History has been made – For the first time in SUPER GT Series history, the season-opening round has been won in both classes by the same driver pair and team in consecutive years. In a race that could be described as an instant classic, the #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra of Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita survived a late-race scare after an otherwise commanding performance to win the opening round at Okayama International Circuit for the second year in a row.
In GT300, 2020 champions and 2021 runners-up Kiyoto Fujinami and Joao Paulo de Oliveira in the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 repeated their victory from last year, taking the checkered flag after starting fifth on the grid, while pit stop drama left the polesitting #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of reigning champions Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi out of contention.
A two-day weekend crowd of over 19,000 fans saw Sunday’s 82 lap race under the most beautiful spring conditions. As predicted, it was a bit warmer than on Saturday with ambient temperatures of 23°C. Since the wind was a bit calmer, the track temperature was twelve degrees hotter (33°C) at the start of the race compared to qualifying, leading to an additional challenge for all 42 competing teams across both classes. During the 300km affair, the track temperature even rose up to 35°C.
It appeared as almost none of the GT500 class drivers wanted to take any risks once the lights went out, as pretty much everyone held a respectful distance to their rivals. Defending series champion Yuhi Sekiguchi (#39 DENSO Kobelco SARD GR Supra) had another game plan, however, and immediately attacked the leading #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra of starting driver Kazuya Oshima, who successfully blocked the attempt made by his Toyota stablemate.
In the back of the field, Yuji Kunimoto (#19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra) couldn’t quite find his pace in the opening laps and was immediately relegated to 12th. Meanwhile, Nobuharu Matsushita (#17 Astemo NSX-GT) showed his skill in his first GT500 race for Honda, taking a total of three positions in only two laps before finding himself in a close battle with Ronnie Quintarelli’s #23 Motul Autech Z for eighth.
It only took about five laps before the leading GT500 cars had to carefully manage the GT300 traffic, not an easy task considering the narrow layout of the former F1 Pacific Grand Prix venue.
Following a stellar pass against GT500 newcomer Giuliano Alesi (#36 au TOM’s GR Supra), new Nissan recruit Bertrand Baguette (#12 Calsonic Impul Z) took advantage of the situation to take the fifth position from Daiki Sasaki (#24 Realize Corporation Advan Z) after a textbook manoeuvre in the Hairpin on lap eight.
After yesterday’s qualifying, Kenta Yamashita expressed that ROOKIE Racing’s plan was to just escape from the pack. And Oshima just did that. It only took him a few laps to dash away from the clutches of Sekiguchi, increasing his lead significantly. After seven laps, he already put a gap of almost three seconds between the two Toyota GR Supras. By lap ten, he increased his lead to ten seconds. By the time he pitted the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra on lap 31, Oshima had a cushion of 17 seconds between himself and the next car. It was a commanding performance, synonymous of the video clip of popular mascot character Funassyi running away from explosions on a Japanese variety show – fitting, given the explosive nature of the racing that unfolded behind him!
With Sekiguchi not being able to match the pace of Oshima, he instead had to defend his position against a hard-charging Tadasuke Makino (#100 Stanley NSX-GT). On lap 16, both Yuji Tachikawa (#38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra) and Bertrand Baguette joined the fight for second, turning it into a four-way dance. A lap later, Makino locked up his tyres while under pressure from Tachikawa, with the three-time champion overtaking the #100 Stanley NSX-GT to make it a Toyota 1-2-3 lockout. With the track temperatures increasing to 35°C, Sekiguchi was visibly struggling on his Bridgestone tyres, and had to give up the second position to Tachikawa on lap 22.
Lap 29 saw the start of the pit stop sequence, with the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa -> Hiroaki Ishiura), #100 Stanley NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino -> Naoki Yamamoto), #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi -> Tomoki Nojiri) and #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto -> Sena Sakaguchi) being the first to dive in for their mandatory driver change. Despite the Team Kunimitsu crew working about a second faster than the Cerumo mechanics, Ishiura stayed ahead of Yamamoto when rejoining the track.
