The #36 au TOM’s Toyota GR Supra of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Sho Tsuboi won the Fuji GT 300km Race and, with it, overcame an unprecedented points deficit to win the GT500 Championship, in a championship finale filled with sudden drama, virtually from lights to flag.
Fuji Speedway was the venue for this eighth and final round of the 2021 Autobacs Super GT Series, and a crowd of over 35,000 spectators came to the circuit to see champions crowned in both the GT500 and GT300 classes. Six teams still had a chance at winning the GT500 titles going into Sunday’s 66-lap finale, which started at one o’clock in the afternoon on a beautiful autumn day under Mount Fuji.
At the drop of the green flag, Kazuya Oshima in the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra led the field into the first corner, followed by Tadasuke Makino in the #1 Stanley Honda NSX-GT. But the star of the opening lap was Sekiguchi in the #36 au TOM’s Supra. From fourth place, Sekiguchi got around TOM’s stablemate Sacha Fenestraz in the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra for third, then set up a powerful overtake around the outside of turn 13 to grab second position from Makino. Fenestraz was able to slipstream into third place, and after two laps, it was a Toyota GR Supra 1-2-3 in the top class.
Further back in the pack, the #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan GT-R of Nobuharu Matsushita went from 14th to tenth on the first lap, moving ahead of Bertrand Baguette in the #17 Astemo NSX-GT. Both drivers were determined to make up as many positions as possible early on, as both drivers and their teams were in the championship frame. But on lap three, Baguette tried a lunge up the inside of Panasonic Corner (turn 16), and both cars made contact. The #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra of Yuji Kunimoto was also collected in the incident.
The incident ended Baguette and Koudai Tsukakoshi’s race, and with it their hopes of giving Astemo Real Racing their first GT500 title. The Calsonic GT-R came away with body damage, but Matsushita picked up a drive-through penalty for a first lap accident with the #16 Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT of Ukyo Sasahara effectively taking Team Impul out of the championship chase.
On lap seven, the Safety Car was deployed after a collision between two GT300 class cars at Dunlop Corner. Oshima had built up a 4.5 second lead over Sekiguchi at this stage, but now it had disappeared.
When the race resumed on lap 13, Sekiguchi used the slipstream to his advantage and overtook Oshima at TGR Corner (turn one) to take the lead. Fenestraz followed his teammate by overtaking Oshima at Advan Corner (turns 6-7) for second, and now it was a TOM’s 1-2 at the front of the field, with Sekiguchi immediately breaking out an advantage of over two seconds. Oshima would fall into the clutches of Makino, and the two drivers traded third place before Oshima eventually won out.
At lap 22, the race reached one-thirds’ distance, and the window had opened for routine pit work. Makino pitted from fourth at the first opportunity, handing the wheel of the Stanley NSX-GT over to Naoki Yamamoto. Oshima pitted on the next lap, and was relieved by course record holder Kenta Yamashita. Sekiguchi pitted from the lead on lap 25, and Sho Tsuboi took over the wheel. Fenestraz would stay out for two more laps, before he pitted on lap 27. Ryo Hirakawa emerged on track ahead of Tsuboi, but on cold tyres, Tsuboi was easily able to get around his teammate and re-take the net lead of the race.
When all cars had pitted at the halfway point in the race, Tsuboi was leading a Toyota 1-2-3, ahead of Yamashita in second, and Hirakawa in third. But Yamamoto was running in fourth place, in position to clinch his and Team Kunimitsu’s third GT500 titles in four seasons.
After a brief Full Course Yellow on lap 48, the pursuit of the GT500 Championship took a sudden, sickening turn. On lap 51, Hirakawa overtook Yamashita for second place. Behind him, Yamamoto was less than a second ahead of the #38 ZENT GR Supra of Hiroaki Ishiura, but they were also in a cluster of GT300 cars battling for position. One of those cars, the #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 of rookie Ren Sato, tried to make a pass for position into TGR Corner. But he missed his braking point, and clipped the right front quarter of the Stanley NSX.
