Sportsland Sugo delivered yet another gripping, emotional, and unpredictable Autobacs SUPER GT Series race. At the chequered flag, it was won by a Honda NSX-GT – but not the one that crossed the finish line first: The #8 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT of Tomoki Nojiri and Toshiki Oyu picked up the win in the Sugo GT 300km Race, after the #17 Astemo NSX-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Nobuharu Matsushita was disqualified for a technical infringement.
It was a cloudy afternoon south of Sendai, but the rain showers that persisted throughout last year’s race held off in favour of warm, humid conditions. Sugo always has a reputation for throwing up chaos whenever SUPER GT visits, but the start of this year’s race was very orderly.
Nojiri led from the pole position and drove away from the second-place #23 Motul Autech Nissan Z of Ronnie Quintarelli. While all eyes were transfixed on the battles in GT300, Nojiri opened up a sizeable lead and maintained that advantage even through traffic. Once the GT500 cars began making their routine pit stops, Nojiri’s lead was nearly ten seconds.
The bright orange #8 ARTA NSX came into the pits on lap 32. Oyu was expected to hold onto the net lead with relative ease, but that changed when the #17 Astemo NSX made its pit stop. Matsushita, who’d been running third behind Quintarelli, handed the car off to his co-driver Tsukakoshi. A blistering 32.7-second stop, and a slow out-lap from Oyu, gave the Astemo NSX enough time to take the net lead of the race!
Soon, the lead battle was a three-car chase between Tsukakoshi, Oyu, and the Motul Z of Matsuda, who’d caught the two leading Hondas.
But the race took a horrid turn on lap 38. A cross-class collision between the #100 Stanley NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R of Teppei Natori on the front stretch sent Yamamoto’s car spearing into the guardrail, the car flipped over as the front and rear were destroyed. The Safety Car was deployed almost immediately.
Yamamoto was able to radio to his team that he was safe, but was suffering from pain. The 35-year-old, two-time GT500 Champion was then airlifted to a local hospital in Sendai for further evaluation. For the fourth time this season, a SUPER GT race needed to be red-flagged in order to repair the damaged section of the guardrail – and to allow the medical helicopter to depart.
As of the publication of this full race report, Yamamoto was released from the hospital in Sendai on Sunday evening, without any fractures or life-threatening injuries. Within the subsequent 36 hours, he was admitted to a different hospital for more comprehensive treatment of an undisclosed condition.
After a 52-minute red flag and a few laps behind the Safety Car, the race got back underway on lap 45. The only two cars that hadn’t pitted by the time the Safety Car came out were the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD Toyota GR Supra of Yuhi Sekiguchi, and the #1 Marelli Impul Z of Bertrand Baguette. Baguette followed the Safety Car in, and on lap 52, Sekiguchi brought the Denso Supra in for its stop.
But not before Oyu dove up the inside of Tsukakoshi into turn one, to take the lead of the race at the end of the lap! Oyu began driving away, stretching his advantage out to over three seconds in a repeat of Nojiri’s opening stint.
The thing is, he couldn’t keep pulling away. Tsukakoshi, the Real Racing and Honda stalwart, gradually began to close back in again and with 20 laps remaining, the two Hondas were back to running tail-to-nose – with Matsuda following closely, ready to pounce if the two leaders in front of him made a mistake.
At a course that is narrow at times, negotiating GT300 traffic became critical to victory. As the leaders were about to begin lap 77 out of 84, the two Hondas split each side of the #9 Pacific NAC VSpo Mercedes-AMG GT3. Oyu went to the left, while Tsukakoshi went to the right. And then went surging past Tsukakoshi over the line, to take the lead with eight laps remaining!
This time, the ARTA NSX didn’t have an answer – the Astemo NSX drove away into the distance over those final laps, while Oyu had to fight the rest of the way just to keep Matsuda in his rear-view mirror.
Tsukakoshi took the chequered flag for Astemo Real Racing by seven seconds, while Oyu held off Matsuda by a couple of car lengths to keep his grip on second place. It would have been a Honda 1-2 finish, and a great victory for Tsukakoshi and Matsushita that would put them within a single point of the GT500 Championship lead – 13 years on from Real Racing’s first GT500 win at Sugo, decided by a similar pass through slow traffic out of the final corner.
Sadly for Real Racing fans, that’s not what happened after all. In post-race scrutineering, the Astemo NSX was found to have worn its skid block beyond the maximum threshold, and Tsukakoshi and Matsushita were disqualified. It was the second time in as many races that a GT500 car was excluded for a skid block violation.