Two laps later, race leader Oshima handed the baton to Yamashita. Surprisingly, the pit stop time of the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra was the longest with 42.2 seconds. In comparison: The pit work of the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD (Yuhi Sekiguchi -> Yuichi Nakayama) crew a lap later only took 37 seconds.
But thanks to ROOKIE Racing’s 17-second lead before the pit stop, they were in no danger of losing the position. Of the machines in the lead group, the #12 Calsonic Impul Z (Bertrand Baguette -> Kazuki Hiramine) was the last to stop on lap 32. The strategy worked out for them, as Hiramine suddenly found himself ahead of both the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra and #100 Stanley NSX-GT.
Nakayama couldn’t find his groove after taking over the car from his teammate and quickly had to give up his position to both Hiramine and Ishiura. The #16 Red Bull Mugen NSX-GT opted for a different strategy, staying out the longest, before Toshiki Oyu finally pitted on lap 52 – two laps shy of the maximum stint length. In the end, he and Ukyo Sasahara finished outside the points in 12th.
Once the Red Bull-sponsored Honda was out of the way, Kenta Yamashita cycled back to the lead. But now, his advantage over the second-placed #12 Calsonic Impul Z was only ten seconds. Meanwhile, Nakayama’s struggles continued, with no choice but to give up his fourth position to Yamamoto on lap 66 before falling down even further in the order.
On lap 68, the race took a drastic turn, when Shinichi Takagi (#96 K-tunes RC F) crashed into the back of Kohei Hirate’s #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z after the latter tried to lap the GT300 veteran on the outside of the Hairpin. Both cars suffered heavy damage but were able to continue at first. Because the bonnet on Takagi’s car came loose, the two-time GT300 champion had zero visibility and hit the inside concrete wall of the first corner, before ultimately coming to a stop in the gravel pit.
Race director Naoki Hattori immediately neutralized the race with the first of two full course yellow periods. Thankfully, both drivers were uninjured. Unlike Takagi, Hirate made it back to the pits after his Kondo Racing Nissan lost a big chunk of bodywork, ending a potential top-ten result.
Immediately after the restart on lap 69, Yamamoto closed the ga to the two cars ahead of him, turning the battle for second into another 3-way dance, while Yamashita was leading comfortably with over 13 seconds. On lap 72, Ishiura positioned himself on the outside of the Attwood Corner to overtake Hiramine. Yamamoto immediately took advantage of it and went to the inside. In the most spectacular moment of the race, the three cars flew across the backstraight side-by-side, with two-time champion Yamamoto pulling off a stunning double move, overtaking both of his rivals at the same time in the Hairpin!
However, the race was far from over. Another FCY intervention with a mere five laps to go, caused by the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 running into the back of the #7 Studie BMW M4, slowed the field down for a brief moment. Directly after the restart with four laps remaining, Yamashita suffered a scary moment, when GT300’s Yoshiaki Katayama (#6 Team LeMans Audi R8 LMS) had a half-spin in front of him. The 2019 GT500 champion couldn’t fully avoid the Audi and made contact, causing slight damage to the front of the car.
Even before the FCY, Yamashita lost almost over a second per lap over Yamamoto in GT300 traffic. But after the situation at the restart, the gap became even narrower. But in the end, Yamashita survived this late-race scare with 1.7 seconds ahead of Yamamoto. Despite winning, Yamashita couldn’t fully express his happiness after the race.
“Oshima’s stint was really good. Before the race I said that I would be happy if he could hand me over the car with a ten-second lead. In the end, it was 17 seconds, so I had no choice but to win,” said Yamashita. “I wanted to extend the gap even further, but it was tough to keep up the pace. I also had trouble with the GT300 cars, and then the Studie BMW went off in front of me. There was a full course yellow, and afterwards the car in front of me had a half-spin and we made contact. So, there were a lot of dangerous moments. Because the pace wasn’t good, the #100 caught up by a lot. Even though we won, I was not happy. That said, we still managed to win, which is good for our championship ambitions.”
