The new #500 Team 5Zigen Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Hirobon, Shintaro Kawabata, Yusuke Shiotsu, and Yu Kanamaru won the 2023 Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook opening round at Suzuka Circuit. But the kick-off to the new season was overshadowed by Tetsuya Yamano’s frightening accident out of 130R corner with around 45 minutes remaining.
Yamano, driving the #72 Öhlins/NATS Mazda Roadster for the Nihon Automobile College, had just barged his way through to second place in ST-5 and was trying to pass leader Tobio Ohtani in the #17 DXL Aragosta NOPRO Mazda Demio Diesel Turbo. Yamano in the yellow and blue Roadster tucked under the inside of Ohtani’s white Demio and nosed ahead at the exit of the corner. Ohtani then appeared to drift over into Yamano’s right-rear quarterpanel and the contact sent Yamano’s car spinning into a violent side-on collision with the armco barriers just before the Triangle chicane.
As marshals went to check on Yamano, debris from his shattered Roadster littered the track, and a Full Course Yellow was displayed. The 57-year-old driver was able to get out of his car under his own power, but he was taken directly to Suzuka City General Hospital accompanied by his brother Naoya Yamano and team manager Toshiyuki Inotsume.
Doctors diagnosed Yamano with a concussion and broken ribs but no life-threatening injuries. Over ten years since Osamu Nakajima lost his life in an accident in this same series and same venue, the advancements in driver safety, including the mandate of the HANS device, along with the vehicular integrity of the fourth-generation Mazda Roadster, Tetsuya Yamano was able to walk away – with the very realistic chance of being able to take part in the next Super Taikyu race in just over two months’ time.
The race was red-flagged with 45 minutes remaining to survey the damaged barriers – and it soon became apparent that there wouldn’t be enough time to resume racing.
Shiotsu got out of his car and joined his team-mates in the victory celebration. Team 5Zigen, last year’s ST-Z (GT4) champions, had won in their first race in Super Taikyu’s premier category! They completed 103 laps in just over four out of the scheduled five hours of racing.
Kawabata led from the very start of the race, and only briefly during routine pit cycles did the two-tone blue #500 Nissan ever concede the top spot before regaining it. Hirobon, the mononymous two-time TCR Japan Series champion, looked especially comfortable in his first outing in a GT3 car – then passed the baton to Kanamaru and Shiotsu who kept them in the lead until the premature end.
“This was the first time for me to drive a race stint in the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, and the entire team was nervous about competing in the ST-X class for the first time,” said Kawabata – who’d never driven a front-engine GT3 car prior to this season. “In the race, I lost a position at the time of the first Safety Car, but thanks to my reliable teammate Hirobon and my team-mates that drove afterwards, I wasn’t worried at all. I really appreciate the team. Thank you for your support!”
Second overall was the #23 TKRI Matsunaga Kensetsu Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama), which quietly worked its way up the field after a clean opening stint from gentleman driver Daisuke.
Completing the ST-X and overall podium was the #31 apr Denso Lexus RC F GT3 (Hideki Nagai/Kazuto Kotaka/Koki Saga) in third, a lap behind the top two finishers. Hideki Nagai drove the car full-time last season but stepped in to replace his older brother Hiroaki.
Nagai had taken the lead after the first Safety Car intervention, when the #6 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) broke down underneath the crossover bridge with a terminal engine issue. The #31 Lexus got out of the pits ahead of the #500 Nissan, but gave up the position after the restart when Nagai was hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. A second offense from co-driver Saga resulted in a 30-second penalty stop which put them further out of contention.
Reigning ST-X Champions HELM Motorsports and their #1 Nissan GT-R (Yutaka Toriba/Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki) settled for fourth place to kick off their 2023 season. They got a drive-through penalty for a start procedure violation and fell off the lead lap in the first hour of the race.
The #202 KCMG Honda NSX GT3 (Paul Ip/Ho-Pin Tung/Marchy Lee) rounded out the ST-X and overall top five.
Mechanical troubles set back both the #819 Daishin/MP Racing GT-R (Joe Shindo/Kiyoto Fujinami/Takayuki Aoki/Natsu Sakaguchi) and the #14 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing AMG (Ryuta Ukai/Naoya Gamou/Hibiki Taira/Tatsuya Kataoka). The #819 Nissan finished ten laps down in 20th overall, while after a sensor issue, the #14 Mercedes was 12 laps down in 27th overall.
