GTNET Motor Sports took the overall victory in the 2021 Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, their third win in the past four years, with the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 completing a trouble-free race as every one of their rivals in the ST-X (FIA GT3) class suffered a major setback over the course of the race.
Attrition had already ravaged most of the seven-car ST-X field in the first ten hours of the race, yet it wasn’t until just before the start of the twelfth hour that the bright orange GT-R became a serious factor in the overall victory. And by the time the sun had come out over Fuji Speedway at 6:00 AM Sunday morning, the six other ST-X runners had suffered a major issue of some kind, leaving the Daishin GT-R so far ahead that they only needed to complete the last nine hours in order to clinch the victory.
No accidents, no major mechanical issues, only one brief spell in the garage at the last hour, and no penalties, plus, they had timed their mandatory ten-minute maintenance stop perfectly, by coming in during the second of three Safety Car periods at the end of the 14th hour. At that time, they had a 34-second lead to the #999 CarGuy Racing Honda NSX GT3. But at the end of the 15th hour, GTNET’s victory was effectively confirmed when the CarGuy NSX lost its left-front wheel heading up towards GR Supra Corner (turn 15).
It is GTNET’s first Fuji 24h victory since winning back-to-back races in 2018 and 2019, and it is their first victory carrying the familiar orange colours of Team Daishin – a team synonymous with success during a 14-year tenure in the JGTC/Super GT Series. So it was only fitting that gentleman driver Noboyuki Oyagi, the founder of the original Team Daishin, would have the honours of driving the final stint to the chequered flag, with co-drivers Takayuki Aoki, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Natsu Sakaguchi cheering from along the pit wall when the chequered flag waved.
Oyagi, who retired from driving in the JGTC after the 2002 season, scored his first victory as a driver in a major race since the ’02 finale at Suzuka Circuit. And by winning the Fuji 24 Hours, he scored his second victory in a 24-hour race held in Japan, having also won the Tokachi 24 Hours back in 2001. Aoki, who won the JGTC GT300 Championship in 2001 alongside Oyagi, was also alongside Oyagi when they won at Tokachi in 2001 – and this season, he had the chance to reunite with his teammate and car owner for the first time in two decades. The 47-year-old veteran completed 336 laps over five stints and had also set the fastest lap of the race.
26-year-old Fujinami makes history by becoming the first three-time overall winner of the Fuji 24 Hours. The reigning GT300 Drivers’ Champion in Super GT was the only member of the 2018 and 2019 Fuji 24h-winning teams that remained with GTNET this season. And for his former Super GT teammate Sakaguchi, it is his first overall win in this event. Sakaguchi was added to the team’s driver lineup to replace regular driver Ryuichiro Oyagi, who was taking part in the Suzuka Clubman Race this weekend.
The Daishin GTNET GT-R drove 3,481 and a half kilometres over 763 laps, the second-longest distance recorded in the history of the event – 48 laps short of the 801-lap record that GTNET Motor Sports had set in 2019. However, the team set another new record with the largest margin of victory, winning overall by 35 laps – with the next-highest ST-X runner a further seven laps behind. This is Nissan’s fourth overall victory at the Fuji 24 Hours (1968, 2018, 2019) and the first for the current-generation GT-R GT3.
The #2 Syntium/K’s Frontier KTM X-Bow GTX finished second place overall, completing 728 laps, and winning the ST-1 class in dominant fashion with a 22-lap margin in class. This is the second win this season for the X-Bow GTX in Japan, having previously won at a rain-shortened race at Twin Ring Motegi.
But certainly, this victory was an even greater achievement for the new mid-engined track special, and for its five drivers: Taiyou Iida, Hiroki Katoh, Takashi Kobayashi, Hiroki Yoshimoto, and Kazuho Takahashi, the gentleman driver and owner of VT Holdings – who operate KTM Cars Japan, and Caterham Cars this year. Finishing the race in itself was an accomplishment for KTM Cars Japan, after two straight DNFs in 2019-20 with their previous X-Bow GT4.
Three different classes were represented in the overall top three. The ST-Z (GT4) class was won, for the third consecutive year, by the deep blue #3 Endless Sports Mercedes-AMG GT4, driven by three-time class winners Yudai Uchida and Hideki Yamauchi, and first-time class winners Togo Suganami and Ryo Ogawa. Together, they drove a trouble-free race, exactly what was needed to take the hat trick of class wins.
ST-Z was one of the closer-fought battles in the race as expected, with the top two cars in class finishing on the same lap, and both cars making the overall top four.
A costly 60-second stop/go penalty for a pit work violation may have been all that stood between the #20 SS/YZ Studie BMW M4 GT4 and a first victory in ST-Z. The quartet of Tomohide Yamaguchi, Seiji Ara, Yuya Sakamoto, and João Paulo de Oliveira were only 40.852 seconds behind the Endless AMG GT4 after 24 hours of racing. Still, this matches the team’s 2nd-place class finish from last year’s Fuji 24 Hours.
