In the season finale to the 2024 Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone, the #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the S-Tai Final Fuji 4 Hour Race – and clinched a second consecutive ST-X class championship for ROOKIE Racing in two seasons.
Ryuta Ukai, Giuliano Alesi, Naoya Gamou, and driver/manager Tatsuya Kataoka had to wait out two long red flags during the race, then had to survive the final 25-minute sprint to the chequered flag to get their third win of the season.
Of the five teams in the premier GT3 category, four of them had a mathematical chance at the championship. After the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the pole position and secured two bonus championship points, super-sub driver João Paulo de Oliveira quickly got to work and led the opening 20 minutes of the race. He’d built a five-second lead to his former SUPER GT co-driver Kiyoto Fujinami in the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
But then, Kazuomi Komatsu in the #16 Okabe Jidosha Motorsport Nissan Fairlady Z34 crashed heavily into the right-side guardrail exiting 300R Corner. The force of the impact caused the Nissan to flip over on its roof and skid across the track before rolling back over onto its wheels and coming to rest on the other side of Dunlop Corner.
300Rでの16号車クラッシュ
ブレまくりですが、1枚目の時点でフロント部は無く赤いパーツを撒き散らしつつ滑走
ルーフなどの外板だろうけど、よく内部を守り続けたという感じ
最後にもんどり打ってスピードが落ちたのも良かったのかもとにかく無事で何より
#stai #s耐 #スーパー耐久 #SuperTaikyu pic.twitter.com/gI1u4047dN
— ぽにょにょん (@masa_ponyon) November 17, 2024
Despite the violence of the crash, Komatsu was evaluated and released from the circuit medical centre with no serious injuries.
Immediately, a Full Course Yellow was deployed, followed by a Safety Car. During this Safety Car, many of the leaders made pit stops to change drivers, with most ST-X teams putting their ‘A’ Drivers in for their mandatory stints. But after assessing the damage to the barriers, the red flag came out after 42 minutes had elapsed, with the ST-1 class #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX leading overall since it hadn’t made a pit stop before the red flag.
It took one hour and eight minutes to repair the damaged section of guardrails, but at 2:20 PM, the red flag was lifted and the race restarted after one lap behind the Safety Car. Several cars dived into the pits, and the #81 Daishin GT-R, which had just taken the lead, was hit with a drive-through penalty for overtaking in a yellow flag zone. That handed the lead over to the championship-leading #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3. Both the #23 and #81 were then given drive-through penalties for ignoring the red light at pit exit during the Safety Car period.
But with pro driver Yuhki Nakayama driving, the #23 Mercedes-AMG was still leading the race with a chance to win the title.
With just over 90 minutes to go, a second Full Course Yellow came out for debris on track, and the #1 ROOKIE AMG had just crossed the pit entrance line in time to make a pit stop and change drivers from Ukai to Kataoka. Two laps later, the #23 TKRI AMG made its second pit stop, but instead of handing the car over to ‘A’ Driver Daisuke Matsunaga, Yuya Motojima went in for a second stint after he started the race.
As that stop was happening, Ryoma Henzan in the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 spun off and crashed heavily into the right-side barrier approaching Dunlop Corner. This brought out another Full Course Yellow, then another Safety Car – and then, with another heavily damaged section of guardrail to fix, the race was red-flagged again with one hour and 23 minutes left.
Henzan was able to walk away from the incident without any fractures, though further evaluation did reveal that the Porsche Japan junior driver had suffered a minor concussion.
The marshalls and crew at Fuji Speedway deployed a quick fix for the damaged barrier by reinforcing it with tyre barriers. This would allow the red flag to be lifted with 30 minutes left on the clock – and as long as no other red flags came out, the race would award full points. At the moment of the red flag, the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 was leading the race, but still owed another pit stop. So when the Safety Car retreated with less than 27 minutes to go, the #31 and several others followed the Safety Car into the pits.
Kataoka in the #1 ROOKIE AMG took the lead, with Motojima in the #23 TKRI AMG in second, followed by the #33 Craft-Bamboo AMG of Jayden Ojeda in third. But the #33 picked up a painful drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellows in those closing minutes, and the #23 had to surrender second place for Daisuke to meet his greatly-reduced minimum drive time of two laps.