Yamashita’s words from yesterday somewhat became true, as the finish ended up being a close affair, even if it was a bit too close for his personal liking. The victory marked Yamashita’s fourth career victory in GT500. Oshima picked up his eighth career win in SUPER GT’s top class – tying him with Hirate, Ryo Michigami, and Richard Lyons. In the winner’s press conference, Oshima expressed his surprise about today’s performance as well as talked about his concerns over the warmer temperatures:
“After winning last year’s season opener, we have grown considerably as a team over the past year. That’s why I came to the circuit thinking that we could achieve a good result. But I was surprised because I didn’t expect things to go this well. The car was in a really good shape and the tyres didn’t lose any grip until the end, so I think all of this is really thanks to the team. I have to admit that the track temperature was higher than expected for my stint, so I was wondering about the tyre degradation. However, after the 20-minute warm-up session, I talked with the engineers and we made some changes to the setup, which worked out well.”
After achieving a historic result, both Oshima and Yamashita already have their eyes on the championship. They think that qualifying for the Fuji 450km round could be quite the tough ordeal due to their heavy success weight, but since the race is longer, they have more chances to attack. “We have a few things to reflect on from this race. We need to improve those areas and then aim for our second consecutive win”, said Oshima.
After finishing third in qualifying, Tadasuke Makino was confident that the Team Kunimitsu crew will be able to bring the fight to Toyota. Their early pit stop strategy worked out well, despite losing a few positions at the end. But Naoki Yamamoto’s determination shined brightly, especially when he pulled the move of the race, overtaking two cars at the same time. The Japanese fans had a similar opinion and voted for the #100 Stanley NSX-GT squad to win the J SPORTS Best Performance Award.
On a weekend where the Honda camp was struggling, Team Kunimitsu showed the potential of the new Type S version of the NSX-GT. In a touching moment, team director Kazuhiro Kojima held a picture of the late Kunimitsu Takahashi up to the sky while his two drivers received their trophies on the podium.
Nissan got to celebrate a podium finish on the debut of the new Nissan Z GT500 thanks to a late-race charge by Tsugio Matsuda in the #23 Motul Autech Z. The two-time champion emerged ninth after the pit stops and slowly made his way to the top. Ahead of the first FCY he found himself on P6, before taking full advantage of his Michelin tyres, while others were struggling, giving proof to Ronnie Quintarelli’s feeling after pre-season testing about their long-run pace. Quite the different result compared to last year, when the NISMO pair was caught in a multi-car accident, ending their race early.
It also meant that all three GT500 manufacturers were represented on the podium, adding fuel to the hope of giving the fans a true three-way battle for the championship this year.
The #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra of Tachikawa/Ishiura barely missed out on their first podium finish since last year’s Autopolis round after two-time Super Formula champion Ishiura couldn’t hold the hard-charging Matsuda off.
Coming home fifth were Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi in the Michelin-clad #3 Craftsports Motul Z, who gained a stunning nine positions in the race after starting 14th. With the NDDP Racing crew essentially being the second NISMO car, their stellar performance further adds to the marque’s strong showing in the race, despite some hiccups in qualifying.
Alesi finished his first GT500 race sixth alongside reigning champion ShoTsuboi. The #36 au TOM’S GR Supra pair had somewhat of a low-key race, grabbing some important points towards their mission to successfully defend the premier class title. The #37 KeePer TOM’S squad with Sacha Fenestraz / Ritomo Miyata had a forgettable weekend on the other hand, finishing eleventh, one position shy of the points. After the race, Fenestraz said in a video message posted on the team’s official Twitter account that despite the difficult weekend, they’re confident going forward.
Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s Impul crew certainly would’ve hoped for a better result than seventh, considering Baguette and Hiramine were fighting for a podium in the middle of the race. However, in the later part of the race, Hiramine was visibly struggling, potentially because of the tyres, dropping multiple positions in the process. “We had a good race pace and we were in the mix, which bodes well for the rest of the season. The team was on top of the game and for a first race with a new car, we can say the result is positive.” said Baguette after the race. “Now we have to analyze why we lost so many places in the last laps.”
