The 2021 Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook drew to a close this Sunday at Okayama International Circuit, with a pair of three-hour races. The Group 1 race, featuring the premier GT3 and GT4 categories, finished with the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R of Hiroaki Nagai, Yuta Kamimura, and Yuichi Nakayama taking the ST-X class and overall victory. In the Group 2 race, Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave won with their #52 Toyota Crown RS driven by Naoki Hattori, Hiroki Yoshida, and Kohta Kawaai.
And the final championship titles were decided, with the #3 Endless Sports Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Yudai Uchida, Hideki Yamauchi, and Togo Suganami winning their third consecutive championship in the ST-Z class, and the #884 Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing Toyota 86 of Yuji Kunimoto, Keishi Ishikawa, and Eijiro Shimizu holding on to win the ST-4 title.
The Group 2 race started at just past 8:30 AM local time. The #39 Air Buster/Winmax Lexus RC350 led the field to the green flag, but starting driver Hirotaka Ishii dropped to third place in the opening laps.
Yoshida in the #52 GreenBrave Crown settled into an early lead, followed by Atsushi Miyake in Max Racing’s #244 Queen Eyes Nissan Fairlady Z34. Yoshida and Miyake, two of the top drivers in the GT300 class of Super GT, had a fierce battle for the lead in their opening stints. The race for the lead turned on pit strategy: The #244 Queen Eyes Z34 pitted after 36 laps, swapping in veteran driver Tetsuya Tanaka. On lap 42, the #52 GreenBrave Crown pitted, and Kawaai got on for his stint. The GreenBrave crew also opted to double-stint their set of Hankook tyres to gain track position.
Kawaai extended his lead over Tanaka, then pitted on lap 64. This time, the GreenBrave Crown took on fresh tyres, as Hattori stepped in for the last stint. He had enough of a margin to keep Miyake at a distance, taking the win by 8.8 seconds. It was the second win of the season for the GreenBrave Crown, who also won the three-hour Group 2 race at Sportsland Sugo.
Miyake and Tanaka brought the #244 Queen Eyes Z34 home to a second-place finish. And the ST-3 championship-winning #39 Air Buster RC 350 (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Kazuya Oshima/Hirotaka Ishii) finished their season with a third-place finish. The top four finishers, including the fourth place #15 Okabe Jidosha Motorsports Z34 (Masaaki Nagashima/Kazuomi Komatsu/Masaya Kohno) completed 105 laps, in a race that was uninterrupted by Safety Car or Full Course Yellow interventions.
The battle for the ST-4 class title shifted dramatically after the first half of the race. The #310 GR Garage Mito Inter 86 (Sho Tsuboi/Shinya Hosokawa/Fuma Horio) led the first hour, while the #884 Shade Racing 86 had to pit 17 laps into the race to solve a minor engine issue that hampered them in qualifying.
After 45 laps, things were looking great for C.S.I (Corolla Shin-Ibaraki) Racing to win their second consecutive ST-4 title; after Tsuboi’s opening stint, Horio got in for his stint, and the team opted not to change tyres. But just three laps later, the #310 GR Mito Inter 86 came back to the pits for an emergency stop, suffering with an even bigger engine problem. The car came back out again after 30 minutes of repairs, only to come back to the garage after one lap, and retire from the final race of the season.
With that, the #884 Shade Racing 86 of Kunimoto, Ishikawa, and Shimizu cruised to the class victory to win the 2021 title, their second in three years. Officially, Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing wins the championship by half a point – because only five out of six race scores are counted in the final results, and Shade Racing had already maxed out their points total for five valid scores.
They finished eighth overall, a minute ahead of the #18 WedsSport 86 (Takeo Asano/Daiki Fujiwara/Toshikazu Shiba) which was second in class.
