Just two races remain in the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series, who will conquer the demanding Autopolis circuit?
Over the course of the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series, fans at home in Japan and elsewhere in the world have been treated to six incredible races, from the start of the championship in the springtime, to a blistering Summer Series that has shaped and moulded the championship fights in the GT500 and GT300 championships.
Now, the seasons change once again. The shift to Autumn will bring the Super GT season to a close, over the final two races of the 2018 championship.
This final sprint to the championship begins this weekend at the Autopolis International Racing Course, located in the southern island of Kyushu in the city of Hito – just 120 kilometers southeast of the metropolis of Fukuoka, and 50 kilometers northeast of Kumamoto.
In 2016, the earthquakes that devastated Kumamoto damaged the Autopolis circuit, but after a year of rebuilding the entire region, Autopolis returned to the Super GT calendar in 2017, and returns once again in 2018, only now as the penultimate round of the 2018 Super GT Series.
This remote circuit is built at altitude in the forests of rural Kyushu, sitting nearly 800 meters above sea level, with elevation changes at a gradient of up to 52 meters from the lowest to the highest point of Autopolis. This is, after all, a circuit that had World Championship aspirations when it was first constructed in 1990, even hosting a round of the FIA World Sports Car Championship in 1991, but today, Autopolis sits as a permanent fixture of the Japanese national racing circuit, the hidden gem amongst the country’s six major road courses.
The 2018 Super GT in Kyushu 300km is a race that has shifted its date twice to accommodate an awkward series of counter-moves with the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji, but it’s finally set to take place this weekend, with the hearty sports car racing fans expected to make the trek from Fuji to Autopolis this weekend, and so much at stake in terms of the championship, starting at the top in the GT500 class.
Going into this penultimate race of the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series, the #100 Raybrig Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto & Jenson Button have a 12-point lead in the GT500 Drivers’ Championship, boosted by their breakthrough first win of the season at Sportsland SUGO last month. For Team Kunimitsu, who have never won Super GT’s biggest prize in 25 seasons, the goal that has so long eluded team boss Kunimitsu Takahashi and his famous Raybrig NSX is so, so close. So close, in fact, that a championship-clinching scenario does exist.
It’s only happened twice before, that a team clinches the GT500 Championships before the final round of the season. Both times, though, it has happened at Autopolis, in 2007 and in 2012. Yamamoto and Button, if they were to win at Autopolis, would need the #8 ARTA NSX-GT of Tomoki Nojiri & Takuya Izawa to finish fourth or lower, and the #1 KeePer TOM’s Lexus LC500 of Ryo Hirakawa & Nick Cassidy to finish third or lower, to clinch the GT500 title the same day.
History isn’t on Honda’s side at Autopolis, not as Honda have only won twice at Autopolis since the first time it graced the Super GT calendar in 2003, and haven’t won since 2007, with the previous generation ARTA NSX of Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman clinching the championship the same day.
And Success Ballast shouldn’t be on the side of Yamamoto & Button. For this event, the ballast is reduced to 1 kilogram per championship point, putting the Raybrig NSX at 61kg, or, 44 kilos of physical weight plus the “Level 1” fuel flow restrictor of 91.8 kilograms per hour. That said, Yamamoto & Button won with a bigger ballast handicap at Sugo, and last year, the Raybrig NSX was quick around Autopolis during qualifying and the early stages of the race. It’s not impossible, but they won’t have it easy.
Certainly not with the rival Hondas, the ARTA NSX of Nojiri & Izawa, and the #17 Keihin NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure). These Bridgestone-clad Hondas have won races in 2018, and both are within striking distance of the championship with two races left to run. Even if history isn’t on Honda’s side, recent championship form certainly is.
Of course, Lexus isn’t willing to relinquish supremacy in GT500 just yet, not if their recent testing form at Motegi was an indicator.
It is starting to look like must-win territory for the young lions, Hirakawa and Cassidy, if they’re to defend their GT500 championship title. They still remain within 14 points of the championship lead, but with their first non-scoring finish as a tandem at Sugo, they’ve taken a major setback and cannot afford another at Autopolis.
The penultimate race of 2017 was where Hirakawa & Cassidy scored a signature win, then at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, that eventually put them ahead in the GT500 championship battle. The KeePer TOM’s LC500 hasn’t won this year, but really would love to get a victory that could potentially put Hirakawa & Cassidy back on top of the standings. The other TOM’s car, the #36 au TOM’s LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi), won this race last May and won the Fuji 500 Miles this August. Sekiguchi sits 21 points back of Yamamoto & Button, and Nakajima has won this event before twice, in 2013 and in 2017.
