Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) won the sixth round of the 2021 Autobacs Super GT Series at Autopolis International Racing Course. Their #8 ARTA NSX-GT driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Nirei Fukuzumi drove away to a commanding victory, their first of the season. Meanwhile, Honda stablemates Team Kunimitsu and the #1 Stanley NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino extended their lead in the GT500 championship table.
Cool weather and sunny skies greeted a crowd of over 10,000 spectators for the first Super GT round at Autopolis since 2019, a venue that was omitted in the COVID-affected 2020 season.
The #16 Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT started from pole in the hands of Toshiki Oyu, and led the GT500 field to the green flag and into the first corner. But as the field made its way to Hitachi Astemo Corner (turn six), the #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra of Kenta Yamashita drove past to take the lead of the race.
This lead was guaranteed to be short lived, as the Eneos Supra of Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima was due to serve a five-second penalty stop for an unapproved engine change. The penalty was served on lap five, handing the lead back to Oyu.
A scary accident at Turn 11 for veteran driver Hisashi Wada in the GT300 class #22 R’Qs Mercedes-AMG GT3, brought out the first Full Course Yellow and, eventually, the first Safety Car intervention of the race. Wada, 59, was not injured in the accident, but the pro-am R’Qs Motor Sports’ season could be in jeopardy as their car was totalled in the crash.
The race restarted on lap 17, with Oyu leading the #64 Modulo NSX-GT of Takuya Izawa by just under a second. But just three corners into the next lap, the right rear wheel of the leading Red Bull NSX detached from the car, and took a terrifying spill down the track – no cars were damaged, and no marshalls or spectators were hurt. Pole winner Ukyo Sasahara never had a chance to get aboard the Red Bull NSX, as Team Mugen’s hopes of winning their first GT500 race in 19 years were shattered.
Izawa inherited the lead, ahead of the #8 ARTA NSX-GT of Fukuzumi. But then on the following lap, there was a second Safety Car for another scary GT300 crash: The #35 arto Lexus RC F GT3 of Sean Walkinshaw and the #48 Shokumou/K’s Frontier Nissan GT-R of Yudai Uchida made contact out of turn three, and Uchida was turned sideways into the left-side armco barrier. Uchida, a 57-year-old gentleman driver in his first Super GT season, was not seriously injured after a scary front-end impact that will leave NILZZ Racing – another small, pro-am GT300 team – with an uncertain status for the last two rounds.
The second Safety Car was withdrawn on lap 23, just in time for the projected pit window to open. The first stoppers came in on lap 24, and on lap 26, Fukuzumi pitted from second place for his routine stop, handing the wheel over to Nojiri. Izawa stayed out for three more laps, then pitted on lap 29, handing the wheel over to Hiroki Otsu.
Otsu emerged from the pits ahead of Nojiri, but on cold tyres. Nojiri wasted no time getting past Otsu to retake the race lead, while Otsu momentarily fell into the clutches of the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra of Yuichi Nakayama, and the #1 Stanley NSX-GT of Yamamoto (both cars pitted on lap 24). Eventually, Otsu’s Dunlop tyres found their optimal window, and the newest Super Formula race winner overtook his way back to second place on lap 32, bearing down on Nojiri – the newly crowned Super Formula champion – for the lead.
With traffic in play, Otsu closed to within half a second of Nojiri and shadowed him for the next several laps. Eventually, Nojiri was able to extend a margin, while Otsu’s pace began to drop off a sheer cliff. On lap 53, Otsu was overtaken by four cars at turn 11, dropping him out of a hotly contested battle for the podium places. The #64 Modulo NSX-GT of Izawa and Otsu would, in fact, fall out of the points and finish a lowly 12th.
All the while, Nojiri had stretched his leading margin to over thirty seconds by lap 52. He drove brilliantly over the course of a mammoth 39-lap stint, and in the end, he piloted the orange and black ARTA NSX to victory by 28.548 seconds.
“Thanks to what Fukuzumi-san told me about the car’s condition in the first half, I was able to push with confidence from the beginning of my stint,” Nojiri said after the race. “When the car’s condition began to change at one point, I was able to cope with it thanks to Fukuzumi-san’s input.”
