Super Nova first entered racing in 1991 as a new incarnation of the pre-existing David Sears Motorsport outfit. The Nova school chain, a Japanese company operating English-language education centres, provided both the naming rights and significant sponsorship. The team initially competed in European Formula 3000.
Super Nova established itself as one of the leading Formula 3000 teams through the mid-1990s. In 1995, the team claimed a dominant championship one-two with Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset, who finished first and second in the standings respectively. The following years saw Super Nova field some of the most talented drivers on the Formula 3000 grid. In 1997 and 1998, the team ran Ricardo Zonta and Juan Pablo Montoya, two drivers who would both go on to Formula One careers. In the 2001 season, Super Nova fielded Mark Webber, who finished runner-up in the championship — a result that accelerated the Australian's ascent to Formula One.
When Formula 3000 was replaced by the GP2 Series in 2005, Super Nova made the transition to the new category. In the inaugural GP2 season, drivers Giorgio Pantano and Adam Carroll delivered two victories, lifting the team to third place in the constructors' championship — an impressive result in the series' first year.
The team continued in GP2 through the late 2000s, fielding a rotating cast of drivers. In 2006 they ran Jose Maria Lopez and Fairuz Fauzy, finishing ninth in the constructors' standings. The 2007 season brought Mike Conway and Luca Filippi as their driver pairing, with the team recovering to fourth in the constructors' championship. The 2008 lineup of Alvaro Parente and Andy Soucek — who replaced the injured Christian Bakkerud early in the year — produced a seventh-place constructors' finish.
Super Nova's most competitive late GP2 campaign came in 2009 with Luca Filippi returning alongside Javier Villa. The team finished third in the constructors' championship with 67 points. In 2010 they fielded Josef Kral and Marcus Ericsson. By 2011 they slipped to ninth in the standings with twenty points.
In February 2012, Super Nova announced their withdrawal from the GP2 Series, citing an inability to sustain the financial demands of the championship. Their entry was replaced by Team Lazarus.
Super Nova operated entries in the A1 Grand Prix series from its inaugural 2005-06 season. The team managed both A1 Team Germany and A1 Team Pakistan, and later fielded A1 Team New Zealand. In the 2006-07 season, the two teams they managed — Germany and New Zealand — finished first and second overall in the championship, a remarkable double achievement for a single operating entity.
In July 2007, Nova's business affairs became the subject of intense media coverage in Japan after the company fell into financial difficulty. By September 2007, reports confirmed Nova was unable to pay staff salaries or meet rental obligations, and the company was declared bankrupt in November 2007 amid widening allegations of business impropriety. In June 2008, company president Saruhashi was taken into police custody on embezzlement charges; in August 2009 he was convicted and sentenced to a 42-month prison term. Despite the collapse of its titular sponsor, Super Nova continued to list Nova on its livery and operated under the same name.
Super Nova also competed in the Auto GP series from 2010. In the 2011 season they finished fourth in the championship, despite entering only half the season with a single car. In 2012 their driver Adrian Quaiffe-Hobbs won the drivers' championship, and the team took the teams' title as well. In July 2014, Super Nova announced its entry into the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship, competing under the Trulli GP name in honour of team partner Jarno Trulli.
Super Nova Racing's lasting contribution to motorsport was as a reliable developer and launcher of talent at the top level of the Formula 3000 and GP2 ladder. The team's Formula 3000 years produced three drivers — Sospiri, Montoya, and Webber — who became significant figures in Formula One, while its GP2 operations consistently finished in the top half of the constructors' standings. The collapse of its sponsorship arrangement with the Nova chain was a cautionary tale about the dangers of single-source title sponsorship, yet the team survived the crisis for several years before finally withdrawing from GP2 in 2012.