A few more of the Lexus are still in the championship hunt, but need at least a podium just to remain championship-eligible heading into Motegi. Heikki Kovalainen in the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD LC500, with 6 Hours of Fuji winner Kamui Kobayashi, is 25 points outside of first place. So too is the #38 ZENT Cerumo LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura). And 27 points back is the #6 Wako’s 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima/Felix Rosenqvist), with Rosenqvist still hoping to finish his run in Super GT on a high note before departing to IndyCar for 2019.
The one Lexus with nothing to lose? The #19 WedsSport Advan LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto/Kenta Yamashita), carrying only 15kg of Success Ballast, which was fastest of all in the two-day official tests at Twin Ring Motegi.
Of the thirteen previous Super GT races held at Autopolis, Nissan have won here seven times.
That, historically, bodes very well for the #23 Motul Autech NISMO GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda & Ronnie Quintarelli, who won together here in 2014 and 2015. Add his championship-clinching win in a dramatic 2012 race, and Quintarelli has won three of the last five Autopolis races. With a 22-point deficit to Yamamoto & Button, Matsuda & Quintarelli would really like to, and in truth, need to make it three wins in the last four years.
They are Nissan’s sole championship player in 2018, but there’s a matter of personal pride on the line for at least two of their other GT-Rs. The #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Jann Mardenborough) finally scored a podium finish for the first time since 2016 – the first GT500 podium for Mardenborough, but for two straight races, they’ve had a chance to win and fallen short of the ultimate goal.
As well as the #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Katsumasa Chiyo), it’s been a tough season for the NDDP Racing with B-Max team and principal Masahiro Hasemi, but Motoyama is the winningest driver in Autopolis history – winning in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011. What a boost it would be to the morale of the team to stand on the podium this weekend!
In the GT300 class, 20 points cover the top 8 teams in the championship standings, led by the #55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 of Shinichi Takagi and Sean Walkinshaw, with a 7-point margin over the field.
This car and driver combination excelled last year with a third-place finish at Autopolis last May, and the high altitude of the Autopolis circuit will absolutely favour the turbocharged engines of cars like the BMW M6 over the naturally-aspirated runners. That said, Autopolis’ plethora of medium-speed and high-speed corners also favours the JAF-GT300 and Mother Chassis runners.
This group of cars, which has won the last three pole positions at Autopolis and two of the last three races, is led in the championship tables by the #31 Toyota Prius apr GT (Koki Saga/Kohei Hirate), which trails the #55 ARTA M6 by seven points and is still looking for its first win of the season.
But all eyes will be on last year’s winning car, the #25 Hoppy Toyota 86 MC of Takamitsu Matsui, and the record-setting All-Japan Formula 3 Champion, Sho Tsuboi. They’re 17 points outside of first place, and desperately need a win to claw their way back into the championship picture in a season where they’ve been quick, but prone to reliability issues.
Speaking of, a commanding victory at Sugo from the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) has put them back within striking distance of the championship battle. Back-to-back wins would certainly take them to Motegi with a chance to win the championship, and they were just 0.091 seconds away at the line from winning this race last May.
There are GT3 cars that are a factor in this race, including the leading Mercedes runners, the #0 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), and the #65 LEON Cvstos AMG (Haruki Kurosawa/Naoya Gamou). Both cars have scored points in all six races this year, but it’s the Miku AMG of Taniguchi & Kataoka that has the most momentum rolling into Autopolis, after back-to-back podiums in Fuji and Sugo.
The turbocharged #11 Gainer TanaX Nissan GT-R GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) is another GT3-spec title contender that needs another win to stay in the title hunt, while mid-engined cars like the #21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Richard Lyons/Ryuichiro Tomita), the #34 Modulo Kenwood Honda NSX GT3 (Ryo Michigami/Hiroki Otsu), and the #88 ManePa Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine/Marco Mapelli) should also shine around this hilly 4.6 kilometer circuit.
If there’s a formidable dark horse in the field, Fukuoka-based Team Mach might be it. The #5 Mach Syaken MC86 Y’s Distraction (Natsu Sakaguchi/Yuya Hiraki) has the car and the drivers to deliver a podium finish, if the car proves reliable over 65 laps.
The Super GT in Kyushu 300km at Autopolis goes green this Sunday at 2:00 PM JST (local time) / 6:00 AM BST / 7:00 AM CET / 1:00 AM EDT, with live flag-to-flag coverage for international viewers on NISMO TV with lap-by-lap commentary from Sam Collins, and extended highlights on Jenson Button TV, commentated by Toby Moody. Japanese viewers can watch the race live on the J Sports family of networks.
Images courtesy of Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and the GT Association