Mazda Roadsters locked out the ST-5 class podium, led by the #456 odula/Star5 Roadster of Riku Hashimoto, Kousei Kanto, and Tatsuya Osaki which won its third race of the season. Over Drive/odula took a 1-2 finish, with the championship-winning #66 odula/Tone/Motul Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Tatsuya Ota/Takahisa Ohno/Kyosuke Inomata) in second. The #72 NATS Roadster (Makoto Kanai/Anna Inotsume/Mamoru Okada) finished third, in what was the first Super Taikyu start for accomplished eSports racer Okada.
The #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept (Takuto Iguchi/Masahiro Sasaki/Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Takamitsu Matsui), and the new #37 Mazda Spirit Racing Bio Concept Demio (Kaoru Ijiri/Ikuo Maeda/Kazuhiro Terakawa/Yutaka Seki), each finished the race with no troubles. On the last lap, Toyota President “Morizo” and Mazda Chief of Global Design Maeda drove their cars to a formation finish.
The #37 Bio Concept Demio, which is powered by 100 percent renewable biodiesel, completed 94 laps and finished 17th out of 22 classified runners in its first race. Their results would have put them eighth in the ST-5 class, where the car previously competed as a traditional diesel car.
The #32 Corolla H2 Concept finished 20th overall, completing 85 laps with six pit stops. The development of this car’s hydrogen engine since the Fuji 24 Hours has been documented at every round; they’ve gained 20 percent more horsepower, and 30 percent more torque, since its first race without sacrificing fuel economy.
After a mid-day intermission, giving some of the local endurance racing fanatics time to see the finish of Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the Group 1 race began just after 1:30 PM local time.
Kamimura started from pole in the #16 PC Okazaki 911. The #290 Floral Racing with ABSSA McLaren 720S GT3 of Shintaro Kawabata went off course early on due to a problem with the anti-lock brakes, bringing out an early Full Course Yellow. Takayuki Aoki in the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 worked his way up to second in the first hour, followed by Masami Kageyama in the #9 MP Racing GT-R.
The #16 Porsche pitted on lap 42, and Nakayama took over for the second stint, pulling away as the #81 Daishin GT-R put in gentleman driver Noboyuki Oyagi for the second stint.
The #9 MP Racing GT-R, now driven by Yusaku Shibata, had a chance to jump up to second place. But at the halfway mark of the race, a collision between Shibata and the #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Yudai Uchida sent Shibata into the gravel at Williams Curve (turn two), bringing out a second FCY, and resulting in implications for the ST-Z title race that was happening alongside!
Nagai had a leading margin of over a minute when he took over the #16 Porsche for the final stint of the race, and was able to withstand a late charge from Kiyoto Fujinami in the #81 Daishin GT-R over the final hour.
The #16 PC Okazaki 911 GT3-R of Nagai, Kamimura, and Nakayama took its second win of the season, beating the #81 Daishin GT-R of Nobuyuki Oyagi, Aoki, Fujinami, and Ryuichiro Oyagi by 44.8 seconds after 111 laps of racing. Rounding out the overall and ST-X class podium was the #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3 (Hideki Nagai/Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka) in third.
The #290 Floral/ABBSA McLaren of Tadao Uematsu, Keita Sawa, and Kawabata consolidated second in the ST-X championship with a fourth place finish, three laps off the lead; the #9 MP Racing GT-R of Joe Shindo, Shibata, Kageyama, and Ryuichiro Tomita was another minute behind in fifth.
Sixth place overall and winners of the ST-Z class for the first time, the #311 Fabulous/GRMI Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Hirokazu Suzuki, Rintaro Kubo, Yusuke Shiotsu, and Kimiya Sato scored the GR Supra GT4’s first S-Tai victory as a homologated vehicle.
Suzuki settled into second place behind the #108 Future GPX Cyber Formula Racing with RFC GR Supra of Takeshi Matsumoto, who took the lead on lap three and led the first hour of the race until lap 34, when Toshio Suzuki relieved him for the second stint. A long first stint for Yuya Motojima cycled the #23 TKRI/Matsunaga Construction AMG GT4 to the lead, until he pitted on lap 51.
