The #16 ARTA Mugen Honda NSX-GT of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu won from pole position at the Suzuka GT 450km Race this Sunday, to lead a famous double victory at Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit in the summer Autobacs SUPER GT Series race.
It was also the final GT500 win at Suzuka for the Honda NSX, which will be retired from the premier class of SUPER GT after 2023.
A crowd of over 37,000 spectators gathered over the two-day weekend for SUPER GT’s annual mid-summer visit to Suzuka, in the calendar space that was once occupied by the Suzuka 1000km/Suzuka 10 Hours. This was the series’ fourth 450-kilometre semi-endurance round, and as it was summer, the weather was hot – with ambient temperatures reaching 33°C and surface temperatures breaking 50°C.
Hiroki Otsu had the honour of leading the GT500 field away from the start of the race, the black #16 ARTA NSX-GT leading Ronnie Quintarelli in the #23 Motul Autech Nissan Z, and Nobuharu Matsushita in the #17 Astemo NSX-GT. Once the pit window opened after lap five, the championship-leading #3 Niterra Motul Z of Katsumasa Chiyo made its first pit stop at the first possible opportunity, in an attempt to gain track position with its massive Success Weight penalty of 48 kilos of ballast weight plus the “Stage 3” fuel flow restrictor.
Otsu had a three-second lead when he was told to come to the pits on lap 11. The #6 Dobot Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Yoshiaki Katayama had lost its rear-left wheel at NIPPO (fmr. Dunlop) Corner and was stranded in the gravel, bringing out a Full Course Yellow. Otsu made it to the entrance of pit lane before the FCY was deployed and pit lane was closed. Behind him, Kohei Hirate in the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z made the same move, diving into the pits.
But, Hirate was found not to have entered the pit lane before it closed, resulting in a 60-second penalty stop for the #24 Realize Z. Hirate and Daiki Sasaki finished a lap down in 14th.
The timing couldn’t have been better for Otsu in this first pit window. By lap 30, when all GT500 cars had made their first pit stops, he found himself leading the race by over 37 seconds!
The gap closed up gradually and then came down significantly during the second round of pit stops. Quintarelli brought the Motul Z in on lap 42, where Tsugio Matsuda climbed in ’til the end of the race. Two laps later, Otsu brought the #16 ARTA NSX in, and Fukuzumi took over for the final stint. A longer stop for the ARTA crew resulted in the lead being cut from 26 seconds down to just under 15, with Matsuda doing his best to try and catch the leader out on the track.
On lap 49, GT300 title contender João Paulo de Oliveira had a terrifying failure of his own, when the rear-right wheel of his #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R fell off approaching 130R. Oliveira was able to slow the car down enough that the ensuing contact with the sponge barriers was not very heavy.
But it was still Oliveira and Teppei Natori’s first retirement of the year – the first GT300 retirement for Kondo Racing, in fact, since they began entering this Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in 2019! And it brought out another FCY, which was quickly lifted.
While things were going smoothly in one half of the ARTA garage, the race was becoming a case of damage limitation for the orange #8 of Tomoki Nojiri and Toshiki Oyu. They pitted early in the first window and had tumbled out of the top ten. As Oyu tried to overtake Giuliano Alesi for the final points-paying position, the two made contact. Oyu drove away with the position but punctured his front left tyre.
It was a miracle that Oyu avoided the barriers at 130R when he ran off. Gravel debris on the track led to a third FCY. Oyu brought his car to the pits for repairs, was given a 60-second penalty stop for entering a closed pit lane, and not long after serving the penalty, ARTA retired the #8 Honda.
But there was no such drama for the crew of Fukuzumi and Oyu. Fukuzumi had more than enough pace in hand and fuel in the tank to keep Matsuda well behind him, and after leading 53 out of 77 laps, the black #16 ARTA NSX took the chequered flag and its first win of the year.
It ended a lengthy winless drought at Suzuka for Honda’s GT500 fleet – who hadn’t won since 2018 when the mid-engined #8 ARTA NSX-GT of Nojiri and Takuya Izawa won the Suzuka 300km. It was Honda’s first GT500 win of 2023, the first for the ARTA/Mugen “super team”.
And while the number 16 car is entered under the ARTA banner, it still carries with it the lineage of Team Mugen – and in that regard, it was the first time that the #16 Honda had won in SUPER GT since 2003 at Mobility Resort Motegi – the first race after the original Mugen company went bankrupt and was reincorporated into today’s M-TEC!
Otsu was happy to have finally won his first SUPER GT race in his fourth season in the top category. “This was my first win since I began competing in SUPER GT from 2018. I never thought that my first win would come in the GT500 class,” said Otsu.