Similar to the #12 Calsonic Impul Z, the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra lost multiple positions in the second half of the 300km season opener. Nakayama couldn’t find his groove at all, which might’ve been related to a different tyre choice for his stint. He and reigning champion Sekiguchi finished a disappointing eighth position after starting second. The final two points positions went to the #8 ARTA NSX-GT of Nojiri/Fukuzumi and the #17 Astemo NSX-GT of Tsukakoshi/Matsushita.
The 2022 season in SUPER GT’s GT300 class started just like it last year: With a win by Kondo Racing’s duo of Fujinami and Oliveira. They achieved this feat starting from fourth last year, and they did the same coming from fifth this year.
Fujinami’s opening stint played a major role in their eventual success when he captured two positions in the opening lap alone. Ahead of him was rookie Riki Okusa (#10 TanaX Gainer GT-R), who set an immediate impression in his debut by diving into the first corner at the start to steal the second place away from veteran Morio Nitta (#96 K-Tunes RC F GT3). Ahead of them was defending champion Takuto Iguchi (#61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport), who successfully defended his pole position.
Iguchi controlled the race at first in his Dunlop-clad Subaru, but couldn’t quite escape the clutches of the also Dunlop-clad GT-R. Iguchi managed to only get a two second lead over Okusa, before the rookie was overtaken by fellow Nissan driver Fujinami at Redman Corner on lap 19. The 2020 GT300 champion pushed hard to nibble the blue boxer’s advantage away. On lap 22, Fujinami finally caught up with Iguchi. Just three laps later, Fujinami finally started his attack on the outside of the Hairpin. Although Iguchi resisted, Fujinami took advantage of the following left-handed corner to take the lead away from the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport.
Before that, Takashi Kobayashi (#18 UPGarage NSX GT3) surprised Okusa by braking late into the Hairpin to steal the third position away from the Gainer pilot. Shortly after Fujinami took the lead, the three Dunlop-clad machines of R&D Sport, Gainer and K-Tunes Racing were visibly struggling with their tyres, as their lap times dropped into the 1’30 range. Meanwhile, class leader Fujinami was still able to push further, increasing his gap to almost seven seconds before pitting on lap 37.
Just like during last year’s opening round, a special rule by the GT Association (GTA) mandated that all cars were obligated to change all four tyres once during the race. First of the drivers to come for a full service stop was new K2 R&D LEON Racing recruit Takuro Shinohara on lap 25, to hand over the #65 LEON Pyramid AMG to his teammate Naoya Gamou just as he reached his minimum stint length. An early pit stop strategy that would eventually work out splendidly for the Mercedes crew. Among the other early stoppers: The #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka -> Nobuteru Taniguchi) on lap 26, the new #7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara -> Augusto Farfus) on lap 30, the #9 Pacific Hololive NAC Ferrari (Naoki Yokomizo -> Kei Cozzolino) on lap 31 as well as the #18 UPGarage NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi -> Kakunoshin Ota).
Visibly struggling with his tyres, Iguchi opted to pit on lap 35 – and that’s when the drama unfolded for the R&D Sport squad. Just after Yamauchi tried to leave the pit stall, the EJ20 boxer engine wouldn’t suddenly fire.
The time in the pits must’ve felt like an eternity. 40 seconds. 50 seconds. 60 seconds. The numbers didn’t lie and they spelled disaster for the reigning champions. Only after one minute and five seconds was Yamauchi finally able to get the car going again. Yet another technical difficulty dropped the blue boxer down to P15 at first. To further add to the squad’s issues, Yamauchi reported a potential slow puncture. The crew immediately had some replacement tyres ready, but the problem vanished as quickly as it came. Perhaps the low tyre pressure made the Dunlop rubber feel weird on his first laps after the stop.
