The #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Martin Berry, Shaun Thong, Shinichi Takagi, and Daisuke Yamawaki took their second victory of the season at the Motegi Super Taikyu 5 Hours Race.
During qualifying, it was the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R (Hiroaki Nagai/Yuta Kamimura/Daisuke Ito) that captured their fourth pole of the year from four races, and with their gentleman driver Nagai at the wheel, the bright red Porsche led the field of 51 cars into the first corner. But Nagai’s lead did not last for very long: The #23 TKRI AMG GT3 (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama) needed just three corners to take the lead.
With pro driver Motojima at the helm, the TKRI Mercedes built up a comfortable lead across its opening stint, and their advantage continued after a change of drivers to Nakayama for the second stint of the race. Together they built up an advantage of nearly two minutes over the second-ranked #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3 (Hideki Nagai/Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka).
But the race turned with under two hours left. Gentleman driver Matsunaga was trying to overtake a backmarker when he went off at Victory Corner (turn 14) and put his car in the gravel, resulting in a Full Course Yellow. The car would be recovered and continued the race, but TKRI were resigned to finish sixth overall.
That put apr Racing’s #31 Lexus up front, but the younger of the Nagai brothers would have a difficult task clearing his compulsory stint, while also maintaining a twenty-second lead.
Indeed, with less than an hour remaining, the #888 Grid AMG GT3 was catching quickly. Shaun Thong, who started the race aboard the yellow and black Mercedes, was closing in rapidly over the course of the final stint by multiple seconds per lap. With 50 minutes remaining, Thong took the overall lead, while Nagai dropped through the order, eventually finishing in fifth overall.
Grid Motorsport won after completing 147 laps in five hours. Berry and Takagi kept them in contention for the victory, but this time the spotlight was on Thong, who joined Grid Motorsport from this round in place of Haruki Kurosawa. It’s his second win of the year, following his victory at the Fuji 24 Hours for HELM Motorsports.
The #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 (Noboyuki Oyagi/Kiyoto Fujinami/Takayuki Aoki/Natsu Sakaguchi) came home in a respectable second place, their best result since opening the season with a win at Suzuka. Fujinami started his final stint nearly a minute off the lead, but eventually caught and passed the #31 Lexus to take the position in the last half-hour – and cut the margin to Thong down to 11.2 seconds at the end.
Rounding out the podium was the #16 Porsche, despite needing an extra pit stop to replace a damaged wing mirror in the first hour of the race. The #62 HELM Motorsports GT-R GT3 (Yutaka Toriba/Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki) finished in fourth place, less than two seconds off the podium at the end.
With these results, Grid Motorsport move back into the lead of the ST-X class championship by just half a point over HELM Motorsports.
As for the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Tsubasa Kondo), they lost nearly an hour in the garage due to suspension repairs. They completed enough laps to be classified 33rd overall, but last in the ST-X class.
However, D’station did earn back-to-back ST-1 class victories; their #47 D’station Vantage GT8R (Kenji Hama/Manabu Orido/Jake Parsons) finished in seventh overall, 24 seconds ahead of the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Yuichi Nakayama/Kota Matsui).
It was a difficult day for the ST-1 championship-leading #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto), which had an issue with the starter motor that dropped them out of contention for the class victory.
ST-1 cars won’t take part in the upcoming round at Okayama, meaning that these cars won’t be in action again until the season finale at Suzuka on 27 November. With a pole-to-win victory, D’station Racing are now just 3.5 points behind K’s Frontier KTM Cars – effectively making it a winner-take-all showdown for the title in their next race!
Of the petrol-based ST-Q cars, the #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryo Ogawa/Shintaro Kawabata/Togo Suganami/Riki Tanioka) won its battle with the #244 Max Racing Nissan Z Racing Concept (Tetsuya Tanaka/Teppei Natori/Toru Tanaka). The Endless Mercedes finished ninth overall with 139 completed, five laps ahead of the Max Racing Z-car.
The Ginetta G55 GT4 captured its first victory on Japanese soil as the #34 Techno First/SUN’s/Monocolle G55 of Masaki Kano, Kazuki Oki, and Hironobu Yasuda won the ST-Z class for the first time. They finished tenth place overall, completing 136 laps.
