The 2022 ENEOS Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook held their opening five hour round at Suzuka Circuit, delivering a stellar race to ring in the new season. GTNET Motor Sports scored the overall and ST-X class victory: The #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 driven by Noboyuki Oyagi, Takayuki Aoki, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Natsu Sakaguchi won after a thrilling battle with the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R (Hiroaki Nagai/Yuta Kamimura/Daisuke Ito) – a battle that ended prematurely when the Porsche collided with an ST-5 class car at the Hairpin Corner.
The #16 Porsche led the opening laps in the hands of Hiroaki Nagai. On lap seven, the ST-5 class #67 Yamato Honda Fit 3RS of Ryohei Yasui collided with the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster of Tatsuya Tanigawa through 130R, sending the Honda crashing into the sponge barriers at the exit of the fast left-hand corner. Yasui was able to get out of his car uninjured. This resulted in a Full Course Yellow and a Safety Car. The benefactors were the #16 Porsche, the #23 TKRI/Matsunaga Construction Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the #81 Daishin GT-R, all of which started with their gentleman drivers on board.
Kazuto Kotaka in the #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3 took the lead on lap 15, and would hold that advantage until he pitted on lap 33 during the first cycle of routine pit work. Hideki Nagai took over the apr-run #31 Lexus with the race lead. But Kamimura, now at the wheel of the #16 Porsche for his first stint, easily caught and passed the younger of the Nagai brothers to take back the lead of the race, while the #23 TKRI AMG GT3, now driven by Yuya Motojima, moved up to second.
Kamimura led his stint, pitting on lap 66 to hand off to the reigning Super GT GT500 championship-winning manager Ito. After the second set of driver changes, Ito led from the #23 Mercedes of Yuhki Nakayama in second, and the #81 Nissan in third. Sakaguchi had taken over for Aoki on lap 60, and on lap 77 he passed Nakayama for second place.
On lap 95, the #81 Nissan made its final pit stop to change drivers to Fujinami. Then on lap 100, the ST-5 class #222 Honda Cars Tokai J-net Fit spun off at turn two and was stuck in the gravel. Anticipating a Full Course Yellow, the #16 Porsche made its final stop, with Kamimura getting his second stint. Just 3.3 seconds separated race leader Kamimura from second place Fujinami after four hours of racing.
On lap 105, Kamimura was caught up in a collision between two other cars at the S-curves, which allowed Fujinami to get past and take the lead of the race. Kamimura kept pursuing Fujinami for several laps, as the two leaders ran tail-to-nose for multiple laps. On lap 121, with less than 25 minutes left on the clock, Kamimura was able to pass Fujinami through turn two and retake the lead, seemingly for good.
With less than 20 minutes left, Kamimura was approaching slower traffic near the Hairpin, when he closed in too quickly on the #50 Love Drive Roadster of Yoshihito Shinoda. The contact resulted in a damaged bonnet and bumper on the Porsche, and the damage proved to be terminal. The #16 Porsche was brought to the garage and retired less than 17 minutes from the finish, and the #50 Mazda also retired from damage in the crash.
It was an unsatisfying end to an otherwise brilliant prolonged battle for the win. Fujinami needed to make a splash-and-go stop on lap 127 to make it to the end, but otherwise, he was easily able to take the chequered flag after five hours and 132 laps of racing – giving GTNET Motor Sports a victory to open the season. It’s their first win since the 2021 Fuji 24 Hours; they were excluded following race in Autopolis after a success weight infringement, but this time, they get to keep the victory.
The #23 TKRI AMG GT3 of DAISUKE (Daisuke Matsunaga), Motojima, and Nakayama finished 18 seconds behind in second place, earning a podium in their ST-X class debut. The #31 Denso RC F GT3 of Hideki Nagai, Koki Saga, and Kotaka finished a lap off the lead in third. The #888 Grid Motorsports AMG GT3 (Daisuke Yamawaki/Haruki Kurosawa/Shinichi Takagi) ran a quiet race and finished fourth.
Power steering issues knocked the #62 HELM Motorsports GT-R GT3 (Yutaka Toriba/Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki) out of podium contention; they were running behind the #16 Porsche before going to the garage on lap 70. They still took the chequered flag and were classified 39th overall, fifth in class.
The #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Ryo Ogawa, Togo Suganami, and Shintaro Kawabata finished fifth overall. Their car runs outside homologation in the ST-Q class this season, using Endless’ Mono6 GT 2022 racing brakes and Function dampers. With these special parts and all-pro driver trio, they finished a lap ahead of the ST-Z class winners.
ST-1 class victory went to the #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto), which finished sixth overall; they were 33.4 seconds ahead of the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Yuichi Nakayama/Kota Matsui), which finished seventh overall and second in ST-1 class.
The debut race for the #47 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Tatsuya Hoshino/Manabu Orido/Kenji Hama) ended with a ninth place overall finish (third in class), after spinning from contact with the ST-2 class #13 Endless Toyota GR Yaris at Gyaku Bank Curve.
In ST-Z, it was a Toyota GR Supra GT4 1-2 finish, led by the #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra GT4 of Hiro Hayashi, Katsuyuki Hiranaka, and Eijiro Shimizu – who scored SHADE Racing’s first ST-Z class victory.
