One week before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ENEOS Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone went to Fuji Speedway for its signature event, the 11th edition of the NAPAC Fuji 24 Hours Race.
And it was a race where history was made: The #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO driven by Daisuke Matsunaga, Tatsuya Kataoka, Yuhki Nakayama, and Yuya Motojima won for the second year in a row; the win gave Mercedes-AMG its record-tying fifth overall win at the Fuji 24H, and lead driver/team founder Tatsuya Kataoka set a new record with his fourth overall win in the event, all in consecutive years.
Under cloudy skies, the race began Saturday at 3:00 PM. The #81 GTNET MotorSports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 which won the pole position on Friday would drive off to an early lead with Natsu Sakaguchi behind the wheel, but 25 minutes in, Ryo Ogawa in the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 caught and passed Sakaguchi for the overall lead.
The orange Daishin-sponsored #81 Nissan dropped to fourth by the end of Sakaguchi’s first stint, meanwhile, Tomonobu Fujii in the #777 D’station Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo overtook Ogawa for the lead.
Not long after the Saturday night fireworks show, apr’s hopes of victory took a fatal blow when the #31 Lexus went to the garage, not for its required ten-minute maintenance stop, but to solve a loss of engine power. A cracked engine manifold put the #31 car over 20 laps down and out of contention for the win.
Meanwhile, the ruby red #777 D’station Ferrari had built a commanding lead in the night-time hours, thanks to the driving of pros like Tomonobu Fujii, Yu Kanamaru, and Tsubasa Kondo – but when the race reached half-distance early Sunday morning, ‘A’ driver Satoshi Hoshino hadn’t yet gotten behind the wheel for a stint. TKRI’s #23 Mercedes-AMG ran second, followed by the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG in third and the #81 GTNET Nissan in fourth.
Motojima in the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG worked valiantly to close down the gap to the leading #777 D’station Ferrari to less than a minute, and as the sun came up over Fuji Speedway, D’station Racing brought the Ferrari in for its ten-minute maintenance stop with less than nine hours to go. Afterwards, D’station finally plugged Hoshino in for his first stint, perhaps hoping that the initial forecasts of heavy rain would allow the team to burn Hoshino’s required drive time under a Safety Car.
But then with less than eight hours to go, Hoshino drove the #777 Ferrari back to the garage after its left headlamp stopped working. He had collided with a GT4 car moments ago, and the right-front tie rod broke, which cost the team over 35 minutes’ worth of repairs. The dominant car for most of the race had now fallen out of contention.
The #81 GTNET Nissan, #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG, and #23 TKRI all took their maintenance stops before the three-quarter mark of the race. With six hours left, the #81 Nissan led from the #23 Mercedes-AMG, but both cars were on different pit strategies, and to add another wrinkle, the rain finally started to arrive, first as a light mist.
That light rain turned into a sudden downpour with four hours and 30 minutes to go, prompting GTNET’s ‘A’ driver Ryuichiro Ōyagi to bring the #81 Nissan in for wet tyres. Meanwhile, TKRI’s ‘A’ driver Daisuke bravely stayed out on slick tyres, and only spun once due to contact with another vehicle. By that point, the heavy rain shower had lifted and a dry line was beginning to form on the track. Daisuke came in with about four hours to go to hand the car over to Kataoka, who would go with slick tyres.
Ōyagi, still on wet weather tyres, soon began to struggle to find wet patches as the track continued to dry, and Kataoka was as many as 10 seconds per lap quicker on his slick tyres. From a minute behind with four hours to go, Kataoka took the lead with three hours and 35 minutes left.
Three-time Fuji 24H winner Kiyoto Fujinami relieved Ōyagi in the #81 Nissan, and then Iori Kimura took over for the final double stint to the finish. With less than 75 minutes to go, Motojima got back aboard the #23 Mercedes-AMG to take the car home to the finish.
The rain returned in the last hour, and GTNET took a massive gamble with a switch back to wet tyres for Kimura’s final stint. Heavier rain would come, but not for as long or as hard as the Daishin crew would have hoped for.
