A timely Full Course Yellow helped the #14 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 win the Super Taikyu Race in Autopolis on 30 July, and extend the Fuji 24 Hours-winning team’s lead in the ST-X Class championship table with three races left in the 2023 Eneos Super Taikyu Series.
It was the second win of the year for the quartet of Ryuta Ukai, Naoya Gamou, Hibiki Taira, and driver/manager Tatsuya Kataoka, who came through to take the win in a race that looked as if it would begin on a wet track due to rain showers that lasted until the morning. The clouds did lift and the track did dry in time for the race to start on dry tyres.
From the drop of the green flag in this five-hour race, the #1 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Yutaka Toriba, Yuya Hiraki, and Reiji Hiraki led for most of the race that followed. Yuya Hiraki had his hands full in the opening stint with a hard-charging Yuya Motojima in the #23 TKRI Mercedes, and Motojima was briefly able to take the lead of the race after a Full Course Yellow for an ST-5 car that had blown its engine.
Incredibly enough, the #290 AutoLabo Racing Toyota Yaris XP210 underwent a full engine change after it was brought back to the paddock, and in less than two hours, it was back on track!
The blue and orange #1 HELM GT-R would work its way back into the lead after the first round of pit stops. Shortly afterwards, a second FCY was deployed when the #15 Okabe Jidosha Motorsports Nissan Z34 came to a stop exiting turn 15. Once that second FCY was withdrawn, gentleman driver Toriba would extend his overall lead to over a minute over the rest of his peers.
Contact with an ST-5 class car caused Toriba to spin out at turn 16, but he still came away with his lead only reduced to about 30 seconds. Reiji Hiraki relieved Toriba after his required one-hour stint, and with 90 minutes of racing left, the #1 HELM GT-R still had a 28-second lead over the #14 ROOKIE Racing Mercedes, with Naoya Gamou at the wheel.
Then, with 77 minutes remaining, the #7 Shinryo Racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X broke down exiting the final corner, and as it leaked fluid out onto the track, Yuya Nakajima in the #120 Club Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster spun and crashed at turn 13. This brought out a third FCY, and crucially, Gamou had already passed the #120 Roadster and came into the pit lane just fractions of a second before the FCY was declared.
Reiji Hiraki, meanwhile, was already past pit entrance and starting another lap as he was notified of the stopped car. This would be a wonderful stroke of fortune for ROOKIE Racing, contrasted with the horrible luck for HELM Motorsports. A 28-second lead turned into a nearly 20-second deficit with Kataoka out in front and Yuya Hiraki in second.
Hiraki would push all the way to the chequered flag, but Kataoka had enough of a margin in hand and would take the chequered flag for ROOKIE Racing’s second ST-X and overall win of the season, completing 152 laps in five hours.
A disappointed HELM crew came home to finish second, just 8.552 seconds off the victory. Meanwhile, the #23 TKRI Mercedes of Motojima, Daisuke Matsunaga, and Yuhki Nakayama finished third, their fourth podium finish in as many races entered this season – 75 seconds off the victory.
Back in its full Daishin orange colours for the rest of the season, the #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R GT3 (Noboyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Aoki/Natsu Sakaguchi/Kiyoto Fujinami) finished in fourth place. Oyagi had reassumed his role as the A driver for the rest of the season – as Joe Shindo and MP Racing backed out of the partnership with Daishin and GTNET after Shindo suffered a knee injury following the Fuji 24 Hours.
The #202 KCMG Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 (Paul Ip/Ho-Pin Tung/Marchy Lee) finished fifth overall. Meanwhile, it was another hard-luck race for the #31 Denso apr Lexus RC F GT3 (Hiroaki Nagai/Kazuto Kotaka/Koki Saga), which suffered a steering problem with two hours to go and dropped to eighth overall (sixth in class).
With the win, Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing now has a 13.5-point lead over HELM Motorsports in the ST-X standings, and a 32-point lead over KCMG which is ahead of a tight battle for third place.
After three straight victories to open the 2023 season, Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave’s ST-Z class winning streak came to an end at Autopolis. The #885 SHADE Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Hiro Hayashi, Katsuyuki Hiranaka, and Eijiro Shimizu got revenge for a missed opportunity at Sportsland Sugo earlier in the month and scored its first win of the season.
From lights to flag, the SHADE GR Supra was almost untouchable, but even with 60 kilogrammes of Success Weight as a result of its three straight wins, the GreenBrave Supra wasn’t entirely out of it. The teams’ respective gentleman drivers, Hayashi and Manabu Yamazaki, ran tail-to-nose for most of their stints. Yamazaki was arguably quicker, but Hayashi was able to stay ahead and withstand the overcut attempt.
Fittingly enough it was Shimizu, who went off course at Sugo while leading in the last race, who got the honour of taking the car home to the chequered flag and earning redemption for himself. SHADE Racing took the ST-Z class win, finishing sixth overall with 144 laps completed. The #52 GreenBrave GR Supra of Yamazaki, Hiroki Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, and Kohta Kawaai finished in second, 27 seconds behind in a Toyota 1-2 finish.
Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave still leads the ST-Z standings by 44.5 points after four races.
Third place was virtually a lock for the #26 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Ryuichiro Tomita/Teppei Natori/Takuro Shinohara) headed into the final hour, but with 45 minutes left, the car had to take emergency service for a suspension problem. This opened the door for the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Masaki Kano/Riki Okusa/Hironobu Yasuda) to take third in class (ninth place overall), their first ST-Z class podium of the season.
The #26 Nissan finished fourth in class, ahead of the #19 Birth Racing Project Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport (Kenji Suzuki/Takeshi Suehiro/Kohei Fukuda/Tatsuya Tanigawa) in fifth. Seventh in class and 13th overall, the #75 Team Noah GR Supra (Toshiro Tsukada/Yoshikazu Sobu/Yasuhiro Ogushi/Masataka Kubo) finished as the only team representing the Kyushu area.
Autopolis brought on the return of the ST-TCR class and the Japanese debut of the Italian-constructed Honda Civic Type R TCR-FK8. Mitsuhiro Endo, and Honda young drivers Yusuke Mitsui and Tosei Moriyama, finished 12th out of 41 starters – and won the class on debut with ease with a trouble-free race.
The older FK7 generation #5 AI’ Racing Civic (Kazuhiro Sakai/Shion Tsujimoto/Masato Mitsuhashi) was able to recover after Mitsuhashi went off course in the second hour, finishing 24th overall, nine laps behind the newer Civic.
In ST-3, the #16 Okabe Jidosha Motorsports Z34 of Hirokazu Suzuki, Toru Tanaka, Tetsuya Tanaka, and Kazuomi Komatsu avenged its team-mate’s misfortunes and a mechanical issue that robbed them of a win in the Fuji 24 Hours with its first class win of the year, in 15th overall.
They finished 36 seconds ahead of the two Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350s, which put on a great battle for second in the final hour. Ultimately the #38 (Shunsuke Ozaki/Toshiki Ishimori/Yoshiyuki Tsuruga/Takanobu Ishizuka) finished 3.5 seconds ahead of the #39 (Takumi Sanada/Takashi Itoh/Mamoru Okada/Yusuke Tomibayashi). As it stands, the #38 crew leads the ST-3 Championship by ten points over the 39 car, but the two Okabe Jidosha Nissans are still within striking distance of first place too.
Then, in a sudden reversal that caught both the Japanese and English broadcast teams off guard (!), the #13 Endless Sports GR Yaris of Masaya Hanazato, Mizuki Ishizaka, Reimei Ito, and Hitoshi Okada won the ST-2 class after overtaking the #6 Shinryo Racing Lancer Evolution on the final lap of the race!
Shinryo Racing’s Yasushi Kikuchi had a sizeable 15-second lead with two laps remaining but began haemorrhaging time to Ishizaka, the result of a drivetrain issue. Ishizaka made all of that time up and overtook Kikuchi on the final lap to win the race by 4.3 seconds with an 18th overall finish! It also gave Ito a win on his 23rd birthday.
Kikuchi, Tomohiro Tomimasu, and Masazumi Ohashi finished second behind them despite the issues, but it was a bitter defeat after leading virtually the entire way. The #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic Type R FL5 (Hiroaki Ishigaki/Junichi Kidachi/Tensho Kobayashi) finished a distant third in class. Endless Sports now has a 25.5-point lead in the ST-2 standings and can wrap up the season championship at Mobility Resort Motegi, depending on the results of the upcoming five-hour race.
In 20th overall was the highest-finishing ST-Q class car, the #28 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 of Keizo Kato, Kenta Yamashita, Kazuya Oshima, and Daisuke Toyoda. They completed 137 laps and finished 45 seconds ahead of the biodiesel-fuelled #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki).
The new #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster CNF Concept (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yuui Tsutsumi/Ikuo Maeda) nearly didn’t participate after Maeda had a testing crash earlier in the week, but after the car was repaired in time for the start of the race, the trio finished 25th overall and completed 130 laps.
The liquid hydrogen-fuelled #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) returned for the first time since Fuji, but despite the upgrades to the car, it failed to take the chequered flag due to an oil leak inside the engine, and retired with less than 75 minutes left.
Finally, in ST-5, the #72 Nihon Automobile College Mazda Roadster of Makoto Kanai, Tetsuya Yamano, and Toshiya Nojima ran a strong race from start to finish and took its second class win of the year, in 27th overall.
In second was the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda Demio Diesel Turbo (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Ohtani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami) which overcame a 20-second penalty stop for an unapproved engine change before the race, and still came away with a podium finish. Mazda swept the ST-5 podium as the #88 Murakami Motors Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Soichiro Yoshida/Ryohei Arioka) finished third.
ST-5 won’t be present at Motegi – so the Nihon Automobile College (NATS) crew will take their newly-acquired two-point lead in the championship standings all the way to the sixth round, at Okayama International Circuit on 22 October.
Super Taikyu heads to Motegi on 3 September for the fifth round of the championship, where the ST-1 and ST-4 classes will rejoin the action.
Images © STO
