In the 2022 Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook finale at Suzuka Circuit, the seventh round was won by the #16 Porsche Centre Okazaki 911 GT3-R of Hiroaki Nagai, Yuta Kamimura, and Daisuke Ito.
Behind them, the #62 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Yutaka Toriba, Yuya Hiraki, and Reiji Hiraki finished second overall to clinch the ST-X class championship, in HELM Motorsports’ first season competing in Super Taikyu’s premier category.
Just seconds after the green flag waved for this last five-hour race of the season, there was immediate drama in the three-way fight for the ST-X title. As the first group of the 56 car field made its way into the S-curves, the #23 TKRI/Matsunaga Kensetsu Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daisuke Matsunaga made contact with the #81 Daishin GT-R GT3 of Noboyuki Oyagi, sending Oyagi and his bright orange Nissan into the gravel trap. At the end of the same lap, the #62 Nissan of Toriba made contact with the #16 Porsche of Nagai, which sent Nagai spinning around at the Triangle chicane. The latter incident proved to be harmless in the long run.
But the former was a devastating blow to GTNET Motor Sports’ hopes of winning the ST-X title. They needed to win the race to have any chance at overcoming a 25 point deficit in the standings, instead, they went down two laps.
Once the FCY was withdrawn, the #31 apr Denso Lexus RC F GT3 of Kazuto Kotaka, who had taken the lead in the first lap, resumed in first place, followed by the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii behind him. They battled for the lead, then Fujii overtook Kotaka for first place after 11 laps. Fujii would lead until the second FCY, brought out for a stopped ST-5 class car. When that FCY became the race’s first Safety Car, Fujii brought the D’station Vantage GT3 into the pits for full service including a driver change to Tsubasa Kondo.
Kotaka retook the lead and held it through the first hour of the race, in time for the first round of routine pit stops for most of the field. He pitted the #31 Lexus on lap 29 and was relieved by Koki Saga. Immediately afterwards, there was a frightening scene when the ST-5 class #222 Honda Cars Tokai Fit RS of Masanori Tanaka crashed and rolled over at the exit of the 130R corner. The windshield cracked, but the cabin of the car and the rollcage did their jobs, allowing Tanaka to walk away unhurt. This resulted in the fourth FCY of the race, which became the second Safety Car thereafter. When the Safety Car was deployed, Kondo pitted the D’station Vantage and a driver change was made, this time to gentleman racer Satoshi Hoshino.
That put Saga back out in front when the race restarted, and the #16 Porsche, now in the hands of Kamimura, had recovered from its first lap incident and by pitting at the first opportunity. For several laps, Saga and Kamimura battled tail-to-nose for the overall lead of the race – with the Porsche’s grip through the corners and the Lexus’ superior straight line speed making this an incredible fight, while negotiating slower traffic on top of it all.
Saga was able to keep Kamimura at bay for a time, but on lap 49, Kamimura got a perfect run out of Spoon Curve, allowing him to slip past Saga before the two cars made it to the 130R and take the lead of the race with two hours and 45 minutes left.
Kamimura and Ito led all but four laps for the remaining time, with Kamimura taking the car home for its final stint. He began the last hour of the race with a 16 second lead, and extended that advantage over the last leg, to 49.681 seconds at the flag. Nagai, Kamimura, and Ito combined to complete 122 laps in five hours, in a race interrupted by seven FCYs and two Safety Cars.
It was Porsche Centre Okazaki’s second consecutive win to close out the 2022 season, and a bit of revenge following their near-miss with victory when the season began at Suzuka eight months ago.
Behind them, Toriba, HELM Motorsports’ gentleman driver, finished a strong stint after one hour, before handing off to team co-founders Yuya and Reiji Hiraki.
Yuya, the oldest of the two brothers, finished the race for his team in second overall and second in ST-X. That result gave them the ST-X Championship on their class debut, on top of winning the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, the series’ crown jewel race.
It was the culmination for a remarkable three-year ascent for HELM Motorsports. Founded with the mission of representing their home prefecture of Ibaraki, and inheriting the number 62 once carried by Le Beausset Motorsports (the team that gave the Hiraki brothers their big break in junior formula racing), they’ve now built a championship-winning GT3 programme. And full credit is due to the contributions of Toriba, the former CEO of one of Japan’s biggest coffee companies – who has now achieved championship success in Formula 4 and sports cars in just a short time since beginning his racing career.
The #23 TKRI Mercedes of Daisuke, Yuya Motojima, and Yuhki Nakayama recovered from their first-lap misfortunes, and a five-place grid penalty, to finish in third. In fourth place were the championship runners-up, the #888 Grid Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Martin Berry, Shaun Thong, and Shinichi Takagi (Daisuke Yamawaki did not run).
It looked like Grid Motorsports would hold onto their slim half-point advantage in the ST-X table at the end of the first hour of racing, when Thong was ahead of Toriba. Berry took over for the second stint and the positions reversed with Yuya Hiraki at the wheel of the rival HELM GT-R. The Australian-born gentleman racer did have a spin towards the end of his stint that didn’t help matters.