After 24 hours of racing, the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG, still adorned in its Marin Kitagawa livery which debuted in Suzuka, took the chequered flag to win the crown jewel race of the Super Taikyu Series. Despite eight Full Course Yellow interventions and changing weather conditions, the quartet of Daisuke, Kataoka, Nakayama, and Motojima completed 793 laps, only eight behind the all-time distance record (801 laps) set in 2019.
“Although we’ve secured back-to-back wins, our rivals were formidable once again this year,” said Kataoka. “Against that backdrop, we simply focused on doing everything we could, concentrating on avoiding penalties and mistakes, and we managed to pull it off. This year in particular, we were able to stick to the race plan we’d drawn up beforehand without making any changes.
“We were a little concerned about how the rain might affect things, but Daisuke and Motojima drove the car superbly.”
This was TKRI’s first Fuji 24H win since the team’s technical structure changed hands: With Takao Kohno and RS Fine retiring from front-line racing activities, Kim Kyon-mo and his KIM International company now support TKRI (along with sister team Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO in SUPER GT). “Winning under this new management structure is a significant achievement, but we intend to remain focused as we head into the remainder of the season,” added Kataoka.
The #81 GTNET Nissan of Ōyagi, Sakaguchi, Fujinami, and Kimura (plus Kohei Tokumasu, who only ran in practice and qualifying during his GT3 debut) finished second, a minute and 19.725 seconds behind.
Rounding out the podium was the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG of Jeffrey Lee, Jayden Ojeda, Sun Jingzu, Adderly Fong, and Tom Kalender, finishing 14 laps down after recovering from a broken drive shaft. The contributions of Ojeda and Kalender, two of Mercedes-AMG’s junior works drivers, proved critical in a race where Kakunoshin Ohta was unavailable due to his Le Mans participation.
Behind them, the #31 apr Lexus (Hideki Nagai/Naoya Gamou/Ryo Ogawa/Koki Saga/Sena Sakaguchi/Hiroaki Nagai) finished fourth overall, and the #777 D’station Ferrari (Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Yu Kanamaru/Tsubasa Kondo) finished fifth following their respective issues.
Finishing sixth was the #182 R Zero Racing Mercedes-AMG (Masashi Fujii/Sean Walkinshaw/Fumihisa “Fuzzy” Matsumoto/Yuki Fujii/Hiroyuki Yamamoto/Mark Sekiya), 32 laps off the lead in its debut race. Only the #44 Team Pop Race Mercedes-AMG (Daigo Saito/Marchy Lee/Andy Yan/Tung Ho-Pin) failed to finish the 24 hours from the ST-X (GT3) class.
For the second consecutive year, Team ZeroOne’s Nissan Z NISMO GT4 prevailed to win the ST-Z (GT4) class. After a race-long battle with Saitama Green Brave’s #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 for the win, a pit-lane speeding penalty to the #52 Toyota handed the class win to the #25 Nissan of Ryuichiro Otsuka, Tsugio Matsuda, Ryuichiro Tomita, Takuro Shinohara, Ronnie Quintarelli, and Masataka Yanagida.
The green Toyota and red Nissan battled for a lot of the early hours but a 60-second penalty stop (for speeding in the pits) put the #52 Green Brave Toyota down to the two Nissans, as the #20 Team Impul Z rose into contention. A Full Course Yellow for the stranded #44 Pop Race Mercedes-AMG GT3 helped the #52 Toyota get back into contention as the car had pitted before the FCY was deployed.
And with the Saitama Green Brave team’s superior pace overnight, the #52 and #25 were once again the main contenders for the win.
But the final round of pit stops would prove decisive. With 30 minutes left, both of the ST-Z leaders needed at least one more stop for fuel to get to the finish. With the rain coming down, the #25 Nissan also took wet tyres along with a splash of fuel, and the #52 Toyota reacted by taking fuel and wet tyres, too.
