Saturday afternoon saw the first leg of a two-race doubleheader at Sportsland SUGO, as the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series’ ST-4 and ST-5 classes that make up “Group 2” took part in the first of two three-hour races for the weekend.
In a race that saw two Safety Car interventions, it was the #86 TOM’s Spirit Toyota 86 of Takamitsu Matsui, Sho Tsuboi, and Yuichi Nakayama who came out victorious, completing 95 laps and taking their second straight ST-4 class victory to open the 2018 season – as well as their seventh straight victory in the category dating back to this event one year ago.
After Matsui and Tsuboi, the two regular drivers for Super GT’s Tsuchiya Engineering, took pole position by nearly two seconds on their aggregate times, it looked as if they’d run away from the field. In his opening stint, Matsui had built a lead of nearly 15 seconds over the second-placed #55 SunOasis Auto Factory Toyota 86 of Jun Tashiro, Takashi Ito, and Takashi Oi. Tashiro had no room to breathe with the #13 Endless 86 of Ryo Ogawa right on his tail in a heated battle for second place.
But at the end of the first hour, the ST-5 class #37 DXL Aragosta Team Nopro Mazda Demio Sky-D broke down with a transmission failure, which caused fluid to leak through turns 3-6 and resulted in a safety car intervention right as the first pit window opened up. It took nearly 20 minutes to clear the viscous fluid from the surface, and it was the SunOasis 86, now with veteran driver Oi at the wheel, which came out with the lead having already made their stop before the Safety Car intervention.
The #50 Love Drive Racing Mazda Roadster then broke down and brought out a second safety car at just past the halfway point of the race. By the time that Safety Car intervention ended, the running order was the #55 SunOasis 86 of Oi, the #86 TOM’s Spirit 86 of Nakayama, and the #13 Endless 86 of Ogawa.
Oi had the advantage of four fresh Pirelli tyres as opposed to Nakayama, who took left-side tyres only on his first stop. But the Toyota Gazoo Racing factory driver would not be denied once the slower ST-5 traffic came into play. Nakayama found his way to the back of Oi on the front stretch, and on Lap 68, Nakayama cruised past with a cross-over move through the Second Corner.
Driving the final 63 laps of the race, Nakayama held off all comers and took the overall victory for TOM’s Spirit in the Group 2 race.
It is the seventh straight Super Taikyu ST-4 victory for TOM’s Spirit, who won this race last year to start the unbroken run of victories – five in a row to end the 2017 season en route to the class championship, and now two in a row to start the season.
After Oi was disposed from the lead, Ogawa tried to make his move into second place – but spun in his frantic pursuit of the old pro in the SunOasis 86, which held on to finish in 2nd. Ogawa still held on to get the third-place result for he and co-drivers Tsubasa Takahashi, Masaya Hanazato, and Ryosuke Kure.
It’s Endless Sports’ 17th consecutive ST-4 class podium finish, dating back to the August 2015 round at Autopolis circuit – and a podium clean sweep for the Toyota 86es, the dominant car of the category.
In ST-5, an unexpected winner emerged from the pack as spot participant Team Yamato and their #67 Honda Fit of Ryohei Yasui and Ayumu Ikeda came from 8th on the grid to win their very first Super Taikyu race!
While the #66 Over Drive Mazda Demio started on pole, they were quickly swarmed by the #2 Team221 Mazda Roadster (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Junichiro Yamashita/Koji Yamanishi) and the #4 The Bride Honda Fit (Hidefumi Minami/Yuya Ota), who broke out to lead the pack.
The Team221 Roadster lost out on the timing of their pit stops during the Safety Car interventions. The Bride Fit would have moved into contention for the victory, but on their second pit stop, they were given a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speeding violation (caused by a malfunctioning speed limiter). And thus, the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Takeshi Wakitani) emerged as a factor for the victory.
But troubles on pit lane relegated the bright orange Roadster behind the chrome silver Fit, and Team Yamato, a part-time entrant who few would have considered a factor for the win going into the weekend, confidently drove to victory by a margin of 20 seconds. Their only appearance prior to this was a third-place finish at the season finale at Okayama.
Murakami, Ota, and Yamanishi slugged it out behind them in an air-tight battle for second place, and from that amazing battle, it was the long time Super GT veteran Yamanishi who edged out Ota by six-tenths of a second to take second place, with Ota third and Murakami fourth.
Tomorrow’s Group 1 race begins at 2:00 PM JST. The #777 D’station Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R of Satoshi Hoshino, Seiji Ara, and Tsubasa Kondo will start from pole position, ahead of the three Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s behind them in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
Images courtesy of Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
Team Yamato Honda Fit image by Keiichiro Takeshita