The silver, black, and orange Honda suffered critical damage. Yamamoto brought the car back to the garage. Makino sat on the pit wall in tears. Honda and Team Kunimitsu, who won the championship last season in an unbelievable final lap climax, had now suffered a devastating reversal of fortune as the result of ‘friendly fire.’ The mechanics were able to repair the car, but they were now six laps down, and their championship fate was now out of their control.
Tsuboi had a five second lead over Hirakawa at the front of the field, and now, he was in position to take the title. Unlike the final 700 metres of the 2020 season, the car that led at the white flag had enough fuel to make it to the finish. The orange and white #36 au TOM’s GR Supra took the chequered flag as winners of the Fuji 300km, and as champions in the premier class of Super GT in 2021.
It is the first GT500 Championship for the fifth-generation Toyota GR Supra. And it is the first GT500 Drivers’ Championship for both Sekiguchi and for Tsuboi. In fact, this was Tsuboi’s first win as a GT500 driver – for Sekiguchi, it was his fourth career GT500 class win.
This is the fifth time that TOM’s Racing have won the GT500 Drivers’ Championship, and the eighth time that they’ve won the Teams’ Championship. However, this is the first set of GT500 titles for TOM’s flagship number 36 crew since Juichi Wakisaka and André Lotterer won it back in 2009. Team director Daisuke Ito, who won the GT500 title as a driver back in 2007, is now a championship-winning team manager.
And, by overturning a 16 point deficit in the final weekend of the season, Sekiguchi and Tsuboi have set a new record for the largest points deficit overturned to win the GT500 Championship at the final round.
“Before the start, I was working more toward winning this race without fail than taking the championship title,” admitted Sekiguchi. “I went out with strong determination to pass any car running in front of me. That enabled me to end my stint with the lead, and from there I encouraged Tsuboi-san to just, ‘go for it!'” he laughed.
“I know the condition of the tires must have been tight, but he managed them well to the end and was able to give us the win. So I am very grateful to him for that.”
“I was disappointed that we finished the qualifying in fourth position, but in the first half of the race Sekiguchi-san ran with all his heart to give us the lead. In my stint I knew that I had to do my best to go for the win,” said Tsuboi.
“And since the championship title depended on the finishing places of the other cars, all I was thinking about was winning this race and making up for the fact that I had to retire from the race in Round 2 after running in the lead,” he said, reflecting on a late mechanical failure that cost the team a victory a win at the Fuji 500km. “Since I was able to help us win this race and take the championship title as well, there is nothing that could make me happier than this.”
Tsuboi, in just his third season as a GT500 driver, has validated the talent that Toyota saw in him when they brought him into the Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) academy in 2014. He’s won championships in Formula 4 and Formula 3, but this is by far the greatest accomplishment in the 26-year-old’s young career to date.
And for Sekiguchi, it is the culmination of a difficult racing journey, from top Toyota prospect, to a young journeyman bouncing between Japan and Europe, to an All-Japan F3 champion and now, a GT500 Champion in his ninth season at the top level.
The #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra of Hirakawa and Fenestraz finished 4.7 seconds behind in second place, securing a TOM’s 1-2 finish for the first time since Round 1 of the 2020 season at Fuji.
It’s Fenestraz’s first trip to the podium since returning to Japan, and for Hirakawa, it’s one more podium in Super GT before he is expected to step up to the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota next year.
Just as they did in the first round at Okayama, Toyota finished the last round with a clean sweep of the GT500 podium, as the #14 Eneos GR Supra of Oshima and Yamashita finished in third place.
And behind them, the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Heikki Kovalainen/Yuichi Nakayama) gained two positions in the last six laps to finish in fourth, just ahead of the #38 ZENT GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) in fifth. It’s the first time that Toyota have locked out the top five in a race since the 2020 season opener at Fuji, in the GR Supra’s debut race.