Therefore, the late-race battle for second place became the battle for the win, and Oyu’s determined driving gave ARTA its second win in a row after the #16 of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu won the last round at Suzuka!
It was Nojiri’s ninth career GT500 win – tying Honda legend Takashi Kogure and João Paulo de Oliveira – and Oyu’s first in either class of SUPER GT. Nojiri accepted the winner’s trophy that evening but lamented that the team wasn’t strong enough to win it on the road.
“I still had mixed feelings when I heard the official results after the race, which showed us as the winner,” Nojiri said. “We have to admit that even though we were in a better situation with Success Weight, we were still outclassed on the track by the #17 car, which has a fuel flow restrictor. The fact that we won under these circumstances this time will inevitably come back to haunt us, so I think we have no choice but to build on this race and try to have another strong race at Autopolis so that we can win this time.”
“Of course, it would be best if we could win the race itself, but this time we did everything we could – and although we had to drive under difficult circumstances at the end, we were able to defend our position and take the chequered flag, and I think that’s why we got this result,” Oyu added. “This time I wanted results.”
In an ironic twist of fate, the #17’s disqualification gave the #23 Motul Z of Matsuda and Quintarelli the second-place finish that they’d lost at Suzuka when they were the ones disqualified for excess skid block wear! It’s a result that they’ll gladly take, their first points since the Fuji Golden Week round, which keeps them alive in the GT500 Championship race.
While the timing of the red flag and Safety Car interventions would have normally ruined the race for any cars that hadn’t made their routine pit stops – but the timing of the red flag actually trapped most of the field on the tail end of the lead lap once the race resumed. With that in mind, the #39 Denso Supra of Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama was able to make its pit stop and only drop three positions.
In the revised classification, Sekiguchi and Nakayama finished third and scored back-to-back podiums after a difficult start to the season!
Moving up to fourth place was the #1 Marelli Impul Z of Hiramine and Baguette. Hiramine authored a season-saving drive for the defending GT500 champions at Team Impul: He dropped to 11th after getting swarmed on cold tyres but quickly made his way back through the field and into the top five, which was completed by the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) in a season-best fifth.
In sixth was the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita), and in seventh, despite carrying the hefty toll of a ‘Stage 3’ fuel flow restrictor and heavy Success Weight, the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata) showed plenty of fighting spirit to finish in the top ten.
The #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) was eighth, followed by the championship-leading #3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) in ninth, and the #37 Deloitte TOM’s GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) in tenth.
With two races left, Chiyo and Takaboshi maintain their lead in the GT500 Championship, but now have just a two-point advantage over Tsuboi and Miyata. Matsuda and Quintarelli move up to third in the table after the #16 ARTA NSX-GT of Fukuzumi and Otsu finished outside the points due to an engine issue. At the next race, the Success Weight has been reduced to one kilogramme per championship point for all cars, which sets up the prospect of another thrilling championship finale at Mobility Resort Motegi!
If all that weren’t enough, the same strange phenomenon occurred in GT300! The #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra of Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai ran out of fuel and lost the win at the finish line, only to get it back when the #18 UPGarage NSX GT3 of Takashi Kobayashi and Syun Koide was disqualified as well!
The opening laps in GT300 overshadowed the action in the top class, almost from the drop of the green flag. SUPER GT iron man Morio Nitta led them to the first corner in his #96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3, followed closely by Eijiro Shimizu in the #20 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86, Takuto Iguchi in the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport, and Kawaai, who started fourth in the #52 GreenBrave Supra.
The leading quartet broke out into a brawl for the top spots, and soon they’d be joined by the #6 Dobot Audi R8 LMS of Yoshiaki Katayama from sixth on the grid. After 19 laps of chasing, Shimizu, the youngest driver in the SUPER GT field, passed Nitta, the series’ most experienced driver, to take the class lead after 20 laps.
Behind them, Kawaai took third place off of Iguchi, and the #56 Realize GT-R of Teppei Natori also got into this fight by getting past Katayama and Iguchi for fourth place!
After 23 laps, the GreenBrave Supra came in for its only pit stop. Yoshida got on board while the Saitama Toyopet team changed only the two rear tyres in order to gain extra track position, one of the strengths of the GTA-GT300 cars. It worked out perfectly, as by the time the leading SHADE GR86 made its pit stop on lap 31, Yoshida had taken the net lead in class.