“I think this teamwork between the drivers worked perfectly. Now I want to work hard to help us get another win at the next round at Twin Ring Motegi and keep our hopes alive for the season title.”
“As the first stint driver, I was worried about how well the tyres would warm up right after the start, but it turned out to be sufficient to allow me to drive with cool and confidence after that,” commented co-driver Fukuzumi. “But, the two interventions by the Safety Car forced me to change my strategy, but the team was there to tell me what I needed to do, so fortunately I was able to stay cool after that as well.”
It’s the sixth career GT500 class win for Nojiri, and the second for Fukuzumi. For Honda, this is their third win of the season, and their first at Autopolis in GT500 since Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman clinched the 2007 GT500 championship for ARTA with a win in the penultimate round.
As impressive as ARTA’s performance in the second half was, it was equalled by the second place #38 ZENT GR Supra of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura.
From tenth on the grid, the ZENT Supra was another one of the three Toyotas that had to serve an early penalty stop for unapproved engine changes. Tachikawa’s pace in the opening stint was strong, and the Safety Car interventions negated the potential time loss. Even still, when Tachikawa pitted on lap 28, and Ishiura took over for the closing stint, they were 14th and last of the remaining GT500 cars on track.
Then, Ishiura began putting in a searing stint of his own. By lap 47, he had clawed his way up into sixth, and right into contention for a podium position with four cars just ahead of him. On lap 53, he got past the wounded car of Otsu with ease. Then on lap 54, he overtook both the #23 Motul Autech GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and the #1 Stanley NSX of Yamamoto to get to third, and not content with third, he overtook Nakayama around the outside of turn one on lap 55, to take second place.
It was a sensational recovery drive to secure TGR Team ZENT Cerumo’s first podium of what had been a frustrating 2021 season to date.
With eight laps to go, Matsuda overtook Nakayama for third place at turn 11, and secured a podium for himself and NISMO teammate Ronnie Quintarelli. All three makes were represented on the GT500 podium this time out.
Their sister car, the #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo), had an incredible charge through the field of their own: After starting from last in the GT500 field, Hirate and Chiyo clawed their way to a fourth place finish, ahead of the #39 Denso Supra of Heikki Kovalainen and Nakayama, who finished fifth.
And in sixth place, was the #1 Stanley NSX-GT of Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino – which was no small feat on the maximum 100 kilogrammes of effective Success Ballast! Once again, the team went with an aggressive undercutting strategy to gain track position, pitting on lap 24 and letting Yamamoto’s race pace push them into podium contention for a brief time, but they were happy to extend their lead in the standings.
The #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine/Nobuharu Matsushita) followed up their win at Sportsland Sugo with a seventh-place finish. Behind them were the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) in eighth, the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Sacha Fenestraz) finishing ninth after their penalty stop, and the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi) finished tenth, denying the #14 Eneos Supra of Oshima and Yamashita a point by three-tenths of a second.
With two races remaining, Yamamoto now leads the second-ranked driver combination of Tsukakoshi/Baguette by 16 points, with Sekiguchi/Tsuboi a further three points behind them in third.
In the GT300 class, it was a long-awaited victory for the #31 Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT of Koki Saga and Yuhki Nakayama, who converted pole position into the first win for series stalwarts apr Racing since July 2016.
Nakayama took the opening stint in the blue and white Toyota Tsusho Prius, and led the opening laps ahead of the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Hideki Yamauchi, and the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra of Kohta Kawaai. Early on, the GTA-GT300 originals were locking down the top three.
The two Safety Car interventions for Wada and Uchida’s accidents prevented Nakayama from stretching his lead out to more than three seconds. When the race resumed on lap 24, Kawaai pitted from third place, and Hiroki Yoshida took the wheel of the GreenBrave Supra.
Nakayama pitted the #31 Prius from the lead on lap 29, giving the wheel to Koki Saga; on lap 30, Iguchi relieved Yamauchi after the Subaru made its stop. And suddenly, a new challenger entered the fray: The #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F, which started fifth with Morio Nitta at the helm and was now being driven by Sena Sakaguchi after a pit stop on lap 28. Sakaguchi was able to get past Iguchi for net second position once the Subaru came out of the pits on cold tyres.
