The #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 survived difficult conditions in Sunday’s Suzuka Super Taikyu 5 Hours Race to pick up its first win of the 2024 season.
Kazuto Kotaka set the tempo early from pole position, co-drivers Hiroaki Nagai and Koki Saga carried that strength throughout the middle stages – and at the very end, Miki Koyama finished the race to make history as the first woman to take an overall win in the Super Taikyu Series in over 31 years.
Nagai and Kotaka won the pole on Saturday when conditions were overcast, by 1.8 seconds over the returning #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 – back for its first race since the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours in May. But come Sunday morning, it began to rain heavily at Suzuka, and while it eased by the time the race was about to start – it did make the decision to start on slick tyres versus wet tyres a very challenging one.
Slick tyres were the right call, and across his opening stint, Kotaka was able to build a big gap to the likes of Giuliano Alesi in the #1 ROOKIE AMG GT3, and Kiyoto Fujinami in the #81 Daishin Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3. A dry line had formed, and Kotaka’s lead stretched out to 30 seconds by the time he was ready to hand the car off to ‘A’ Driver and Mie Prefecture native Nagai.
Other drivers in the lower classes weren’t as fortunate. On the very first lap, Masaki Ano crashed his #76 Buzz Progress Racing Mazda Roadster into the tyre barriers at pit entry; he would eventually drive back to the pits.
75 minutes into the race, Haruhiko Sugino in the #27 Maple Hiroshima Racing Roadster went off at 130R and crashed into the sponge barriers – thankfully, he was able to walk away. Not long after the Full Course Yellow was withdrawn for Sugino’s accident, the #15 Okabe Jidosha Nissan Fairlady Z34 of Seiya Motojima slid off at turn two, and the #6 Shinryo Racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X stopped on the front stretch with a mechanical problem, bringing out another FCY.
Race leader Nagai kept up an impressive pace for an amateur driver, and he was able to hold back the Daishin GT-R of Natsu Sakaguchi and the ROOKIE AMG of Tatsuya Kataoka for longer than was expected. Kataoka took the lead at the two-hour, 17-minute mark, and Sakaguchi followed him through into second place.
The #31 apr RC F GT3 would regain the lead soon after the next round of pit stops, where Saga took over the #31 and ‘A’ Driver Ryuta Ukai took over the #1. On his out-lap, Nobuhiro Imada – who was critical to GTNET MotorSports’ victory at Motegi earlier this month – went off at 130R. The Daishin GT-R dropped off the lead lap, and then in the final hour, Fujinami pulled over at the inside of 130R, retiring from the race with a mechanical problem.
With less than 75 minutes to go, the #31 Lexus came in for its final stop and Koyama relieved Saga for the final stint. 20 minutes later, the #1 Mercedes-AMG came in and Gamou took over, trailing Koyama by 48 seconds.
Koyama, given the opportunity to close out a near-perfect performance from apr, didn’t let the opportunity pass her by – she kept Gamou out of reach and took the chequered flag after 127 laps of racing.
She became the first woman to win outright in a Super Taikyu race since 1993 – when Kumi Sato won the Tsukuba 12 Hour Race alongside her co-drivers Hideo Fukuyama and Tatsuo Saito, driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R. That was also the last time a woman had won in Super Taikyu’s top division – which, since 2011, has been the ST-X class for GT3 cars.
It was the #31 apr RC F GT3’s first Super Taikyu victory since the 2023 season finale at Fuji Speedway, and a gratifying win for Nagai at his home track.
Ukai, Alesi, Gamou, and Kataoka drove the #1 ROOKIE AMG GT3 to second place, 36 seconds off the win – reasserting Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing in the championship hunt after missing the last two races.
Starting the race on wet tyres backfired for the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama) – but while they did pick up a pit lane speeding penalty towards the end of the race, the TKRI trio still finished third to stay atop the ST-X Championship table with two races left.
In fourth place was the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG (Jeffrey Lee/Kakunoshin Ohta/Dean Chen/Liang Jiatong), two laps down – they too had started the race on wet tyres.
Fifth overall and first place in the ST-Z went to the #22 Porsche Team EBI Cayman GT4 of Shota Kitazono, Rintaro Kubo, Naoya Yamano and Yugo Iwasawa, the first win for Porsche Team EBI since the 2022 finale – which was also at Suzuka.