The red flag made the final margin of victory deceptively large, but the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Manabu Yamazaki, Kohta Kawaai, Hiroki Yoshida, and Naoki Hattori still took the ST-Z class victory in their first race in the GT4 category.
The GreenBrave crew were getting ready to make their final routine pit stop and driver change when the red flag was displayed. Just a few minutes earlier, Yamazaki was holding off the #885 SHADE Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Hiro Hayashi in a tail-to-nose battle for the lead, but at the top of the hour, Hayashi came to the pits for the last time.
After a slow start from pole position, the #52 GreenBrave Toyota won by a full lap, and finished sixth overall with 98 laps completed. Along with this being first win for the team since moving up to ST-Z, it was Yamazaki’s first win as a GreenBrave driver.
The Nissan Z GT4 scored a podium finish in its debut as a homologated racing car, courtesy of second-year Team ZeroOne. After a jump start penalty of their own, the #26 raffinée Nissan Mechanic Challenge Z (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Ryuichiro Tomita/Teppei Natori/Takuro Shinohara) worked its way through the pack to finish second in ST-Z class (seventh overall).
The #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu) dropped from second to third after their final pit stop, after they’d kept it close with the eventual class winners for most of the race.
In fourth was the #19 BRP/Sunrise Blvd Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport (Kenji Suzuki/Takeshi Suehiro/Kohei Fukuda/Tatsuya Tanigawa). Birth Racing Project’s new Porsche was a contender for the victory with Suehiro battling GreenBrave’s Hattori for the lead early on. But a costly drive-through penalty issued to Tanigawa for unsportsmanlike driving put them out of the lead fight.
Fifth in class was the #20 Naniwa Denso Team Impul Nissan Z (Yuki Tanaka/Kazuki Hiramine/Kazuki Oki/Kazuki Hoshino), ahead of the #22 Porsche Team EBI Waimarama Cayman (Shota Kitazono/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano) in sixth.
The two-car battle for top honours in ST-1 turned suddenly, when the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshida) broke down with just over 90 minutes left in the race.
This handed the class win to the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Tatsuya Hoshino/Manabu Orido/Kenji Hama/Jake Parsons), which finished tenth overall with 97 laps completed. The #2 KTM still completed enough laps to be classified and earn championship points.
Super Taikyu stalwarts, Okabe Jidosha Motorsports, won the ST-3 class. The #15 Okabe Jidosha Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Masaya Kohno/Masaaki Nagashima/Aruga Tomita/Seiya Motojima) took the class lead for the first time in the first 15 minutes of the race.
From there, they’d trade the lead with the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC F GT3 (Takumi Sanada/Takashi Itoh/Mamoru Okada) in the first half of the race, but eventually the white and blue Z-car would pull away to take the victory. This was Okabe Jidosha’s first win since 2021, when they prepared Max Racing’s Nissan Z that won a rain-shortened 2021 season opener at Motegi – and the first win under their own name since the 2018 round at Sportsland Sugo, nearly five years ago.
Tracy Sports with Delta took the other two podium places with the #39 ahead of the #38 (Shunsuke Ozaki/Yoshiyuki Tsuruga/Toshiki Ishimori) in third. Electrical issues put the #16 Okabe Jidosha Nissan (Hirokazu Suzuki/Toru Tanaka/Tetsuya Tanaka/Kazuomi Komatsu) well down the order in fourth, and a starter motor failure also took the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan (Genki Nishimura/Tsugio Matsuda/Kimiya Sato/Daiki Fujiwara) out of contention in fifth.
The last time the Super Taikyu series raced at Suzuka, Honda R&D Challenge introduced the latest-generation FL5 Civic Type R to the ST-2 class. In the first race of its first full season, the #743 Civic (Hiroaki Ishigaki/Hideki Mutoh/Junichi Kidachi/Hideki Kakinuma) scored the new Type R’s first victory in class!
Aided by long-time SUPER GT factory driver Mutoh, the Honda R&D squad ran virtually unchallenged to the class win. Their only threat for most of the race may have been the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports Toyota GR Yaris (Kengo Ichijo/Rin Arakawa/Jiei Okuzumi/Shunji Okumoto), last year’s championship-winning car. They had to serve a 90-second penalty stop early in the race as a handicap for their young A Driver, and were looking strong for at least second place until a spectacular wheel hub failure on the left front with less than two hours remaining.