Subaru’s drama opened the way for other teams, with almost all of the early stoppers emerging behind the Kondo Racing Nissan, led by rookie Kakunoshin Ota ahead of Cozzolino, Gamou and Farfus. Once the final two cars in the class – namely the #360 RunUp Rivaux GT-R (Takayuki Aoki / Atsushi Tanaka) and the #5 Mach Syaken Air Buster MC86 Mach Go (Yusuke Tomibayashi / Reiji Hiraki) – came in for their pit stops, Oliveira in the #56 Realize GT-R GT3 had a five-second lead over Ota in the UPGarage NSX GT3.
A spin on lap 60 in Hobbs Corner by Takashi Kogure (#88 Weibo Primez Lamborghini GT3) ended his and Yuya Motojima’s hopes for a finish in the points. The previously mentioned accident of the #96 K-tunes RC F GT3, when Shinichi Takagi crashed into the back of Kohei Hirate’s GT500 machine, caused the first of two full course yellow periods – and brought an end to the ambitions of GT300’s “Golden Combination” to score points in their first race since their reunion.
After the restart on lap 69, Yoshiaki Katayama (#6 Team LeMans Audi R8) emerged victorious in a close battle against Farfus, taking P5 from the Brazilian. Farfus couldn’t quite keep up with Katayama’s Audi, but instead had to defend against rookie Iori Kimura in the #55 ARTA NSX GT3. The latter completely misjudged his braking point going into the Hairpin and torpedoed the #7 Studie BMW M4 into the gravel pit, from which Farfus wasn’t able to escape.
Kimura, on the other hand, completely destroyed his bonnet and the second FCY had to get activated with only five laps to go. Kimura managed to nurse the damaged ARTA Honda to the checkered flag in ninth, but received a 40-second time penalty after the race, dropping him and teammate Hideki Mutoh down to 15th. After the race, Kimura immediately went to August Farfus to personally apologize for the mistake.
One lap before the second FCY, Gamou stole the final spot of the podium away from Cozzolino after the latter couldn’t keep up with his worn out tyres anymore.
Oliveira took the chequered flag for the #56 Realize GT-R GT3 with a comfortable lead of 14.7 seconds over the #18 UPGarage NSX GT3, perfectly controlling the second half of the race. Immediately afterwards, Kiyoto Fujinami dashed to his teammate to celebrate their first victory of the season with a big hug.
“I think it was a perfect race,” said Oliveira. “Fujinami had a great start and controlled the car throughout his stint. It was a smart and intelligent stint worthy of a champion. He didn’t panic at all and overtook the over cars at just the right moment. My stint was very smooth thanks to Fujinami giving me information, which helped me choose the right tyre for my stint. After making some adjustments to the set-up yesterday, the overall feeling of the car was great. I’m happy, because it really was a perfect race today.”
Fujinami admitted that he was a bit struggling choosing the right tyres for the weekend due to the warmer temperatures. “Because of the hot temperatures on Sunday, I wasn’t sure what tyres to choose for the weekend. But once the race started, the tyres were fine and the car ran even better than expected. During the tests, my long runs were quite good, so even though we couldn’t qualify in front, I was confident in my long runs.”
By repeating last year’s opening round win this Sunday, both Fujinami and Oliveira picked up their fifth and fourth career wins in GT300, respectively. Combined with his nine wins in GT500, Oliveira has now climbed to the highest step of the podium in SUPER GT 13 times.
By finishing second, Team UPGarage got to celebrate their first podium result since finishing second at the third round in Suzuka back in 2020. This wasn’t just thanks to a perfectly executed strategy, but also due to a great early-race charge by the experienced Kobayashi. Rookie Ota didn’t show any nerves at all on his way to his maiden podium finish in his first ever SUPER GT race.
The #65 LEON Pyramid AMG started Sunday’s race from P11 on the grid. However, by undercutting the entire rest of the field, Gamou and Shinohara – the latter of whom switched from the departing Audi Team Hitotsuyama to the Mercedes camp this season – emerged just one position shy of the podium after the entire pit stop sequence. 2018 GT300 champion Gamou then sealed the deal by taking the final spot on the podium just one lap before the second FCY period. With that, K2 R&D LEON Racing scored their second consecutive podium finish following last year’s season finale.
