 2024, after an extensive background in karting.

In the first year, Portelli learned not only how to race a car, but how to drive a manual car as well.

Portelli noted khanacross as an excellent way to learn. It was a more social, relaxed and cheap option of motorsport, which she recommend to anyone starting out in motorsport.

This method of learning helped Portelli improve a range of skills such as learning the clutch, gears, brakes, weight transfer, trail braking, skid control and other more difficult areas of driving.

“This year in 2025 we needed to focus on competitiveness, opportunity, and watching racing all over the world,” Portelli added.

“Japan has a long history in motorsport, big manufacturers, large followers, and big competitive racing fields. We actually started planning to compete in Japan from 2024 because it did take a while to create the contacts and organise the different licences.

“I chose Formula Vita as my first racing category as it was relatively inexpensive and provided steps to progress. My second trip to Japan I entered a two-hour Endurance race at Suzuka which gave me a lot of seat time in the Formula Vita. I then entered my first Formula Vita Championship Race at Fuji Raceway.

“The third trip I secured my first podium in the Kyojo Vita Championship, my first ever podium in Japan, it was amazing. I will never forget that.”

Portelli and her team will be in Japan for all of December, taking part in the Step1 program of the Suzuka Honda Racing School, before participating in the 2026 Kyojo Championship Tryouts in the Kyojo Formula Race car.