The two-time and defending ST-4 champions took the class lead after the first round of pit stops, jumping ahead of the #310 GR Garage Mito Inter GR Supra GT4 (Manabu Yamazaki/Sho Tsuboi/Seita Nonaka/Shinya Hosokawa), which led the first stint with reigning GT500 champion Tsuboi at the wheel. Shimizu, who just turned 19 this past week, would put SHADE Racing in the lead again after overtaking the #500 5Zigen Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Kakunoshin Ohta/Toshihiro Kaneishi) on lap 100.
Hayashi, Hiranaka, and Shimizu would finish eighth overall, 43.9 seconds ahead of the #310 Toyota of Yamazaki, Tsuboi, Nonaka, and Hosokawa, which finished tenth overall. Otsuka, Ohta, and Kaneishi finished 11th – despite gentleman driver Otsuka’s best efforts, he was unable to hold off Shimizu or reigning Japanese F4 champion Nonaka down the stretch.
Behind them, the #22 Porsche EBI Waimarama Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport (KIZUNA/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano/Riki Okusa) finished 12th, the #111 Access Hiroshima+ GR Supra GT4 (Toshiyuki Matsuda/Yuga Furutani/Yoshiaki Nakamura/Yasutaka Hinoi) 13th, the #34 Techno/SUN’S/Monocolle Ginetta G55 GT4 (Yuki Tanaka/Hironobu Yasuda/Kazuki Oki/Shinji Ikegami) 14th, and the #19 BRP/Sunrise Blvd 718 Cayman GT4 MR (Kenji Suzuki/TAKESHI (Suehiro)/Takahisa Ohno/Koichi Okumura) 15th.
The #75 Team Noah Honda Civic TCR (Toshiro Tsukada/Yoshikazu Sobu/Shigetomo Shimono/Shingo Wada) won ST-TCR unopposed. They finished 16th overall, while the #97 Racer HFDP Civic (Mitsuhiro Endo/Shinji Nakano/Kazuma Nishimura/Yusuke Mitsui) retired from the race due to power steering failure.
ST-3 produced good racing throughout the day, with the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS (Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) grabbing the class win and finishing 17th overall.
The plush GreenBrave Crown grabbed the lead by undercutting the #39 Air Buster/Winmax Lexus RC 350 (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Takashi Itoh/Hirotaka Ishii/Takuya Otaki) in the first cycle of routine pit stops, and never conceded the net lead as Kawaai held off a hard-charging Tomibayashi in the final laps to win by 3.3 seconds. The debuting #311 Team Fukushima Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Yusuke Shiotsu/Tsugio Matsuda/Ai Miura/Kazuki Hiramine) completed the ST-3 podium.
21st overall was the ST-2 class winning #225 KTMS Toyota GR Yaris (Hibiki Taira/Rin Arakawa/Jiei Okuzumi), which led a GR Yaris 1-2 in class. They ran tail-to-nose with the #13 Endless GR Yaris (Reimei Ito/Mizuki Ishizaka/Masaya Hanazato) for much of the race, but the late race collision with the D’station Vantage GT8R ultimately cost the Endless GR Yaris a chance at victory; they finished 42.8 seconds behind the class win. Despite fuel economy issues, the #59 DAMD Motul ED Subaru WRX STI (Manabu Osawa/Hitoshi Gotoh/Hideto Yasuoka) finished third in class.
The pole-sitting #6 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) lost an engine after the first hour and retired from the race.
ST-5 served up late-race heroics as the #72 Öhlins NATS Mazda Roadster (Tetsuya Yamano/Makoto Kanai/Toshiya Nojima) grabbed the class lead with seven minutes left in the clock; the ageless GT300 and gymkhana legend Yamano did his best rendition of Fernando Alonso on Michael Schumacher, by passing the #66 odula TONE Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Daichi Okamoto) around the outside of 130R for the class win (30th overall). Kanto finished just 2.8 seconds adrift in the reigning champions’ #66 Roadster.
It was an all-Mazda podium completed by the #17 DXL/Aragosta NOPRO Demio (Kazunari Yoshioka/Tobio Ohtani/Yuya Tezuka/Yoshihiro Kato) in third place.
All four of the ‘innovative cars’ running in ST-Q finished the race with minimal trouble. Best of the bunch was the #28 ORC Rookie Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept driven by Naoya Gamou, Daisuke Toyoda, Kazuya Oshima, and Ryuta Ukai, which finished in 28th place overall, completing 115 laps.
They had some great wheel-to-wheel battles with the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Koichi Hirota), which finished a minute behind in 29th. Both cars are powered using synthetic fuel derived from biomass, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide.
The #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda2 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki/Ikuo Maeda) completed 108 laps and finished 35th overall, which would have put them sixth in ST-5. And the #32 ORC ROOKIE Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept (Masahiro Sasaki/MORIZO (Akio Toyoda)/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 97 laps and needed eight pit stops to finish the race; refuelling time for the hydrogen-engine Corolla has been reduced to just a minute and a half, and the car managed ten laps per stint between fuel stops.
The Super Taikyu Series returns for its crown jewel event, the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, on 4-5 June.
Images courtesy of the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