The #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) finished sixth and secured second place in the GT500 Championship table. But they’ll be left to wonder what could have happened, if not for an issue with the drivers’ side door that cost them several seconds in the pits, and dropped them well down the order after Fukuzumi finished his stint in fifth.
Nojiri was able to fight back into the top ten, but it wasn’t quite enough for him to win the title for ARTA and become a “Double Champion” in 2021.
And in the final race for the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500, the #23 Motul Autech GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) finished seventh, less than a second ahead of the #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo). Matsuda and Hirate treated the Nissan faithful to a great battle for position in the second half of the race, a lasting memory at the end of 14 seasons of competition for the R35 GT-R.
The #12 Calsonic GT-R of Matsushita and Kazuki Hiramine was able to salvage a ninth place finish after their drive-through penalty for hitting the #16 Red Bull NSX of Sasahara and Toshiki Oyu, which came back from the incident to finish in tenth.
In the GT300 class, the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi clinched the series championship with a third-place finish, as the #60 Syntium LM Corsa Toyota GR Supra of Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno completed a season sweep at Fuji Speedway.
27 GT300 cars took the start, after Arnage Racing’s pro-am #50 Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Masaki Kano/Masataka Yanagida) was scratched following a mechanical issue in the morning warm-up. Iguchi in the #61 Subaru BRZ led the field to green, ahead of Kohta Kawaai in the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave GR Supra, then Kohno in the #60 Syntium GR Supra. The Subaru and two Toyotas ran 1-2-3 early on, as Kohno took second place from Kawaai on lap two.
A collision at Dunlop Corner between the #7 Studie PLUS BMW M6 GT3 of Tomohide Yamaguchi and the #87 Granseed Lamborghini Huracán GT3 brought out the Safety Car. The Studie M6 was left stranded with suspension damage, bringing a premature end to the M6 GT3’s racing career in Japan.
The race resumed from lap 11 with Iguchi, Kohno, and Kawaai still in the top three. Behind them were the #88 JLOC Huracán of Yuya Motojima, the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Togo Suganami, and the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG of Tatsuya Kataoka.
The Subaru wasn’t able to pull away as expected once the race resumed. On lap 23, Kohno tucked into the slipstream of Iguchi down the front stretch, and made a textbook overtake into turn one to take the race lead.
Behind them, several teams tried to undercut the leaders to gain track position. The LEON AMG pitted on lap 18, and the GreenBrave GR Supra pitted on lap 19. They changed drivers, and changed all four tyres to comply with the sporting regulations for the race.
On lap 27, Iguchi came into the pits in his Subaru BRZ, handing the wheel over to Yamauchi. On the next lap, Kohno brought the Syntium GR Supra in, and Yoshimoto boarded for his stint. But the GreenBrave GR Supra, now driven by Hiroki Yoshida, had taken the net lead thanks to their deep undercutting strategy. Yoshimoto was behind him in second, and Yamauchi had now effectively dropped to sixth. He was still in position to win the championship, however, because none of their closest championship rivals were ahead of him on track. Yoshida cycled back to the top spot on lap 45 once all teams had done their routine pit work.
Yamauchi had his mirrors full of the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Ren Sato) at this stage, but Sato’s ill-fated attempt to pass Yamauchi on lap 47 took them out of contention. Takagi and Sato were classified 24th, and Yamauchi and R&D Sport had dodged a speeding bullet.
After 50 laps, Yoshida had a five second lead over Yoshimoto and a victory seemed assured for Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave. But in a shocking repeat of their Fuji 500km misfortune, the left front tyre burst on lap 51, as Yoshida was approaching Panasonic Corner. Yoshida brought the wounded GreenBrave GR Supra back to the pits, and the Syntium GR Supra took the lead from them, just as it was back in May.