Seita Nonaka left the pits in the #52 Green Brave Toyota with the lead, and took the chequered flag first in ST-Z, ahead of the #25 Nissan. But after the race, the #52 Toyota was given a 105-second post-race time penalty for a pit work violation; the engine was found to have been turned on before the car was dropped off its air jacks and all other pit work had been completed.
Instead of winning the race by over 40 seconds, the #52 Toyota of Kota Matsui, Hiroki Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, Seita Nonaka, and Hibiki Taira would finish second in class by 62.440 seconds.
Rounding out the ST-Z podium was the #22 Kokusai Group Sports Team Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport (Ryosuke Kure/Rintaro Kubo/Shota Kitazono/Naoya Yamano/Ryoma Henzan/Keishi Ishikawa) finishing in ninth place overall.
The rest of the ST-Z top five featured the #20 Team Impul Nissan (Takashi Matsumoto/Kazuki Oki/Kazuki Hiramine/Jules Tréluyer/Bertrand Baguette) and the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Masaki Kano/Riki Okusa/Hironobu Yasuda/Igor Omura Fraga/Tadasuke Makino).
With a mostly trouble-free run, D’station Racing’s #47 Porsche 992 Cup driven by Kenji Hama (Kenichi Hamano), Tatsuya Hoshino, Tetsuya Tanaka, Taiga Kabaki, and Jake Parsons finished tenth overall and won the duel for the ST-1 class by 105 laps while the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX was plagued with several mechanical problems leaving it to finish 36th overall. This is the #47 D’station Porsche’s second straight Fuji 24H class win.
Endless Sports endured a day of mixed emotions, the high of which was an ST-2 class win for its #13 Toyota GR Yaris driven by Masaya Hanazato, Mizuki Ishizaka, Reimei Ito, and Hitoshi Okada (18th overall), only 66 seconds ahead of the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda Civic Type R (Makoto Kanai/Tetsuya Yamano/Toshiya Nojima/Takumi Minamisawa/Hiroki Otsu).
When the rain first came down on Sunday morning, the all-wheel drive #13 GR Yaris stayed on slick tyres while the #72 Honda came in for wets, a decision which paid off well for the Endless Sports crew.
The #225 KTMS GR Yaris (Riona Tomishita/Kiyoshi Umegaki/Rin Arakawa/Shunji Okumoto) finished a further five laps adrift but came home with the final ST-2 podium position. The drama in the class came early, punctuated by two mechanical problems for Shinryo Racing Team’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xes – including a spectacular fire on the #6 Mitsubishi, and the #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic also suffered a massive engine failure.
Birth Racing Project’s first-gen #19 Cupra TCR of Sesshu Kondo, Takeshi Suehiro, Takashi Kochiya, Taiga Imoto, Keisuke Ohara, and Takumi Ishii had to change its engine before the race and started at an early deficit, but long-term mechanical issues for the only other ST-TCR entry (the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS3 LMS) ensured that the #19 BRP Cupra (23rd overall) would cruise to the class win for the second year in a row.
And while the #250 BRP Ford Mustang Dark Horse R (Anna Inotsume/Takahisa Ohno/Koichi Okumura/Yuzuki Takemoto/Rina Ito/Ryoji Matsumoto) was plagued with fuel pump and differential problems during the race, the car still had enough in it to be on the track at the finish, classified 54th overall out of 54 finishers after completing 210 laps. Certainly, though, the sole ST-USA class entry will hope for more in future races.
Tracy Sports took a double victory headlined by the #39 Lexus RC 350 of Yuji Takahashi, Takashi Ito, Hitoshi Sakai, Shinya Fujita, Takemi Takasago and Kazuaki Yasui (25th overall) taking a runaway victory over the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing BMW M2 Racing, which has still yet to find any pace to challenge the more well-traveled Lexus this year.
It’s the third straight ST-3 class win for drivers Ito and Fujita, and four in a row for Tracy Sports’ RC 350 at the Fuji 24H.