But what ultimately doomed Grid Motorsports’ title challenge was a drive-through penalty given after Berry overtook another car before the start-finish line at the second Safety Car restart. Takagi would serve the penalty at the start of his stint, and despite the best efforts of the two-time GT300 champion and the young standout from Hong Kong in the second half of the race, they fell two positions short of what they needed to win the ST-X title in their debut year.
Gentleman driver Hideki Nagai brought the #31 Denso Lexus home in fifth place, while the #777 D’station Vantage GT3 dropped out of the lead battle after a right rear puncture, and a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact with another vehicle. They finished sixth overall, ahead of the #81 Daishin GT-R of Oyagi, Takayuki Aoki, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Natsu Sakaguchi in seventh.
But the most heightened drama of the race may have been the final hour in the ST-1 class. The #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto) led the #47 D’station Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT8R (Kenji Hama/Manabu Orido/Jake Parsons) by five and a half points going into the race.
The #2 KTM also had a pace advantage throughout the race, so when Katoh relieved Takahashi aboard the #2 KTM during the final pit stop, he could chase down Orido in the #47 Aston Martin for the class lead. But in the final hour, disaster struck as Katoh had to serve not one, but two separate drive-through penalties for pit lane speeding infringements! If the first penalty didn’t appear to seal the ST-1 title for D’station Racing, then the second one surely did. Orido was seemingly well on his way to giving the Vantage GT8R a maiden championship in its Super Taikyu debut season.
Then, with ten minutes left, Orido brought the #47 Aston Martin back to the pits – they’d run short on fuel and needed a splash to finish the race! Katoh in the #2 KTM roared past to overtake him for the class lead, which he would not relinquish. They had not snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but from deep within defeat’s stomach!
Finishing eighth overall, K’s Frontier KTM Cars’ shocking third win of the season helped give them and their futuristic X-Bow GTX a second consecutive ST-1 crown. The D’station Vantage GT8R of Hama, Orido, and Parsons finished second in class (ninth overall), 43 seconds behind, while the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Yuichi Nakayama/Kota Matsui) was third in class (11th overall). While these were the only full-season entrants in ST-1, they produced a fantastic battle all the way until the last minutes of 2022.
The ST-Q class #3 Endless Sports Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryo Ogawa/Shintaro Kawabata/Togo Suganami/Riki Tanioka) rounded out the overall top ten.
In the ST-Z class, Porsche Team EBI Waimarama overcame a 60 second penalty stop to take their first win of the season. A two-driver lineup of Naoya Yamano and Riki Okusa guided their #22 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to 12th place overall, and a rather unconventional class win.
Yamano and Okusa were the only drivers left on the team after gentleman driver ‘Kizuna’ and Katsumasa Chiyo both withdrew before the weekend, with Chiyo citing a close contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 (he would later announce that he would test positive after the event). They had to serve the 60-second penalty stop because of the late change and the lack of a Gentleman-rated driver in their lineup.
Yet, after both drivers’ first stints the #22 Porsche was second in its class, and was able to take the lead once Yamano relieved Okusa for the final time.
The #310 MyCars CSI Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Manabu Yamazaki/Sho Tsuboi/Seita Nonaka) finished second (13th overall) after leading early on during Tsuboi’s opening stint – followed the #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra GT4 (Hiroyuki Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu), in third (14th overall). The third-place finish for SHADE Racing secured them second in the ST-Z Championship, behind champions Team 5Zigen, who had not only sat out the final race after clinching at Okayama, but put their championship-winning car up for sale.
A glimpse of GT4’s future, the ST-Q class #244 Max Racing Nissan Z Racing Concept (Toru Tanaka/Atsushi Miyake/Tetsuya Tanaka), completed its season with a 15th overall finish. This was the last race for the prototype of the upcoming Nissan Z GT4 that will debut next season as a customer car.
Finishing in 18th overall was the ST-3 class-winning #63 Tracy Sports Lexus RC 350 of Ryohei Sakaguchi, Rintaro Kubo, and Dai Mizuno, which took their second straight win in class. But behind them, there was another stunning upset in the battle for the season championship.
The #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS (Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) entered the day with a 20 point lead in the standings and just needed to finish the race to clinch the title. They were running in a comfortable second place until lap 23, when starting driver Kawaai broke down along the back straight. It was an engine issue that proved to be terminal, and it also caused the third FCY of the race.
That gave the #39 Air Buster/Winmax RC 350 of Yusuke Tomibayashi, Takashi Itoh, and Hirotaka Ishii the chance to win the championship for themselves, if they could finish second or better. While they occupied third place, the #15 Okabe Jidosha Motorsport Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Masaaki Nagashima/Kazuomi Komatsu/Aruga Tomita/Seiya Motojima) and the ST-TCR class #75 Team Noah Honda Civic TCR (‘J’ Antonio/Yoshikazu Sobu/Shigetomo Shimono/Shingo Wada) crashed exiting turn two, causing a sixth FCY out of seven on the day.