Most of the race had been dominated by the #21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Masaki Ano/Ritomo Miyata/Seiya Jin/Yuki Ano). Jin drove to the class lead in the first hour, and even after a drive-through penalty for track limits violations, their first win seemed assured as Miyata overtook the Ginetta of Oki for the class lead in the final hour.
With ten minutes left, there was a late Full Course Yellow to retrieve a stranded ST-5 class car. Hitotsuyama Racing brought their car in to change drivers from Miyata back to Jin, and take a splash of fuel to the end. Unfortunately for them, it was determined that they hadn’t come into the pits to change drivers before the FCY was called for, and they were given a 90-second time penalty after the race, which dropped them to third in class.
The #34 Ginetta, which took pole in its class at Motegi, finally scored its first win after starting last in its class. This marked the first for the past ST-3 champion Techno First Racing Team in ST-Z.
Finishing a close second was the #500 Team 5Zigen Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Kakunoshin Ohta/Toshihiro Kaneishi), which extended its championship lead to 43 points over the #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Manabu Yamazaki/Sho Tsuboi/Seita Nonaka/Shinya Hosokawa). Corolla Shin-Ibaraki Racing’s Supra won the pole in its class but fell down the order after going off in the third corner during the second hour of the race.
The first series championship has been decided: In ST-TCR, Team Noah have clinched their second consecutive ST-TCR title with a class win and 19th overall finish for the #75 Honda Civic TCR of team owner/driver Yuji Kiyotaki, Yoshikazu Sobu, “J” Antonio, and Kuniyuki Haga.
The independent team based near Fukuoka rolled to their fourth win of the 2022 season, maintaining their perfect record in class. They finished ten laps ahead of the #97 M&K Honda Cars Okegawa Civic (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Kazuma Nishimura), which went to the garage in the first hour and took them out of contention.
In ST-2, the #13 Endless Toyota GR Yaris (Reimei Ito/Mizuki Ishizaka/Masaya Hanazato/Hitoshi Okada) took its first win of the season, breaking a three-race win streak for the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports GR Yaris (Hibiki Taira/Rin Arakawa/Jiei Okuzumi). The #13 Endless Yaris finished 20th overall, two laps ahead of the #6 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) in second, and the aforementioned KTMS Yaris in third.
Behind them, the ST-Q class #28 ORC/ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Kazuya Oshima) finished 22nd and won the battle over its sister car, the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Koichi Hirota), by 18 seconds.
In ST-4, the #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 (Keichi Ishikawa/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada) took their first win of the season, and the first since switching to the second-generation GR86 after the Fuji 24 Hours. Championship leaders TOM’s Spirit finished second in class – with Toyota employee driver Ryuta Ukai replacing Shunsuke Kohno due to COVID-19, joined by regulars Takamitsu Matsui and Kenta Yamashita.
In ST-5, the #4 The Bride Honda Fit 3RS (Yuya Ohta/Hiroshi Ito/Hiroki Kokuzawa/Rina Ito) dominated its class and picked up their first win of the season, breaking Mazda’s three-race winning streak in class. Mazda did take second and third with the #72 Öhlins/NATS Roadster (Tetsuya Yamano/Makoto Kanai/Toshiya Nojima) in second, and the #104 HMRacers Mazda2 (Soichiro Yoshida/Kota Sasaki/Tomomitsu Seno/Ryunosuke Yoshida) in third.
That has tightened up the ST-5 championship dramatically, following a ninth-place finish for the #17 DXL/Aragosta NOPRO Mazda Demio (Kazunari Yoshioka/Tobio Ohtani/Yuya Tezuka/Toshihiko Nogami). The #17 Team NOPRO crew now lead by just half a point over the Nihon Automobile College #72 Roadster, two points over the #104 HMRacers Mazda2, and six points ahead of The Bride Fit.
Despite retiring from the race with ten minutes left, the #66 odula/Tone Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Daichi Okamoto) still ranks fifth in points, 13.5 back from first place.
The Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook returns on 16 October for a pair of three-hour races at Okayama International Circuit.
Images © Grid Motorsport, D’station Racing, Monocolle, JAS Motorsport, and Toyota