“I am glad that I was able to win, thanks to having the best teammate, the best team and staff all working together. Both Fukuzumi-san and I became fathers this year, and I believe that the power of our babies has given us a boost. There are quite a number of people that I want to thank for this first victory.”
“I think today’s race was a perfect one for us,” remarked Fukuzumi, who took his fifth career GT500 win and first since moving to the number 16 car. “Driving first, Otsu-san gave us a big lead, and in terms of the race strategy we were able to make a perfectly timed pit stop before the FCY call.”
After compromising three races this year due to pitwork infringements, this time, the execution was perfect, and the timing was finally right for the duo of Fukuzumi and Otsu. “Since we have had a number of troubles that I would rather not remember thwarting us in the races up until the last one, I am really glad to feel that we have been redeemed by this win today,” Fukuzumi added. “And so, I would really like to say thank you to the fans who have cheered us on.”
Matsuda, 12 weeks removed from his horrifying crash at this circuit in round three of the 2023 SUPER GT season, took the chequered flag in second place. But the triumph was short-lived. The #23 Motul Z of Matsuda and Quintarelli was disqualified for excessive skid block wear.
In their place, Toyota would pick up the other two places on the podium. After a difficult start to the year with a best finish of eighth, the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD Toyota GR Supra of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama came roaring back from 12th on the grid to finish second.
Nakayama held off a train of as many as four other GT500 cars in the closing laps to score TGR Team SARD’s first podium of the year.
Also on the podium for the first time this year was the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) which gained eight places from 11th to third. Yamashita made some slick moves late in the race to climb ahead of the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) which finished fourth, and missed out on a podium by just six-tenths of a second.
Following the disqualification of the #23 Motul Z, Nissan’s highest finisher was the #1 Marelli Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) in fifth. Behind them, the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) was sixth, in Tachikawa’s final start at Suzuka.
With Tadasuke Makino fit to race after his mild concussion and bruised ribs sustained in a Super Formula crash at Motegi the week before, he and Naoki Yamamoto got the #100 Stanley NSX-GT over the line in seventh.
The #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Kakunoshin Ohta) finished eighth, the spring Suzuka 450km winning #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) wound up in ninth, and thanks to the penalty for the Motul Z, the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata) moved up into tenth and grabbed the final points-paying position.
Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi finished a lowly 12th in the #3 Niterra Z, unable to overcome the heavy Success Weight despite a strong defensive drive from Chiyo in the middle stages of the race. But the NDDP Racing duo still left Suzuka with its championship lead intact: They now lead Tsuboi and Miyata by four points, with three rounds left.
However, the field behind them is now closer. The race win moves Fukuzumi and Otsu to third in the table, 12 points behind Chiyo and Takaboshi. Oshima/Yamashita, and Yamamoto/Makino, are also within striking distance heading into Sportsland Sugo on 17 September.
Honda was virtually assured a GT500 victory, but an FCY intervention helped turn the tables in GT300 and make a double victory possible – as the #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 of Takashi Kobayashi and Syun Koide came from virtually nowhere to win its second race of the year.
Kobayashi started 16th in the 25-car field after an electrical issue prevented him from running in Q2 on Saturday, but he was determined to fight his way to the front somehow.
After capturing his record 14th career GT300 pole position, Hideki Yamauchi led the GT300 field to the green flag in the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport. Morio Nitta started second in the #96 K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3, but in just a few short laps he was already more than three seconds behind Yamauchi.
The #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Tatsuya Kataoka overtook Nitta for second in class, and eventually, the two JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3s would get past Nitta with identical overtakes up the inside at NIPPO Corner to assume third and fourth – the #87 EVO1 of Natsu Sakaguchi, ahead of the #88 EVO2 of Yuya Motojima.
The leaders began their first round of pit stops when Yamauchi made his first stop on lap 16, followed by Kataoka on lap 18. Natsu Sakaguchi and Motojima stayed out for a few more laps before coming in on lap 24 and 25 respectively. Out of all this, the #2 muta Racing GR86 of Yuui Tsutsumi, which had started 14th and made its first stop after just five laps, found itself leading the class, with Kazuto Kotaka running second in the #31 apr Lexus LC500h, after starting 20th and pitting on lap six.
This race at Suzuka was shaping up to be another battle between the teams that had pitted early to gain precious track position, and the teams that ran longer in their first and second stints to keep from having to save as much fuel and tyres. The #2 muta GR86 surrendered its lead on lap 37 when Hibiki Taira climbed aboard for the closing stint. Five laps later, the #61 Subaru BRZ of Yamauchi pitted to install Takuto Iguchi to the end. Iguchi caught up to Taira and the two were eventually within a second of each other battling for what should have been the race win.