Gentleman driver Daisuke (Matsunaga) then suffered a collision with the #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 of Ryuichiro Otsuka, sending both cars out of podium contention and into the garage. Around the same time, Uchida in the #3 Endless AMG GT4, who was now running third, struck the #9 MP Racing GT-R GT3 of Shibata as mentioned earlier. Uchida was hit with a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, dropping them down the order.
The #310 Fabulous/GRMI GR Supra passed the baton from H. Suzuki, to Kubo, to Sato, who had to withstand a fierce charge from the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Manabu Orido for the lead of the race in the last hour. Despite issues with the brakes, Sato was able to fend off Orido’s attack, and take C.S.I Racing’s first ST-Z class win by 3.019 seconds, while the #108 GR Supra of Suzuki and Matsumoto finished a lap behind them in third.
Despite the penalty, the #3 Endless AMG GT4 recovered to finish in fourth in class, clinching Endless Sports’ third ST-Z title with the Mercedes-AMG GT4 in as many seasons since entering the category. The #47 D’station Vantage GT4 of Orido, Tatsuya Hoshino, Takuro Shinohara, and Kenji Hama finished second in the championship, eight points behind Endless Sports.
The #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Ryohei Sakaguchi/Makoto Hotta) finished ninth overall to win in ST-1, one minute and four seconds ahead of the #2 K’s Frontier/KTM Cars Japan X-Bow GTX (Taiyou Iida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto). The #2 KTM raced with a bare carbon bonnet after an accident in qualifying on Saturday.
Team Noah finished their ST-TCR title winning season with a win for their #75 Otoginokuni Honda Civic TCR (Toshiro Tsukada/Yoshikazu Sobu/Shigetomo Shimono/Yuji Kiyotaki), two laps ahead of the one-off #33 Audi Driving Experience Japan RS3 LMS (Daisuke Imamura/Yuki Ano/Hideki Nakahara).
And in ST-2, the battle for victory came down to a final-lap showdown between the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports Toyota GR Yaris (Seita Nonaka/Hibiki Taira/Miki Onaga), and the new #13 Endless GR Yaris (Ryo Ogawa/Masaya Hanazato). Nonaka was able to hold off Ogawa by just 0.223 seconds to take KTMS’ fourth class win of the season. The #6 Shinryo Auto/Neoglobe Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) completed the class podium in third place.
With that, the 2021 Super Taikyu Series draws to a close.
2021 Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook, Class Champions (drivers listed in parentheses, full-season drivers in italics)
ST-X: #777, D’station Racing (Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Tsubasa Kondo)
ST-Z: #3, Endless Sports (Yudai Uchida/Hideki Yamauchi/Togo Suganami/Ryo Ogawa)
ST-TCR: #75, Team Noah (Yoshikazu Sobu/Shigetomo Shimono/Toshiro Tsukada/Yuji Kitoyaki/Kuniyuki Haga/Riki Tanioka/Masataka Kubo/Shingo Wada)
ST-1: #2, K’s Frontier KTM Cars (Taiyou Iida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto/Takashi Kobayashi)
ST-2: #7, Shinryo Racing Team (Yoshiki Fujii/Masato Narisawa/Keisuke Anzai/Shingo Imai/Akiyoshi Shibuya/Hirofumi Okumura)
ST-3: #39, Tracy Sports with Delta (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Kazuya Oshima [b.1997]/Hirotaka Ishii/Yoshiyuki Tsuruga/Ryuta Ukai/Akira Suto)
ST-4: #884, Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing (Yuji Kunimoto/Keishi Ishikawa/Eijiro Shimizu/Morio Nitta)
ST-5: #66, Over Drive (Takayuki Takechi/Tatsuya Ota/Takahisa Ohno/Kyosuke Inomata/Shuichiro Hokazono/Hirobon)
Images courtesy of Naoyuki Hata and the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
