Ryohei Sakaguchi and Rintaro Kubo won the Super Taikyu Series Group 2 Race at Okayama International Circuit, driving their unsponsored #63 Tracy Sports Lexus RC 350 to its first win of the season in a close finish.
The Group 2 race featured a field of 27 production class vehicles from the ST-3, ST-4, and ST-5 classes, along with four innovative ST-Q class vehicles. On Saturday, the #63 Lexus of Sakaguchi and Kubo won the pole position, just 0.020 seconds ahead of the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS of Naoki Hattori, Hiroki Yoshida, and Kohta Kawaai.
Without their usual title sponsor, muta Racing, the #63 Lexus of Sakaguchi, Kubo, and young Dai Mizuno (who did not run during the race) still looked like a strong contender as race day approached.
They led the field to the green flag shortly after 8:30 AM on a beautiful, sunny morning. The start was delayed after Hiroyuki Matsumura crashed his #50 Love Drive Mazda Roadster at the approach to the Hairpin Corner, on the formation lap. Once the race got going, Sakaguchi drove into an early lead, followed by Yoshida in the #52 GreenBrave Crown.
There was drama in the first hour when Yoshida collided with the #15 Okabe Jidosha Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z34 of Seiya Motojima. The #15 Nissan suffered terminal damage, though the younger of the Motojima brothers was able to walk away unhurt. On the other hand, the #52 Crown rushed to the garage during the ensuing Full Course Yellow. It took just two minutes to survey the car for damage before returning to the track, now in the hands of the legend Hattori. The #63 Lexus had also pitted, and made a driver change from Sakaguchi to Kubo. This gave the lead to the other Tracy Sports entry, the #39 Air Buster/Winmax RC 350 of Takashi Itoh, who’d started fifth and moved into the lead for a brief period.
But Itoh was soon overtaken by both Hattori, and then Kubo, and slipped down into third in class. Soon after, Kubo had closed in on Hattori, and took the lead on lap 45, just past the halfway point in the race.
Hattori brought in the #52 GreenBrave Crown for its final stop on lap 51, while Kubo stayed out, trying to build enough of a margin for him to pit as late as possible and give Sakaguchi the lead by the time they exited the pits. With just 13 minutes left, the #63 Lexus made its final stop on lap 87 – after a 53-lap stint from their new recruit Kubo. A splash of fuel and a change of drivers was all that they needed, and Sakaguchi was able to maintain the lead at pit exit ahead of Kawaai.
But Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave’s young driver was able to close in over the final laps, down to less than a second on the penultimate lap. Despite Kawaai’s frantic pursuit, Sakaguchi was able to hold on and take the victory by just 0.635 seconds. This was the first win of the year for the #63 Tracy Sports crew.
With their second-place finish, the #52 GreenBrave Crown was able to extend its lead in the ST-3 Championship over the #39 Air Buster/Winmax Lexus of Itoh, Hirotaka Ishii, and Yusuke Tomibayashi, in third. Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave now has a 20 point advantage over the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta team heading into the season finale at Suzuka Circuit on 27 November.
Behind them, the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept of Takuto Iguchi, Hideki Yamauchi, and Koichi Hirota finished in fourth place overall, forty seconds ahead of their ST-Q class mates, the #28 ORC Rookie Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept of Naoya Gamou, Daisuke Toyoda, and Ryuta Ukai in fifth.
The two carbon-neutral fuelled concepts are now surpassing the pace of their production siblings in the ST-4 class, and were able to run at a similar pace to the ST-3 cars in the hands of pro drivers like Iguchi, Yamauchi, and Gamou. They finished ahead of the ST-3 class #25 raffinée/Nissan Mechanic Challenge Z34 (Teppei Natori/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuya Shirasaka) in sixth overall.
Finishing in seventh overall, the #86 TOM’s Spirit GR86 of Shunsuke Kohno, Takamitsu Matsui, and Kenta Yamashita took its fourth win of the season from pole position, moving them a step closer to winning the championship at Suzuka.
They fell to second in their class after the first round of pit stops, but Yamashita, the 2019 GT500 Champion in SUPER GT, was able to run down the #18 WedsSport GR86 (Takeo Asano/Daiki Fujiwara/Toshiki Ishimori), retake the lead, and drive out to a commanding victory.
The #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Yuji Kunimoto/Keishi Ishikawa/Shinnosuke Yamada) took second place with less than six minutes remaining, and finished ahead of the #18 WedsSport GR86. Rounding out the overall top ten was Team G/Motion’s new #60 GR86 (Takao Seto/Resshu Shioya) which finished fourth in its class.
In the ST-5 class, the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster of Hiroyuki Murakami, Tatsuya Ota, and Naoki Yamaya took its first win of the season, also from the pole position in a 14-car class. They lost the lead early in the first hour, but gained it back after the first cycle of pit stops. Murakami, and late additions Ota and Yamaya won their class by over 30 seconds.
Making up a Roadster 1-2 in the class, the #72 Öhlins/NATS Roadster (Tetsuya Yamano/Makoto Kanai/Toshiya Nojima) finished in second, and took the lead in the ST-5 Championship by 8.5 points, ahead of the #4 The Bride Honda Fit RS (Hiroshi Ito/Takuji Okada/Hidefumi Minami) which held off the #66 odula/Tone/HERO’s Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata) by 0.321 seconds for the last spot on the class podium.
The #17 DXL/Aragosta NOPRO Mazda Demio Diesel (Kazunari Yoshioka/Tobio Ohtani/Yuya Tezuka) finished seventh in class and dropped to third in the standings, now 10.5 points behind the #72 NATS Roadster. Mechanical issues relegated the #104 HMRacers Mazda2 (Soichiro Yoshida/Kota Sasaki/Tomomitsu Seno) out of the top ten in class, which dropped them to fourth in the standings, ahead of the #66 Over Drive Roadster, and the winning #88 Murakami Motors Roadster. The top six teams in the ST-5 standings will go to Suzuka with a chance to win the title.
Meanwhile, the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda2 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki) finished 12th overall, just two seconds behind the ST-5 class winners. They were able to run at least 2-3 seconds quicker per lap than they did when this car made its debut in Okayama one year ago.
And the #32 ORC Rookie Racing GR Corolla H2 Concept (Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Akio “MORIZO” Toyoda/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 79 laps, finishing the race 25th overall.
GROUP 2 FINAL RESULTS (sorted by class) >>
Images © Super Taikyu Organisation (STO), Subaru