The #1 ROOKIE AMG took the win by over 36 seconds, completing only 56 laps due to the stoppages. The #81 Daishin GT-R (Nobuhiro Imada/Kiyoto Fujinami/Natsu Sakaguchi) was second, the #33 Craft-Bamboo AMG (Jeffrey Lee/João Paulo de Oliveira/Jayden Ojeda) was third, followed by the #31 apr RC F (Hiroaki Nagai/Kazuto Kotaka/Koki Saga) in fourth, and the #23 TKRI AMG (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama) in fifth.
With these results, the #1 ROOKIE AMG – despite voluntarily sitting out the races at Autopolis and Motegi – won the ST-X Championship by 4.5 points over Craft-Bamboo Racing, who only joined the championship from the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours. Mercedes-AMG won its third ST-X title as a manufacturer in five years, and Mercedes teams locked out the top three in the final standings.
The ST-Z title was already decided, but the final race at Fuji still produced a minor upset. 2W Zoomies x GR Garage Yamaguchi-Shunan, running a part-time schedule in its first Super Taikyu season, won for the first time this season as the #59 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO of Kachorn Chiaravanont, Kazuhisa Urabe, and “Fuji-meister” Yuji Tachikawa finished sixth place overall, thanks in part to a strong performance from Tachikawa after the first red flag.
In seventh overall was the top ST-Q car, the #92 GR Team Spirit Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept (Keizo Kato/Kenta Yamashita/Shunsuke Kohno/Takamitsu Matsui) – in the car which has served as the prototype for the new GR Supra GT4 EVO 2 that will be sold to customers in 2025.
Completing the ST-Z podium was the #26 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuro Shinohara/Seiji Ara) in second, and the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Daisuke Yamawaki/Sean Walkinshaw/James Pull/Shintaro Kawabata) in third.
Saitama Green Brave finished the last race of its back-to-back title-winning season seventh in class, 13th overall, for the #52 GR Supra (Manabu Yamazaki/Hiroki Yoshida/Naoki Hattori/Rin Arakawa).
The #98 M&K Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR of Shigeru “Kizuna” Sato, Lee Jung Woo, and Sena Yamamoto clinched the 2024 championship with its second class win of the season (18th overall). This is the second consecutive ST-TCR title for M&K Racing and the new FL5-model Civic TCR, but with a different crew of drivers.
M&K Racing finished 1-2 in ST-TCR with the #97 Racer Civic (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Thanasiwanat Phongsinnatchaachun/Shion Tsujimoto) in second, and the #430 Audi Sport Show Apex RS 3 LMS (Yoshinari Fujiwara/Ryosuke Kagami/Takahiro Kimura/Shozo Tagahara) in third.
The sole ST-1 #2 KTM (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto) finished 20th place overall.
Thanks to a perfectly-timed final pit stop, the #95 Team Spoon Honda Civic Type R of Eiji Yamada, Syun Koide, Ken “Piston” Nishizawa, and Yusuke Mitsui took the victory in ST-2, in the last race of the season. It’s the first win for the legendary Spoon team since the 2015 Fuji 8 Hour race.
The #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic (Hiroki Ishigaki/Akira Bitoh/Junichi Kidachi) was second in class, followed by the pole-winning #6 Shinryo Racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi).
Sixth in ST-2 for Kengo Ichijo, Shunji Okumoto, and Hibiki Taira wasn’t the result that KTMS was hoping for, but it was enough for the #225 Toyota GR Yaris to clinch Kobe Toyopet Motorsports’ second ST-2 title in three years. Taira, a member of KTMS’ 2022 title-winning squad, stood in for Rikuto Kobayashi and Jin Nakamura – who were getting a crash-course in their first Macau Grand Prix this weekend.
Okabe Jidosha Motorsport’s #15 Nissan Fairlady Z driven by Shuji Maejima, Masaaki Nagashima, Tsubasa Mekaru, and Seiya Motojima took the win in ST-3 to lift the spirits of the entire team after the awful crash for Komatsu in the sister car.
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With a second-place finish, the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350 of Shinya Fujita, Takashi Ito, Dai Mizuno, and Takumi Sanada clinched the ST-3 championship ahead of the #38 Tracy Sports with Delta RC 350 (Toshiki Komura/Toshiki Ishimori/Yuma Shoji). It’s the fifth consecutive championship for Tracy Sports and Delta Motor Sports’ #39 Lexus, with a new line-up anchored by the duo of Fujita and Ito.