It also elevated the #39 Lexus to the second place in class that they needed to become champions, for the third consecutive year, as Tracy Sports’ Lexus RC 350s finished 1-2 in class. This was the third straight title for ace driver Tomibayashi and co-driver Ishii, and the first for new full-time driver Itoh. It was also the second championship won in two weeks for Tomibayashi, who also won the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR86/BRZ Cup Professional Series last week in Okayama. Rounding off the ST-3 podium was the #25 Raffinée/Nissan Mechanic Challenge Z34 (Teppei Natori/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuya Shirasaka/Kimiya Sato).
The sole ST-TCR finisher, the #97 Racer/HFDP Civic of Mitsuhiro Endo. Shinji Nakano, and Honda Formula Dream Project prospect Yusuke Mitsui, finished 19th overall and took their first class win of the year.
In ST-2, the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motor Sports Toyota GR Yaris of Hibiki Taira, Rin Arakawa, and Jiei Okuzumi clinched their first championship with their fifth win of the season (22nd overall). The KTMS GR Yaris rose to the top of the rankings after both Shinryo Racing Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X’s fell behind, and in the case of the pole-winning #7 car, retired in the last hour.
The debuting #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic Type R FL5 (Hiroaki Ishigaki/Junichi Kidachi/Hideki Kakinuma/Hideki Mutoh) scored a sensational first podium, with a second place finish in class ahead of TOWA INTEC Racing’s #59 DAMD Motul Subaru WRX STI (Manabu Osawa/Hitoshi Gotoh/Hideto Yasuoka).
Similarly, in ST-4, the #86 TOM’s Spirit Toyota GR86 of Shunsuke Kohno, Takamitsu Matsui, and Kenta Yamashita dominated proceedings, won their fifth race of the year and clinched the championship with an exclamation mark.
The championship runners-up, the #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Yuji Kunimoto/Keishi Ishikawa/Shinnosuke Yamada), finished second, and the #60 Team G/Motion’ GR86 (Takao Seto/Resshu Shioya/Kengo Yamamoto) was third, the team’s first podium with their new car.
There was one more sensational reversal of fortune in the ST-5 class championship battle. Six teams entered with a chance to win the title, but the #4 Team Bride Honda Fit RS of Takuji Okada, Hiroshi Ito, Hiroki Kokuzawa, and Rina Ito became champion and even won the race in the final corner!
Team Bride’s path to the championship became wide open after the leading #72 Öhlins/NATS Mazda Roadster RS (Tetsuya Yamano/Makoto Kanai/Toshiya Nojima) went to the garage with a water pump problem while fighting for a podium position. They finished 13th in class, 22 laps down.
It became a fight between the #4 Bride Fit and the #17 DXL Aragosta NOPRO Mazda Demio Diesel Turbo (Kazunari Yoshioka/Tobio Ohtani/Yuya Tezuka/Toshihiko Nogami) for the title. In the final hour, it looked like the diesel-powered #17 Mazda would take the title, but Ohtani had to bring the car into the pits for a splash of fuel with less than 25 minutes left. Hiroshi Ito, Team Bride’s only ever-present driver in their #4 Honda all season, drove into the second place they needed to win the championship.
And then, on the final corner of the final lap, the #66 odula Tone/Motul Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Daichi Okamoto) ran out of fuel while leading, and the #4 Bride Fit drove past in the final corner to clinch the ST-5 championship with a win! It was Team Bride’s second championship in the last four years. The #66 Roadster coasted to second in its class, followed by the #17 Demio in third, which finished runner-up in the standings.
Finally, there were the four ST-Q innovative cars: The #28 ORC Rookie Racing GR86 CNF Concept (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Kazuya Oshima/Ryuta Ukai) finished in 27th overall, ahead of its petrol-powered counterparts in ST-4. However, a throttle problem prevented their nearest rival, the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Koichi Hirota), from finishing the race.
The #32 ROOKIE Racing GR Corolla H2 Concept (Masahiro Sasaki/Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 91 laps with nine pit stops, and finished 45th.
And the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki/Ikuo Maeda) was able to finish its debut race, in 46th overall. While they lost over three hours in the garage due to a transmission problem, the crew at Mazda Spirit Racing were able to get the car back in running condition to take the chequered flag after 36 laps.
The 2022 Super Taikyu season comes to an end after seven races. The 2023 season begins right where 2022 left off, however – with five hours of racing at Suzuka Circuit, on 19 March.
Finally, on behalf of producer Pim “4AMLaundry” and co-commentators Hana Burton and Christian “JPMotorsportChris”, I would like to thank the people who tuned into our maiden English language Super Taikyu race broadcast on the Motorsport Japan channel, and for all of the wonderful, positive feedback received.
Images © Nissan, Suzuka Circuit/Honda Mobilityland, Koudai Kuramoto