Saga began to pull away at the front, building a lead of nearly 12 seconds by lap 35, and almost 20 seconds by lap 50. By this point, Sakaguchi was firmly settled into second in the K-Tunes RC F. Iguchi was now fighting off Yoshida for the third and final podium place. The two drivers clashed wheels coming down the hill out of turn 11, but Yoshida was still able to hang with Iguchi over the final laps of the race.
Koki Saga – who appeared in the driver introduction ceremonies dressed as a local mustard lotus flower – had more than enough pace in hand to cruise to a very popular victory for the front-engined, second-generation Prius GT300 hybrid.
This was apr Racing’s first win since the fourth round of the 2016 season at Sportsland Sugo, won in the previous generation Prius GT, which was a mid-engined model.
“This is my first win in five years, after taking over the position of Morio Nitta-san, who preceded me as the development driver, I have worked hard with Manager [Hiroto] Kaneso to win with the previous Prius Super GT machine. But, honestly, I had my doubts about whether we could win with the new Prius PHV, so this win today is really a big relief for me,” said an emotional Saga after the race.
And the victory was a welcome sight for a team that went scoreless throughout 2019, and only scored points in three rounds in 2020 even after a Balance of Performance tweak. Trending towards another scoreless season in 2021 after five races, and with rumours suggesting that the hybrid Prius may be replaced after this season, apr Racing’s flagship car delivered a sensational pole-to-win victory.
“Before I came to this team, the previous team member, Kohei Hirate, told me he hoped I would do my best for the team,” said Nakayama. “But after that, we just couldn’t get the results we hoped for. There were many races where things just didn’t go the way we wanted, but we never gave up. So, I am very happy to be able to win with this team. I’m tremendously happy about this!”
This is Saga’s sixth career win and the second win for past GT300 champion Nakayama.
The #96 K-Tunes RC F of Nitta and Sakaguchi came home to finish second, giving K-Tunes Racing their first podium of the season, and their first since the 2019 season finale at Motegi, in Sakaguchi’s first race with the team after relieving Sacha Fenestraz in GT500 for the first five rounds.
The battle for the final podium place in GT300 raged on until the very end, and the #61 Subaru BRZ of Iguchi and Yamauchi held off the #52 GreenBrave Supra of Yoshida and Kawaai by just 0.299 seconds. And, as a reminder, the Subaru came into this round carrying the maximum 100 kilos of Success Weight!
Fifth and sixth places went to teams that capped off incredible recovery drivers to score big points. The #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) started down in 22nd. But they went long on Yasuda’s opening stint, forgoing their pit stop until lap 40. Hiranaka closed out the race to finish fifth.
And in sixth, the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) started the race from the pit lane because of an electrical issue before the race. But they were able to make their way up into the points after an incredible performance from their two veteran drivers.
Using a two-stop strategy to their advantage, the #10 Gainer TanaX with Impul GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Keishi Ishikawa) finished seventh, ahead of the #65 LEON Pyramid AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) in eighth. The pro-am #9 NAC Pacific CarGuy Ferrari 488 GT3 (Takeshi Kimura/Kei Cozzolino) also ran a two-stop strategy and finished ninth, after having to evade the Uchida/Walkinshaw crash from earlier in the race. The #25 Hoppy Porsche 911 GT3-R (Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato) completed the points finishers in tenth.
Two principal championship contenders going into the weekend, the #56 Realize/Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) and the #244 Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra (Atsushi Miyake/Yuui Tsutsumi), finished outside the points in 11th and 17th, respectively.
In the GT300 championship, the Subaru team of Iguchi and Yamauchi now leads by 12 points with two races remaining. Behind them are Fujinami/Oliveira in second, Miyake/Tsutsumi in third another two points back, and Hiranaka/Yasuda now fourth, another four points back.
The penultimate race of the 2021 Super GT Series is in two weeks time, as the series returns to Twin Ring Motegi (to be renamed Mobility Resort Motegi from 2022 onward) on the weekend of 6-7 November. Both class championships could be clinched before the final round, but nothing is guaranteed in these final two rounds of the season.
Images courtesy of the GT Association (GTA)
