The 2021 Autobacs Super GT Series hits the halfway mark this weekend at historic Suzuka Circuit, where there are continuing reminders that the novel coronavirus pandemic has not actually ended throughout.
The most clear example of COVID-19’s prolonged effects on the series is the fact that this event will be taking place opposite the 24 Hours of Le Mans, starting Sunday at 14:30 JST / 7:30 AM CEST / 6:30 AM BST. This event, the Fujimaki Group Suzuka GT 300km Race, was originally scheduled to take place on 30 May. However, due to a local state of emergency declared in prefectures near Mie, the event was postponed until 22 August. It is now the fourth race of the season, but will still be promoted as “Round 3” of the 2021 Super GT Series.
Yesterday, it was announced that Mobilityland Corporation, the parent company of Suzuka Circuit, will issue refunds to ticket holders from prefectures who have declared a state of emergency in the wake of a significant spike in COVID-19 cases. However, as Mie Prefecture has not yet declared a state of emergency, the Suzuka 300km will still proceed as scheduled, and those who purchased tickets and can safely travel to Suzuka Circuit will be allowed to attend.
On Thursday, Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave announced that driver Kohta Kawaai has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and will miss this weekend’s race. Kawaai is the first active driver to miss a Super GT round due to a positive COVID-19 test since 2020. He and co-driver Hiroki Yoshida are currently fifth in the GT300 Drivers’ Championship, just three points out of first place after three races.
2011 GT300 Champion Taku Bamba will replace Kawaai in the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra, making his first Super GT appearance since the end of the 2018 season. Bamba brought the GreenBrave squad their first top ten finish in Super GT, finishing seventh at the 2018 round at Sportsland Sugo.
And on Friday, another change of drivers was announced at K-Tunes Racing: Kazuto Kotaka will replace fellow TGR-DC prospect Hibiki Taira in the #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F GT3 alongside Morio Nitta. The change was made as Taira was feeling unwell, but not due to COVID-19. 22-year-old Kotaka was the third driver for muta Racing INGING at the Fuji 500km in May – competing only part-time in Super GT as he focuses on what has become a full-time drive in Super Formula with KCMG.
The only other changes to the entry list were planned in advance. In GT300, Ryuichiro Tomita will drive the #48 Shokumou/K’s Frontier Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 for the second time this season, and 2012 GT300 Champion Naoki Yokomizo will continue to stand in for Takeshi Kimura at Pacific CarGuy Racing in their #9 Ferrari 488 GT3. Over on the GT500 side, Sena Sakaguchi will continue to stand in for Sacha Fenestraz in the #37 KeePer TOM’s Toyota GR Supra.
Rain is in the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday, which would make this the first Super GT race at Suzuka to be run under wet conditions since the 2016 Suzuka 1000km.
After a difficult first three races, the Nissan camp will be looking forward to Suzuka, where the #23 Motul Autech GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli swept both races in the 2020 season. In the October race, they were able to go from 15th and last on the grid to the lead thanks to a fortuitous Safety Car intervention. But last August, they were properly quick, qualifying second and going on to win the race. Announcer Pierre Kitagawa has the Matsuda/Quintarelli duo tipped as a favourite to win again this Sunday, especially since they’re only carrying four kilogrammes of Success Weight into this weekend.
The other favourites out of the Nissan camp will surely be the #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo), which has been the strongest Nissan in the fleet to start this season. And the #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine/Nobuharu Matsushita), which finished second here in October, is also poised to end a five-year winless drought for Team Impul which dates back to the 2016 Fuji summer race. The #3 CraftSports GT-R has just 26kg of Success Weight onboard, while the #12 Calsonic GT-R only has 6kg. However, the threat of rain may give the Calsonic GT-R and, more specifically, their Bridgestone tyres a decisive advantage.
Suzuka is Honda’s original home circuit, and they also have a few strong contenders for the victory. The combination of low Success Weight and Bridgestone tyres might make the #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) the favourites out of the Honda camp. The Dunlop-clad duo of the #16 Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu) and the #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) feel less confident about their chances in the rain, but Dunlop have historically performed well in wet races.
Suzuka may be the place for the #38 ZENT Toyota GR Supra of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura to end a two-year winless spell of their own. They’re carrying just 16kg of Success Weight after a sluggish start to the season. Tachikawa and Ishiura also won the aforementioned 2016 Suzuka 1000km in mixed conditions.
Other favourites for the win out of the Toyota camp include the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Heikki Kovalainen/Yuichi Nakayama) on just 26kg of Success Weight, and the #19 WedsSport GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Ritomo Miyata) which showed incredible speed at Motegi last month, and is on 40kg of Success Weight. Kovalainen was originally tapped to drive at Le Mans instead of Suzuka this weekend, but now he has a real chance at his first ever competitive podium at Suzuka.
That’s not to say that some of the current championship leaders don’t have a chance at the GT500 class victory, of course. The top five teams in the GT500 table are all on Bridgestone tyres, which could negate the disadvantage of their heavy Success Weight penalties which now includes fuel flow restrictors – including a “Stage 2” fuel flow restrictor on the leading #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita). Oshima and Yamashita lead Naoki Yamamoto by just three points, and the #1 Stanley NSX-GT of Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino could pull off a brace of consecutive victories which could really bolster their championship credentials.
A podium would also benefit the two TOM’s Racing Supras, both the #36 au TOM’s Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi), and the #37 KeePer TOM’s Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Sena Sakaguchi) – and the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette), representing an Astemo Real Racing team which has famously suffered all manner of misfortune at Suzuka!
GT300 has the top six teams in the championship separated by just four points, which includes the #11 Gainer TanaX Nissan GT-R GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) that won at Suzuka last August, and is tied with the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) with 25 points each.
Suzuka’s flowing nature favours the mid-engined cars and the lighter GT300 specification vehicles. The #21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Shintaro Kawabata/Takuro Shinohara) that won last October is one of the mid-engined GT3 cars that could be considered a favourite for victory. There will also be considerable support in the stands for the three Honda NSX GT3s, which includes the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Ren Sato) and the #18 UPGarage NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Teppei Natori) that are also being tipped for a strong result – Honda haven’t won here in GT300 since 2004.
Of the GT300 vehicles, the new #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) is the successor of a car that has enjoyed fantastic success at Suzuka. The #244 Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra (Atsushi Miyake/Yuui Tsutsumi) could be in the mix for Max Racing’s maiden podium. And without Success Ballast, the #31 Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT (Koki Saga/Yuhki Nakayama) is due for its first top-ten finish of the season. Another car to watch will be the Mother Chassis #2 muta Lotus Evora MC (Hiroki Katoh/Ryohei Sakaguchi), which vaulted towards the top end of the GT300 championship after a shock victory in Motegi.
Because of DSC’s commitments to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, reports from the Super GT Suzuka 300km may be published later than normal.