That left just two championships to decide, in ST-4 and ST-5. The championship-leading cars in both classes secured bonus points from winning the pole in their classes: The #41 Tracy Sports with Delta Toyota GR86, and the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster strengthened their advantages.
The #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 (Masahiko Kageyama/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada/Teppei Tsuruta) grabbed its second win of the season with savvy strategy: They pitted after the restart from the first red flag, and then Kunimoto ran the remaining distance without stopping again.
But the #3 Endless Sports GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Togo Suganami/Ryo Ogawa) and the #41 Airbuster GR86 (Hirotaka Ishii/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Shunsuke Ozaki) were battling hard for third place in the closing minutes. Tomibayashi and Suganami traded blows but Tomibayashi was able to stay ahead with 15 minutes left.
Then, just two laps later, the #41 Toyota began to slow down rapidly, and the left-front wheel came wobbling off the car. Tomibayashi and crew would not see the chequered flag or score any points at all, ending his hopes of a fifth consecutive championship in Super Taikyu. The incident brought out one final Full Course Yellow before the end of the race.
Ogawa would clear off to finish third in ST-4 on the road – he and the #3 car were elevated to second after a post-race time penalty was given to the #60 Team G/Motion’ GR86 (Resshu Shioya/Masayuki Minato/Keisuke Ohara/Takumi Umehara) for a Safety Car restart infringement. This dropped the #60 to third in the final classification.
But with or without the penalty, the Endless Sports crew of Saka, Suganami, and Ogawa won the ST-4 Championship – the team’s first in the class since 2016.
And in ST-5, the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo of Hideyoshi Nishizawa, Tobio Otani, Misaki Konishi, and Toshihiro Nogami won the race – and after back-to-back near misses, finally won the ST-5 class title, the very first Super Taikyu for Team NOPRO.
Konishi battled the #65 Over Drive Mazda Roadster (Shuichiro Hokazono/Tatsuya Ota/Sena Kuronuma/Takuma Ikeda) in the closing minutes – and Konishi outpaced Ota in the less powerful diesel Mazda2 to win the battle.
That pass would win them the championship, as the #88 Murakami Motors Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Daichi Okamoto/Ryohei Arioka/Soichiro Yoshida) didn’t have the pace or the strategy to finish better than fifth place. Team NOPRO won the ST-5 title by seven points.
It ends one of the longest championship droughts in professional/semi-pro sports car racing for NOPRO founder Nogami: His second Super Taikyu championship title came 33 years after his first – driving an Isuzu Gemini in the inaugural 1991 N1 Endurance Series season!
The #27 Maple Hiroshima Mazda Racing Roadster (Haruhiko Sugino/Yuga Furutani/Noriyuki Higuchi) and the #76 BUZZ Progress Racing Roadster (Ryosuke Moroi/Junpei Kato/Hitoshi Sakai/Takashi Nara) finished third and fourth in ST-5, completing a Mazda top-five lockout.
Seven out of eight ST-Q cars finished the race: Two laps behind the #92 GR Team Spirit Supra, the #230 NISMO Nissan Z Racing Concept (Kohei Hirate/Daiki Sasaki/Atsushi Miyake) finished 24th overall, and the improved #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Yutaka Seki/Kaoru Ijiri), featuring new carbon fibre body panels manufactured by Subaru’s aerospace division, was 31st overall.
The #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru HighPerformanceX Future Concept (Kazuhiro Ito/Hideki Yamauchi/Takuto Iguchi/Masafumi Hanazawa) finished 35th overall, and in the car’s first race since Autopolis, the #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 47 laps and finished 53rd overall.
The sole retirement from ST-Q was the #28 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 Future FR Concept (Eisuke Sasaki/Sho Tsuboi/Kazuya Oshima, Tomioka/Daisuke Toyoda). In anticipation of future Japanese emission laws, the exhaust was reworked and the car now runs on high-octane petrol instead of carbon-neutral fuel. Unfortunately, the #28 car went to the garage after the second red flag and never returned.
32,200 spectators came across Saturday and Sunday to watch this final race of the 2024 season, and while the long stoppages tested their patience, they were rewarded with a memorable finish to the 2024 Super Taikyu season.
2025 will be the first full season of the series’ new era under the stewardship of Super Taikyu Mirai Organisation (STMO) Chairman, Akio Toyoda – and we can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Images © STMO, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Craft-Bamboo Racing