With a comfortable margin of just under 15 seconds, Yoshimoto took the chequered flag to give LM Corsa their second win of 2020 – the only repeat winners of the season. It is Yoshimoto’s ninth career victory in GT300, which moves him into the top ten for all-time victories in the category. It is Kohno’s second career win, his first came back at the 500km. It caps off a fantastic turnaround for LM Corsa with their new GR Supra: They went from just one top-ten finish and 21st in the Teams’ Championship in 2020, to two wins and third in the Drivers’ and Teams’ standings in 2021.
Naoya Gamou drove 43 laps and brought the LEON AMG home to a second-place finish, matching their best result of the season at Okayama.
Behind them, the #88 JLOC Huracán of Motojima and Takashi Kogure suffered a puncture while running third, and now the battle for the final podium place was between the Miku AMG of Nobuteru Taniguchi, and the Subaru BRZ of Yamauchi. After spending multiple laps trying to pass the more powerful Mercedes, Yamauchi finally got past with an up-and-under pass through Advan Corner with two laps remaining.
It was the final exclamation mark on this championship run for the new second-generation ZD8 BRZ. An emotional Yamauchi climbed out of the car, cherishing a moment that had been 24 years in the making for Subaru, and 20 years for the R&D Sport team.
In their seventh season as teammates, Iguchi and Yamauchi, after years of championship frustration, finally broke through for their first GT300 championships. First-year general manager, Masahiro Ozawa, had been brought in to help push the programme forward, and the former engineer of Subaru World Rally Team had made good on his goal.
“This is fantastic, and I want to thank everyone. I still can’t believe that we are now the series champions,” said Iguchi. “With the new BRZ this year, we struggled a lot in the first half of the season, but I feel that all of the team’s efforts have paid off with this result. And in the second half of the race, I think it was Yamauchi-san’s strong determination to battle it out to the finish that brought us this great result.”
“There have been many tough years up until now, but we always kept our belief that we could win the title and share it with our Subaru fans. So, there can’t be anything more rewarding for all of us than this moment. It makes me incredibly happy.”
“I am just so happy for this moment. Being responsible for the second half of the race was a tough job and it was all I could do not to break under the pressure,” said Yamauchi. “But when I saw the Subaru flags waving around the circuit, it doubled my determination to win the title by holding off the challengers behind me and focusing on until I could pass car No. 4 in front of me.”
“And it was great that at the very end I was able to get in front. Until now there have been many tough times in each season, but we were able to get through them because of the cheers from our fans. So, nothing can make me happier than the relief of finally being able to answer their expectations.”
The Miku AMG of Taniguchi and Kataoka finished in fourth, ahead of the #56 Realize/Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R of Kiyoto Fujinami and João Paulo de Oliveira in fifth. Fujinami and Oliveira fought back from 17th on the grid, but fell short of repeating as GT300 Champions.
The #25 Hoppy Porsche 911 GT3-R (Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato) finished sixth, in Hoppy Team Tsuchiya’s last race with the 991-II generation Porsche before switching to a new Toyota GR Supra of their own construction. The #244 Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra (Atsushi Miyake/Yuui Tsutsumi) finished in seventh, and the #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) gained sixteen places en route to finishing eighth.
The GreenBrave Supra of Yoshida and Kawaai recovered from their late puncture to finish in ninth, holding off the #10 Gainer TanaX with Impul GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Keishi Ishikawa) by 0.012 seconds. Hoshino and Ishikawa fought back from 22nd on the grid, and Hoshino, in his last race as a full-time professional driver, scored points in his final Super GT start.
Fuji Speedway and Super GT have combined once again to deliver another pulse-pounding championship climax, a memorable conclusion to a 2021 season that saw motorsport in Japan drawing closer to the scenes that we had before 2020. It has been an honour and a privilege to help tell the story of this season – 2022 cannot come soon enough!
Images courtesy of the GT Association (GTA) and Honda