Tracy Sports’ #41 Toyota GR86 driven by Takumi Shima, Yusuke Tomibayashi, Yohei Maruyama, Jun Hashimoto, Yuki Ohta, and Masataka Inoue (26th overall) would come through to take the win in the ST-4 class in the final hour, after the class-leading #3 Endless Sports GR86 dropped out of the lead due to a mechanical problem with 68 minutes left.
It’s Tracy Sports’ first time winning both ST-3 and ST-4 at the Fuji 24 Hours, as well as the fifth win in a row for the current-generation Toyota GR86.
The #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kyosuke Inomata/Yuta Fujiwara/Tatsuya Tanigawa/Kunihiro Miyazaki/Hiyu Ikeuchi/Takayuki Takechi) finished second in class to split up a potential GR86 lockout, while Endless Sports repaired the #3 GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Togo Suganami/Rikuto Kobayashi/Atsushi Shimatani/Daichi Okamoto) quickly enough to salvage a third-place finish in class.
ST-5R (‘R’ as in rear-wheel drive, and as in Roadster) was won by the second consecutive year by Murakami Motors’ #88 Mazda Roadster driven by Hiroyuki Murakami, Sena Kuronuma, Soichiro Yoshida, and Tatsuya Ota (33rd overall), taking the win by 59 seconds over the #610 Koshido Racing Roadster (Motoharu Sato/Yusaku Shibata/Yasuji Asai/Kengo Yamamoto/Kento Omiya) in second.
The #610 Roadster was delayed by two 60-second penalty stops – one for a pit work violation and the second for multiple track limits breaches – in third place was the #27 Maple Hiroshima Racing Team Roadster (Toshiyuki Matsuda/Yuga Furutani/Sota Muto/Takafumi Katsuki/Shohei Oda).
And in ST-5F (as in front-wheel drive), Sakae Motorsports’ popular #11 Honda Fit3 RS, affectionately known as ‘Kōdan-chan’ and sporting its road safety vehicle livery, picked up the win thanks to drivers Ken “Piston” Nishizawa, Yu Oda, Hidenori Miwa, Ryohei Oshima, Jungo Seto, and Yusei Yotsukura (39th overall). It was the Hokkaido-based team’s first Super Taikyu win, and it came despite a late scare with five hours and 35 minutes left when the car momentarily lost power.
Thankfully, the rest of the team’s race was trouble-free, and a loving tribute to long-time Kōdan-chan driver Hajime Omono, who passed away last July after finishing second with his team at Fuji.
AndLegal Racing’s sole surviving #821 Honda (Hiroshi Ueda/Katsuhiro Sato/Yasuo Kumagai/Tomohiro Uchida/Suguru Kawana/Ryuichi Furuida) finished second in class, followed by the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda Demio (Kyohei Kawamura/Misaki Konishi/Yoshihiro Kato/Hiroaki Yamamoto/Toshihiko Nogami/Yoshinari Fujiwara) in third.
Of the five ST-Q cars entered, the highest-finishing car was the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru “HiPerfX” Version II (Kazuhiro Ito/Hideki Yamauchi/Takuto Iguchi/Masafumi Hanazawa/Susumu Ito) which completed 721 laps and finished 16th overall.
And thanks to the introduction of a new superconducting liquid hydrogen pump, the innovative #32 Toyota Gazoo ROOKIE Racing GR Corolla H2 Concept (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya Oshima/Daisuke Toyoda/Nirei Fukuzumi) would record its best-ever outing at the Fuji 24H, completing 483 laps in 24 hours and finishing 51st overall.
Only the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Future Concept failed to finish out of the five ST-Q entries; this car was equipped with a new CO² emission-capturing intake and storage tank, though it was a fuel system failure which prevented the car from capturing more than the 0.8kg of emissions that it ended up with throughout the race.
This year’s Fuji 24 Hours also recorded a new event attendance record with 64,900 spectators across three days, up 21 per cent over the previous year and demonstrating why, despite its proximity to Le Mans and without a bigger GT3 presence, racing fans from Japan and other corners of the world can’t help but be fascinated by this festive 24-hour endurance race.
Images © STMO
