While much of the sports car racing world’s attention was laser-focused on Le Mans, SRO Japan Cup returned to action at Sportsland Sugo last weekend.
The big story from the two 60-minute sprint races at Sportsland Sugo was Max Racing’s Race 2 victory on Sunday: Yudai Uchida and Yuya Motojima drove the #24 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO to a popular victory in the team’s first weekend back in major sports car racing.
Originally founded by businessman and amateur racing driver Tsuyoshi “Go Max” Oono, Max Racing enjoyed success in the Super Taikyu Series and the SUPER GT GT300 class, helping to kickstart the careers of drivers like Atsushi Miyake, who now races in the SUPER GT GT500 class as a Nissan factory driver.
Oono passed away suddenly in 2022, but Max Racing continued to race in his memory until August 2023, when the team’s Toyota GR Supra GT300 suffered terminal fire damage. Shortly after, Max Racing announced it would cease all racing activities.
But last July, Max Racing began to resurface and confirmed plans to return to racing in SRO Japan Cup. They hired multi-time Super Taikyu champion Bronze driver, Uchida, and reigning SUPER GT GT300 Champion Motojima, as their drivers. Legendary Japanese driver Akira Iida manages the revived team, accompanied by assistant manager Kimiya Sato.
Uchida and Motojima finished fifth in Race 1, and then won Race 2 after Uchida took the lead late in the race against his fellow Am drivers.
Shinji Takei and Ukyo Sasahara won Race 1 on Saturday and finished second in Race 2 on Sunday. Bingo Racing with LM Corsa introduced a new car this weekend – the #9 Ferrari 296 GT3, which will contest the Japan Cup while Bingo Racing’s fan-favourite Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R prepares to run the 49th annual Suzuka 1000km in September.
Takei and Sasahara currently lead the GT3 Drivers’ Standings by eight points over Uchida and Motojima.
In third was the #296 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing Ferrari driven by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Shintaro Kawabata, who posted third-place finishes in both races, ahead of the #666 seven x seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Hiroyuki “Bankcy” Ogawa and Kiyoto Fujinami.
The #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari (Yorikatsu Tsujiko/Kei Cozzolino) finished second in Race 1 – in the middle of a Ferrari podium sweep – but in Race 2, the car took damage in a four-car accident at the first corner, then crashed in the final corner at halfway.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia’s #39 GR Supra GT4 EVO2, driven by Haridarma Manoppo and TGR-DC young driver Seita Nonaka, took top honours in the three-car GT4 category in both races.
Porsche Carrera Cup Japan veteran Tiger Wu swept the GTC class in his #888 Bingo Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup.
Japan Cup will return to action as part of the first SRO PowerTour event of the season, held at Fuji Speedway on 11-13 July.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