The top five finishers in the ST-Z class all finished in the overall top ten, with the #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Toshihiro Kaneishi/Jake Parsons/Yu Kanamaru/Kakunoshin Ohta) finishing third in class, ahead of the #885 Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing Toyota GR Supra (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Ai Miura/Shinnosuke Yamada) in fourth, and the #108 Future GPX Cyber Formula “Asurada Ver.” GR Supra (Jun Fujii/Takeshi Matsumoto/Takuya Kurosawa/Toshio Suzuki/Seiya Jin) in fifth.
With so much attrition in ST-X, it was a heroic effort – one of many on the day, that resulted in the #777 D’station Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 finishing second in its class, and fifth overall. Gentleman driver Satoshi Hoshino suffered a crash just two hours and 15 minutes into the race. The D’station Racing mechanics were able to repair the car in less than 90 minutes, and save for a 10-second penalty stop for overtaking under yellow flag conditions, the trio of Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, and Tsubasa Kondo ran an entirely clean race thereafter.
That was exactly what Hoshino and Fujii were hoping for in terms of preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in August. Moreover, to recover to finish second in class, D’station Racing retains the lead in the ST-X Championship table.
Third in class, tenth overall was the #290 Floral Racing with ABSSA McLaren 720S GT3 (Tadao Uematsu/Keita Sawa/Shintaro Kawabata/Yuji Ide/Yuki Kawahara), which led early in the race and throughout most of the first 12 hours. Unfortunately, they were hit with a double-whammy of a 60-second stop/go penalty, then after serving the penalty stop, the orange and white McLaren ground to a halt with an electrical system issue, sending them to the garage and ending their chances of victory. But their persistence led them back onto the class podium, collecting valuable championship points in the process.
After losing a wheel, the #999 CarGuy NSX of Takeshi Kimura, Kei Cozzolino, and Shinya Sean Michimi also relinquished second in class due to a brake issue. They ended up dropping to 4th in ST-X (13th overall). The other one-off entry, the #33 TSK Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Yoshio Tsuzuki/Ritomo Miyata/Motohiro Ogura/Tetsusaburo Tanaka/Hideo Honda/Akihiro Tsuzuki), was plagued with a clutch issue that took them out of podium contention. The Audi Team Hitotsuyama-run R8 finished 5th in ST-X (19th overall). But these cars suffered a much better fate than two full-time teams whose championship hopes took a near-fatal blow.
In the eighth hour, the #9 MP Racing Nissan GT-R (Joe Shindo/Yusaku Shibata/Masami Kageyama/Tsugio Matsuda/Yuya Motojima/Keiichi Inoue) sideswiped a lower-class car, which sent Shibata left-side first into the barriers and presumably out of the race. Eight hours later, the car was back on track thanks to an enormous repair effort from the entire MP Racing crew, and after walking away from the crash uninjured, Shibata went back out on track.
But with five hours left in the race, the yellow Nissan ground to a halt with a mechanical issue and went back to the garage, before going back out on track again, and ultimately taking the chequered flag – but only with 473 laps completed, well short of the 534 laps needed to be classified and score points.
Just after sunrise in the 14th hour, the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 (Hideki Nagai/Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka/Hiroaki Nagai/Yuichi Nakayama/Yuta Kamimura) suffered a spectacular, catastrophic engine failure with flames spewing out of the bonnet. Saga walked away from his burning Lexus, but the car was, understandably, unable to take further part.
The winners of the production categories were led by the ST-3 winner, the #62 HELM Motor Sports Lexus RC 350 (Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki/Tomoki Takahashi/Ryunosuke Matsuzawa), which finished 11th overall and won its class by eight laps. This is a big win for the team founded by the Hiraki brothers just last year, continuing the legacy of this team’s spiritual predecessor, Le Beausset Motorsports.
For the second time in four years, one of Shinryo Racing Team’s ageing, yet still competitive Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions won the ST-2 class. The #7 Varis/EVO Lancer Evo X (Yoshiki Fujii/Masato Narisawa/Keisuke Anzai/Shingo Imai/Akiyoshi Shibuya/Hirofumi Okumura) took the ST-2 victory by nine laps, finishing 17th overall.
They moved up to the class lead after the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports Toyota GR Yaris (Seita Nonaka/Hibiki Taira/Miki Onaga/Kengo Ichijo) suffered a fiery engine failure, similar to the #31 apr RC F GT3, with less than five hours left in the race!
ST-4 produced one of the feel-good outcomes of the race. Longtime privateer racing squad Asano Racing Service hadn’t won in Super Taikyu since April 2012 at Twin Ring Motegi, but their #18 WedsSport Toyota 86 (Takeo Asano/Daiki Fujiwara/Toshikazu Shiba/Kota Matsui/Ryo Fukatsu/Yuya Nakajima) persevered to take the first class victory for this car. They finished 22nd overall and won the ST-4 class by a whopping 14 laps, with 69-year-old Takeo Asano, whose driving career has spanned six decades, taking the chequered flag in the last stint.
ST-TCR was won by the #97 Racer/Honda Cars Okegawa Civic TCR (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Syun Koide/Ryunosuke Sawa/Kenta Harada), making its season debut under new management from Mooncraft Engineering. They held on to the victory despite two lengthy trips to the garage, finishing 24th overall, and giving this #97 Civic crew a first Fuji 24h class victory after near-misses over the years with various driver combinations.