At this point, only five GT300 cars had yet to make their final required pit stops, including both JLOC Lamborghinis, the Hatsune Miku AMG, the Realize GT-R, and the UPGarage NSX which was now being driven by the rookie Koide. When Oliveira’s rear right wheel let go at 130R, the dust and gravel kicked up right in front of the #87 Bamboo Airways Huracán of Kosuke Matsuura, and the #18 UPGarage NSX of Koide. Both cars dived straight into the pits and beat the declaration of the FCY.
A faster pit stop from the UPGarage crew put Koide out ahead of Matsuura, and both cars had taken first and second place when the #88 JLOC Huracán EVO2 and #4 Miku AMG pitted after the FCY.
The battle for the win thus became a showdown between Honda’s star of the future, Koide, versus Honda’s star of the past, Matsuura. Takashi Kogure was running third in the #88 JLOC Hurácan EVO2 but, after the third and final FCY was withdrawn, Iguchi caught the past GT500 champion napping and sailed through into third place, now in a dogged pursuit of the leaders.
Koide withstood the pressure from Matsuura with the poise of a seasoned veteran, and Iguchi just ran out of time behind them. The #18 UPGarage NSX GT3 of Kobayashi and Koide won GT300 for the second time this year, taking the win by just 1.008 seconds over the #87 Bamboo Airways Huracán of Matsuura and Sakaguchi.
It was Kobayashi’s eighth career GT300 win, and Koide’s second, just five races into his rookie season. This was the first time that Team UPGarage – or any Honda NSX GT3 customer team – had won multiple races in the same year.
“We had machine trouble in the Q2 session of yesterday’s qualifying, but if we had been able to run normally, I think we would probably have qualified in the top four,” Kobayashi said of the team’s troubled qualifying session.
“We ended up having to start from 16th position on the grid, but once we were running, we were able to pass cars quickly. It was the problem of the tyre wear that determined the timing of our pit stops, but manager (Makoto) Ishida made good judgements that enabled us to win, I think. I am really grateful to the team for this. This was my first time being in the pit when we won, and watching the final battle I could no longer feel if I was alive or not,” he smiled.
“It was really, really tough running in the final stages,” said Koide, who needed to concentrate on protecting his tyres over the course of the final stint. “I thought that I had to focus on reducing the wear on [the tyres], but I managed to hold on without giving up. If I had lost my concentration for just one moment, I was sure that car No. 87 would have passed me.”
Koide remarked that his rookie success, “is certainly not just because of me, it is because of the team, so I am grateful to them all.”
JLOC came just a second away from scoring its first SUPER GT win in four years, but they will gladly take a first podium of the season for the #87 crew of Matsuura and Sakaguchi, tying their best result together from last year’s finale at Motegi.
The timing of the second FCY caught out Iguchi and Yamauchi, who had to consolidate third place in the #61 Subaru BRZ. But it was still their first podium after a first half of the season littered with disappointments and even greater misfortunes – perhaps something to build towards in the final three races.
Just off the podium, the #88 JLOC Huracán EVO2 of Kogure and Motojima finished fourth, followed by the #4 Hatsune Miku AMG of Kataoka and Nobuteru Taniguchi in fifth.
The #31 apr LC500h completed its comeback drive from 20th to finish sixth. Kazuto Kotaka and Yuki Nemoto shared driving duties as for the second race in a row, apr’s veteran stalwart Koki Saga watched the race from the garage and did not drive. After leading earlier, the #2 muta GR86 of Tsutsumi, Taira, and Hiroki Katoh slumped to seventh but still managed to take home valuable points with a whopping 90kg Success Weight on board.
Nitta and Shinichi Takagi finished eighth in the #96 K-tunes RC F, followed by the #27 Yogibo NSX GT3 (Yugo Iwasawa/Reimei Ito) in ninth, and with its first points-paying finish of the year, the #50 Anest Iwata Racing RC F GT3 (Igor Fraga/Yuga Furutani/Miki Koyama) finished tenth. Katoh and Koyama did not run during the race.
The #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 of championship leader Seiji Ara and returning co-driver Bruno Spengler didn’t make much forward progress with maximum Success Weight on board, they finished 16th and out of the points.
Kobayashi and Koide have now taken the lead in the GT300 standings, tied at 40 points with Ara, but ahead on countback with their two victories. Oliveira and Natori remain third in the table despite their retirement, and Tsutsumi and Taira have crept closer to the top of the table.
SUPER GT’s “mid-summer triple” closes out on 17 September at Sportsland Sugo, where extraordinary moments and outcomes tend to be the norm rather than the exception!
Images © GTA