Several cars took turns at the head of the class in the first hour but eventually the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 took control. With 90 minutes left, the #22 Porsche made its final pit stop, trailing by 23 seconds. The undercut worked to the advantage of the white and teal Porsche – after the black and red Audi made its final stop, Kubo was leading by over 30 seconds!
That’s how it would finish – the #22 Porsche taking the ST-Z class win, 32 seconds ahead of the #34 Audi of Masaki Kano, Ryoma Henzan, Hironobu Yasuda, and Riki Okusa.
The #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 (Tadao Uematsu/Tsugio Matsuda/Kimiya Sato/Teppei Natori) followed up its milestone first victory at Motegi with third place at Suzuka. Natori was especially strong in the first stint – gaining four places on the opening lap and taking the lead by lap three.
Fourth in class was the championship-leading #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Manabu Yamazaki/Hiroki Yoshida/Naoki Hattori/Seita Nonaka).
Also finishing inside the overall top ten were the ST-Q class #92 GR Team Spririt Toyota GR Supra (Keizo Kato/Shunsuke Kohno/Takamitsu Matsui/Kenta Yamashita) in seventh, and the sole ST-1 car, the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto) in ninth.
M&K Racing’s Honda Civic TCRs finished 1-2 in ST-TCR – this time, the #98 Civic of Shigeru “Kizuna” Sato, Lee Jungwoo, and Sena Yamamoto took its first victory – meaning all three cars have won a race this year.
The #97 M&K Civic (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Shion Tsujimoto/Ryusuke Masumoto) finished 4.790 seconds behind, 16th and 17th overall respectively, and a lap ahead of the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS 3 LMS (Yoshinari Fujiwara/Shigetomo Shimono/Genki Nishimura/Shozo Tagahara) in 21st overall.
Tracy Sports with Delta scored a 1-2 finish for the second time in the ST-3 class – this time it was the #39 Lexus RC 350 of Shinya Fujita, Takashi Ito, Dai Mizuno, and Yusuke Tomibayashi that took the win, the second win of the year for the #39 car which extended its lead in the championship.
The #38 Lexus (Toshiki Komura/Toshiki Ishimori/Yuma Shoji/Takumi Sanada) finished 19 seconds behind in second place, one of a few cars that had to serve an ‘A’ Driver handicap in the case of Komura, who joined the team at Motegi. In third was the #16 Okabe Jidosha Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Kazuomi Komatsu/Toru Tanaka/Tetsuya Tanaka/Masaya Kohno).
In ST-2, KTMS took back the championship lead as the #225 Toyota GR Yaris of Kengo Ichijo, Shunji Okumoto, and Rikuto Kobayashi took its third win of the season, coming back to win after the #95 Team Spoon Honda Civic Type R was forced to pit for emergency service from the lead with 90 minutes left.
The #72 NATS Civic Type R (Makoto Kanai/Tetsuya Yamano/Toshiya Nojima) took second place in class, holding off the #13 Endless Sports GR Yaris (Masaya Hanazato/Mizuki Ishizaka/Reimei Ito/Hitoshi Okada) by half a second at the finish.
In a close finish, the #65 Over Drive Mazda Roadster (Tatsuya Ota/Shuichiro Hokazono/Sena Kuronuma/Takuma Ikeda) won the ST-5 class for the first time in 2024, holding off the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Otani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami) by eight-tenths of a second.
The front-wheel drive diesel Mazda took the points lead in ST-5 from the #88 Murakami Motors Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Daichi Okamoto/Soichiro Yoshida/Ryohei Arioka) which finished third, with the #4 Team Bride Honda Fit3 RS (Yuya Ohta/Kaoru Arai/Takao Seto/Hiroshi Ito) in fourth.
Seven ST-Q cars entered this weekend’s race, but one – the #28 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept – didn’t even get to start the race.
The other six had productive races, including the #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R CNF-R (Hiroki Otsu/Souta Arao/Shinichi Katsura) which finished 26th overall, one place ahead of the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru HiPerfX Concept (Kazuhiro Ito/Hideki Yamauchi/Takuto Iguchi/Masafumi Hanazawa).
The #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster CNF Concept (Hiroshi Kawata/Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yuui Tsutsumi) finished 29th, the #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Yaris DAT Concept (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) was 30th, and the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Yutaka Seki/Kaoru Ijiri/Ikuo Maeda) was 31st out of 46 finishers.
Next month, the Super Taikyu Series returns to Okayama International Circuit for its double-header weekend: Two three-hour races with all classes present, and the chance for some teams to clinch their respective series championships.
Images © STO, Honda Mobilityland