In ST-5, the Odula racing shop capped off a triumphant 24 hours of racing with a 1-2 finish for their cars, led by the Avantech Racing Team #456 odula StarFive Mazda Roadster (Riku Hashimoto/Kousei Kanto/Tatsuya Osaki/Koji Obara/Takafumi Katsuki/Ryosuke Kagami) crossing the line in a formation finish ahead of the Over Drive #66 odula Tone Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Tatsuya Ota/Takahisa Ohno/Kyosuke Inomata/Shuichiro Hokazono/Hirobon). The final margin of victory, 0.210 seconds, is the closest in any class since the revival of the Fuji 24 Hours in 2018. The two cars finished 26th and 27th overall, respectively.
The victory extends Mazda’s winning streak in the ST-5 class to four years, with the ND Roadster taking its third class victory in four years, and Roadsters taking all three podium positions.
Today was also the day that Toyota’s hydrogen-powered combustion engine would be put to the test in the Fuji 24 Hours. The special #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota Corolla Sport “H2 Concept” took the chequered flag, with drivers Takuto Iguchi, Masahiro Sasaki, Takamitsu Matsui, Hiroaki Ishiura, Kamui Kobayashi, plus Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio “Morizo” Toyoda, completing 358 laps.
As expected, the all-wheel drive Corolla H2 Concept hit its projected target of ten laps on a full set of hydrogen tanks and ran at a pace between the ST-4 and ST-5 cars. Their only major setback was a four-hour spell in the garage to fix an electronics issue. But most importantly, the car took the chequered flag safely, with no apparent issues with the hydrogen engine itself. Morizo-san took the car to the end of the race.
The service area behind the Fuji Speedway paddock was frequented by a number of teams, who did incredible work to ensure that their cars finished the race. Porsche Team EBI Waimarama suffered a practice crash on Thursday night, leaving their primary car damaged beyond repair. Driver Naoya Yamano, who operates two of Porsche’s Tokyo dealerships, arranged to have the last remaining 2019-spec Cayman GT4 MR Clubsport in Japan transported from Chiba and prepared on Friday, with the cancellation of qualifying giving them extra time to get the car ready. That the #22 Waimarama EBI Cayman GT4 (Kizuna/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano/Riki Okusa/Tetsuya Yamano/Giuliano Alesi) even took part in the race, let alone to finish 6th in class, was a small miracle.
C.S.I Racing’s #310 GR Garage Mito Inter 86 (Sho Tsuboi/Shinya Hosokawa/Fuma Horio/Hirokazu Suzuki/Rintaro Kubo) completed an engine change after losing a motor in the very first hour, going on to finish 2nd in ST-4. Team Honda Challenge’s #743 Civic Type R (Junichi Kidachi/Hiroaki Ishigaki/Hideki Kakinuma/Kengo Yamamoto/Shinichi Katsura/Tomoko Fujishima) spent nearly nine hours in the garage, having to replace both their engine and transmission and rush parts from the factory in Tochigi to Oyama.
But perhaps the most resilient effort of the race was that of Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave and their #52 Toyota Crown RS (Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Taku Bamba). The car stopped at pit entry at the start of the ninth hour, completed an engine change, and then came back to the track. When the car’s second engine let go down the homestretch with just four and a half hours to go, their race was completely written off in the minds of spectators – but not in the eyes of the Saitama Toyopet mechanics, many of whom are service mechanics employed at their dealerships.
https://twitter.com/fswpress/status/1396319959635034119
https://twitter.com/fswpress/status/1396320655914639364
The team performed a second successful engine replacement in under three hours, sent the car back out on track, and with its third engine of the day, the #52 GreenBrave Crown took the chequered flag, completing 512 laps to be classified 6th in ST-3. That result more than rewarded the efforts of the entire GreenBrave crew and demonstrated the true spirit of endurance racing.
Quotes from the overall winners – courtesy of the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
Noboyuki Oyagi: “It’s been 20 years since I last won at the 24 Hours of Tokachi. Aoki-san and I won then, and we’ve won now, and I’m very happy to have won with this team. I’m sure we’ll continue to win because everyone is pulling for the gentleman driver!”
Takayuki Aoki: “We also had some trouble from the beginning, but we were able to deal with it and win. It’s been 20 years since I won the 24 Hours of Tokachi in Super Taikyu with Mr Oyagi. It’s been so long! It was tough, but I’m glad.”
Kiyoto Fujinami: “This time, I only had to run for seven hours (in the 24-hour race), which was easy for me since I had to run for nine or ten hours before. But I’m really happy to have won three out of the four races in the Fuji 24 Hours, and since we couldn’t win last year, we were really determined to win this year. This was my favourite endurance race at Fuji, and I’ll do my best again in the future!”
Natsu Sakaguchi: “I’m really happy, that’s all I can say. I was able to do the minimum amount of work I needed to do, so I’m glad that I was able to support the regulars without causing any trouble for the team.”
Feature Image courtesy of the STO
Additional images courtesy of Fuji Speedway