Despite barely missing out on the podium on fourth, Cozzolino and super-sub Yokomizo (replacing ELMS-bound Takeshi Kimura this weekend) showed the true potential of the #9 Pacific Hololive NAC Ferrari. This result matches the fourth-place finish from this same duo at Pacific-CarGuy Racing during last year’s race at Suzuka.
Coming home fifth was the #6 Team LeMans Audi R8 LMS – their first points finish since entering GT300 last year. “The Emperor” Satoshi Motoyama, co-owner of the team, handed over the EVO II Audi R8 LMS in perfect condition to co-driver Katayama, who then showed a great defense against BMW works driver Farfus. His half-spin after the second FCY could’ve ended in disaster due to Kenta Yamashita hitting him in the back, but he showed great car control to avoid spinning out. To top things off, they get to celebrate their first-ever SUPER GT points result on their home track, as one of the team’s other owners, Yoshinori Katayama (father of Yoshiaki) is also the president of the Okayama International Circuit.
The #10 TanaX Gainer GT-R of Okusa and the returning Ryuichiro Tomita came away with a sixth place finish, giving Okusa, the 2019 Super Taikyu ST-3 champion, five points from his maiden SUPER GT race.
In the unofficial duel between the virtual idols, vocaloid Hatsune Miku had to take a loss against the the Hololive VTubers, who are prominently sponsoring Pacific-CarGuy Racing’s Ferrari 488 GT3. Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka, who started 14th, brought the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG home in solid seventh position following an early pit stop strategy, starting their quest to the team’s fourth GT300 championship with points.
After a strong showing during the official pre-season testing, JLOC went as one of the favourites into the first weekend of the season. Both cars couldn’t quite live up to the high expectations, however. Following Kogure’s spin on lap 60, which relegated the #88 Weibo Lamborghini GT3 from a potential points-finishing position down to 17th, the sister car of former IndyCar driver Kosuke Matsuura and Natsu Sakaguchi (#87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3) pulled the symbolic chestnuts out of the fire by finishing eight and grabbing three valuable championship points.
Both defending champions Iguchi and Yamauchi expressed their frustration over today’s race. But Yamauchi made the best out of the situation – when the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport’s engine wouldn’t fire at first during his pit stop – by making his way back to the points in ninth. They certainly hoped for a better start into their title defence season following Saturday’s pole position.
The blue boxer finished ahead of the #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Keishi Ishikawa), which profited from the post-race penalty against the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 after originally coming home eleventh, just one place shy of the points.
It’s worth noting that both Team Mach and Hoppy Team Tsuchiya were able to repair their respective cars in time for Sunday’s main event. Yusuke Tomibayashi crashed hard in qualifying on Saturday, damaging the left front of the Mach MC86. He and co-pilot Reiji started from the pits, ultimately finishing two laps down in eighteenth.
Meanwhile, the crew around Takeshi Tsuchiya identified their driveshaft problem, which caused them to miss qualifying. Takamitsu Matsui and newcomer Seita Nonaka used Sunday’s 300km race as a lengthy test session to collect valuable data for their #25 Hoppy Schatz GR Supra GT, an original construction based on the GTA-GT300 regulations, finishing 22nd.
The best of the new Toyota GR86 GT300s was the #30 apr GR86 GT (Hiroaki Nagai / Manabu Orid), coming home 13th, one position ahead of the series newcomers SHADE Racing (#20, Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Eijiro Shimizu).
Next up on the 2022 SUPER GT calendar is the Golden Week classic at Fuji Speedway. The FAV Hotel Fuji 450km round might be 50km shorter than in previous years, but the semi-endurance race at the foot of Mount Fuji promises to be another spectacular affair. Qualifying will take place on Tuesday, 3 May (Constitution Day in Japan), and the race is held on Wednesday, 4 May (Greenery Day in Japan).
Images © GTA