Natori was making his way down to pit lane when he accidentally clipped the GT500 class Stanley NSX along the front stretch, and triggered the big crash that forced the red flag. Before the Safety Car was deployed, the #18 UPGarage NSX of Koide also made it into the pits, and both cars moved up into net second and third place when the race was stopped.
Unfortunately for the Kondo Racing team and the #56 Realize GT-R, their net second place wouldn’t last long after the restart. Natori was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision, which would have to be served by his co-driver, J.P. Oliveira.
Under the same red flag, Oliveira touched the damaged right-front fender of the car. Despite tersely stating his case otherwise to anyone who’d listen, GTA Race Control gave the two-time GT300 Champion and the #56 car a second drive-through penalty for breaking the red flag procedure.
Once the red flag was lifted and the rest of the GT300 field made their pit stops, the #52 GreenBrave Supra of Yoshida officially took the lead, from the #18 UPGarage NSX of Kobayashi. The only question was, was there enough fuel in the tank to get to the finish?
As Yoshida gradually pulled out a gap up to six seconds with one lap to go, the answer appeared to be an affirmative “yes!” – but as is often the case at Sugo, unexpected upsets could occur at any moment. Nothing seemed out of place as Yoshida rounded the last corner until another car had to slow down under the Dunlop along the front stretch, then drove away.
The GreenBrave Supra had run out of fuel, and from six seconds back, Kobayashi came over the crest, and past Yoshida over the line to take what should have been an incredible third win of the year for Team UPGarage, Kobayashi, and the rookie Koide!
But, as mentioned earlier, this incredible finish was also rendered null and void after post-race scrutineering. The #18 UPGarage NSX was disqualified, this time for exceeding the minimum ride height as prescribed by the GTA/SRO co-developed Balance of Performance (BoP).
The fortunes completely inverted for Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave – who went from a cruel and agonizing defeat to a big, big victory and a huge boost to the championship aspirations of Yoshida and Kawaai!
It was the fourth career win for both drivers, Yoshida and Kawaai, in the time since they joined forces at GreenBrave in 2020. Worth mentioning as well: They did it with a whopping 90 kilogrammes of Success Weight loaded into the car!
That proved to be an enormous win for the duo, who have now taken a ten-point lead in the GT300 Championship table with two races remaining – one of which is Yoshida’s home race at Autopolis. Were it not for their disqualification, Kobayashi and Koide would have taken a 15-point lead – instead they’re now second in points, still ahead of BMW M Team Studie’s Seiji Ara on countback. Ara and Bruno Spengler finished outside the points in 13th.
Coming around to finish in second place, for the team’s first SUPER GT podium, was the SHADE GR86 of Shimizu and Katsuyuki Hiranaka. The first of what should be many for this well-resourced, second-year team.
The #6 Dobot R8 of Katayama and Roberto Merhi would take third place, the second podium in three races for Team LeMans’ Audi.
Behind them, the #61 Subaru BRZ of Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi fought to a well-earned fourth place finish, ahead of the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), in the top five for the second straight round. Sixth place went to the #65 LEON Pyramid AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara) after two straight retirements.
Anest Iwata Racing with Arnage continued its upward climb as the #50 Lexus RC F GT3 of Igor Fraga and Yuga Furutani finished seventh and in the points for the second straight round. Nitta and Shinichi Takagi, despite starting from pole, would slide to eighth in the #96 K-tunes RC F.
In ninth was the #10 Ponos Gainer GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa), and despite two drive-through penalties and maximum Success Weight, Oliveira drove all the way back to tenth place in the #56 Realize GT-R, salvaging points for himself and Natori!
There was another big upset early in the race when the title-contending #2 muta Racing GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) went to the garage with a driveshaft failure. A year after winning this race in this same car, muta Racing INGING was the first retirement.
Tsutsumi and Taira are still within 16 points of the top of the GT300 table, though – five points behind Oliveira and Natori, and six points behind Kobayashi/Koide and Ara.
SUPER GT has left Sugo and the lair of the mischievous racing demon Mamono. The series returns to action on 14-15 October for the final 450km long-distance round, and the penultimate race of the 2023 season – the Autopolis GT 450km Race at Autopolis International Racing Course, 1,500 kilometres southwest.
Until that time, we wish Naoki Yamamoto a swift recovery to full fitness.
Images © GTA, Honda