That misfortune elevated the #13 Endless Sports GR Yaris (Masaya Hanazato/Mizuki Ishizaka/Reimei Ito/Hitoshi Okada) up into second place, ten seconds behind the Civic. It was an emotional podium for the Endless Sports team following the recent passing of Endless company founder Isao Hanazato on 3 February. The #7 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi (Yoshiki Fujii/Kensuke Anzai/Masato Narisawa/Kazuya Shimogaki) finished third in ST-2.
While the ST-Q class does not award championship points, its innovative cars still compete to finish every race. And the four cars which entered are more evenly-matched than last year’s in terms of performance.
The ST-Q “winner” was the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Koichi Hirota/Kazuhiro Ito), which finished 22nd overall and completed 93 laps in a trouble-free race. The #28 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept (Keizo Kato/Kazuya Oshima/Daisuke Toyoda/Eisuke Sasaki) was over one minute behind them in 24th. Both manufacturer-developed cars finished two laps ahead of the conventional, petrol-powered GR86es in the ST-4 class.
After a testing fire damaged their Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept, ROOKIE Racing decided to enter a conventional Toyota GR Yaris in the ST-Q class. In fact, it was the same car that they used to win the ST-2 class title in 2020.
The substitute #32 GR Yaris (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 92 laps and finished 26th overall. The “hydrogen Corolla” aims to be back for the next round and the world-first race for a car powered by liquid hydrogen fuel.
And the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Biodiesel Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki/Ikuo Maeda), likewise, had a largely trouble-free race. In the car’s second-ever race after its debut in the 2022 finale, the #55 Mazda3 finished 34th overall and completed 89 laps.
The #60 Team G/Motion’ Toyota GR86 (Resshu Shioya/Kengo Yamamoto/Takao Seto) took an upset victory in the ST-4 class. Not only was this the first win for their new Toyota GR86, but it was also the first Super Taikyu race win for Shioya and Team G/Motion’ since August 2012 – back with their long-serving Honda Integra Type R!
Once again, the red flag flatters their winning margin. They were leading their class by over 40 seconds at the top of the final hour, but the red flag came just before they were due to make their final pit stop. That stretched the margin to over two minutes from the second-placed #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86 (Hirotaka Ishii/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Dai Mizuno), followed closely by the #86 TOM’s Spirit GR86 (Hisashi Yabuki/Takamitsu Matsui/Shunsuke Kohno/Sho Tsuboi) in third.
ST-4 had two retirements: The #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Masahiko Kageyama/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada/Teppei Tsuruta) went to the garage at the end of hour number one with transmission problem, then had the same issue force them out of the race completely with 80 minutes to go. The new #66 odula/Tone/Motul Mazda Roadster RF (Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Takahisa Ohno/Ryohei Sakaguchi) dropped out after two hours when the fan belt broke.
Another contender for the class podium, the #3 Endless GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Ryo Ogawa/Togo Suganami), lost 15 minutes in the garage late in the race with mechanical issues – which dropped them to sixth in class.
And then, there was the matter of ST-5.
The #17 Mazda Demio (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Ohtani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami) was running first in class before and after Ohtani’s collision with Yamano.
But after a review of the incident, the stewards gave Ohtani a 40 second time penalty for dangerous driving. This demoted them to third in class, and gave the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Soichiro Yoshida/Ryohei Arioka/Daichi Okamoto) the class win! Yoshida was third on the road when Ohtani and Yamano made their fateful approach to the 130R, and he managed to avoid colliding with Yamano’s car after he hit the wall.
Second in ST-5 was the #4 Team Bride Honda Fit3 RS (Yuya Ohta/Takuji Okada/Kaoru Arai/Shunya Ito) – this car was making a surprise return after a testing crash damaged their would-be 2023 challenger, the newest Toyota Yaris.
The #72 Roadster of Yamano, Makoto Kanai, and Toshiya Nojima was classified fourth, followed by the #120 Club Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster (Haruhiko Sugino/Noriyuki Higuchi/Shohei Oda/Tatsuya Minowa) and the #65 odula/Tone/Seido-ya Roadster (Shuichiro Hokazono/Tatsuya Ota/Hirohito Ito/Eiji Niwa).
Thanks to the support of Twitch, Motorsport Japan’s broadcast of the Super Taikyu Series’ opening race was able to reach upwards of 200,000 viewers as the broadcast was prominently featured on the site’s front page. More good stuff will come during the season, and hopefully, under better circumstances than what we saw in the final hour of today’s race.
What follows is the crown jewel race of the Super Taikyu Series, the eighth annual Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours on 27/28 May at Fuji Speedway.
Images © Super Taikyu Organisation (STO), Nissan, Toyota
