This past Sunday, the Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook made its annual stop at Sportsland Sugo for a pair of three-hour endurance races.
In the Group 1 race comprised primarily of GT3 and GT4 sports cars, it was the #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Martin Berry, Shinichi Takagi, Haruki Kurosawa, and Daisuke Yamawaki that scored their first win in the series.
Preceding them in the Group 2 race for race-tuned production cars, the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350 of Yusuke Tomibayashi, Takashi Itoh, and Hirotaka Ishii prevailed in a gripping fight versus the #311 FKS Team Fukushima Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Yusuke Shiotsu/Tsugio Matsuda/Ai Miura/Kazuki Hiramine), a fight that went all the way to the chequered flag.
The Group 2 race began at 8:45 AM local time under beautiful, sunny skies. This race was to be contested among the ST-3, ST-4, and ST-5 classes, with 29 cars taking the green flag. But after just one lap, the #67 Team Yamato Honda Fit RS (Ryohei Yasui/Shinya Uchiyama/Ryo Mukumoto/Hideaki Ito) suffered a catastrophic engine failure. This resulted in the only Safety Car intervention of the race, which resumed from lap eight.
The pole-sitting #311 Team Fukushima Z34 led from the opening lap and on the restart with Nissan GT500 driver Kazuki Hiramine at the wheel, ahead of the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS of Hiroki Yoshida. Hiramine gradually built up a healthy margin by the end of his stint – on lap 31, the #311 Team Fukushima Z34 pitted for fuel, tyres, and a driver change to Shiotsu.
Meanwhile, the large-bodied GreenBrave Crown was able to run very long on its stints, and stayed out until lap 50, when Kohta Kawaai took over after Yoshida’s opening stint.
The leading Nissan pitted for the second time on lap 66, putting the final stint in the hands of the most successful driver in SUPER GT GT500 history, Tsugio Matsuda. But ahead of them, the #39 Air Buster/Winmax RC 350 had jumped up the order thanks to a staggered pit strategy: They made their first pit stop after the Safety Car ended, changing drivers from Itoh to Ishii, and pitted again on lap 55, changing from Ishii to ace driver Tomibayashi.
In time, the GT500 and Super Formula champion would catch up to the eSports champion turned full-metal racer in front of him, and the Nissan and Lexus ran tail-to-nose over the final 40 minutes of the race – knowing that once the GreenBrave Crown pitted for its final stop, their battle on track would be for the class and overall victory.
With 30 minutes remaining in the race, Matsuda lined up a potential race winning overtake up the inside of Umanose (Horseback) Corner, but the two drivers made contact, and Tomibayashi held his advantage with Matsuda dropping back temporarily, before catching up again.
Sure enough, on lap 101, the GreenBrave Crown made its final pit stop for a splash of fuel and a change of drivers to Naoki Hattori, but they didn’t have enough of an advantage to hold their lead – so the chase between Matsuda and Tomibayashi would decide the winner, as they duked it out through slower traffic. The Z34 has long been regarded as having a special affinity for the undulating, 3.5 kilometre Sugo circuit, and Matsuda was able to carry plenty of speed through the corners. But the Lexus had enough of a straight line speed advantage to help Tomibayashi keep Matsuda at bay.
After three hours and 108 laps of racing, the final margin of victory was just 0.709 seconds. Tomibayashi held off Matsuda to give the two-time and defending ST-3 class champion team their first win of the season, just over a month after Tomibayashi’s maiden GT300 podium in SUPER GT at Suzuka.
The win puts Tracy Sports with Delta just 7.5 points behind Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave for the top spot in the ST-3 standings after three rounds. FKS Team Fukushima finished second, the best finish for the first-year team. And the #25 raffinée/Nissan Mechanic Challenge Z34 (Teppei Natori/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuya Shirasaka) finished third, taking the final podium position in the penultimate lap when Tomita ran down and overtook Hattori.
Of the three ST-Q cars in this Group 2 race, the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept of Takuto Iguchi, Hideki Yamauchi, and Koichi Hirota finished in seventh place overall, completing 107 laps ahead of the similar, petrol-powered vehicles in the ST-4 class.
The #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda2 Bio Concept (Kazuhiro Terakawa/Kaoru Ijiri/Yutaka Seki/Ikuo Maeda) finished in 15th place overall, while the #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept (Masahiro Sasaki/Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Yasuhiro Ogura) completed 90 laps and finished 27th. The #28 ORC ROOKIE Toyota GR86 CNF Concept did not enter this race as Toyota and ROOKIE Racing wanted more time to evaluate the car’s performance.
Finishing eighth and taking the ST-4 class win for the second race in a row was the #86 TOM’s Spirit Toyota GR86 of Shunsuke Kohno, Takamitsu Matsui, and Kenta Yamashita, who dominated proceedings in their class. Both Kohno and Matsui had personal best laps that were competitive with the ST-3 class cars ahead of them, and with impeccable reliability they won their class by over a minute and 25 seconds.
In its debut race, the new #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Keishi Ishikawa/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada) finished second in its class, and the #18 WedsSport GR86 (Takeo Asano/Daiki Fujiwara/Toshiki Ishimori) in third completed a clean sweep of the ST-4 podium for the latest GR86.
Sadly, in what could be the final race for the #60 G/Motion’ Honda Integra Type R (DC5) of Takao Seto and Resshu Shioya, their car retired with a mechanical failure less than 30 minutes from the chequered flag. The Fuji 24h was meant to be the final run for this car, which has been racing in Super Taikyu for over a decade – and won the 2011 ST-4 title with Shioya at the helm.
The #72 Öhlins/NATS Mazda Roadster of Tetsuya Yamano, Makoto Kanai, and Toshiya Nojima took the ST-5 class win after a penalty to the #65 odula TONE/Hero’s Roadster (Shuichiro Hokazono/Hiroki Wako/Hirohito Ito/Tatsuya Ota) took them out of the lead battle.
The #65 had actually taken the lead from the #72 early on, but was given a drive-through penalty for cutting the white line at the entrance of pit lane. They would finish sixth in their class. Meanwhile, the yellow and blue #72 would drive away to their second class victory of the year.
Finishing second was the #66 odula TONE/Motul Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Yoshiyuki Uesugi), followed by the #17 DXL Aragosta NOPRO Mazda Demio (Kazunari Yoshioka/Tobio Ohtani/Yuya Tezuka/Toshihiko Nogami), in third. The #17 Team NOPRO entry, which won the Fuji 24h, maintains its lead in the ST-5 championship after three races – this class will skip the next round at Autopolis on 31 July.
A two-hour mid day intermission set the stage for the Group 1 race, featuring the ST-X (GT3), ST-Z (GT4), and ST-1 classes. And because of the bizarre patterns of rain during qualifying, it would be the GT4 cars that started the race at the front of the field, while the GT3 cars had to fight their way past them from the middle of the 20-car grid!
It was a frenetic opening lap, and after going four-wide across the main straight, Yuya Motojima in the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Hiroaki Nagai in the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R broke away from their ST-X class peers and cleared most of the slower cars in front. And by the end of lap two, Motojima had taken the overall lead from the ST-Q class #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Ryo Ogawa.
On lap 41, the ST-Z and overall pole winning #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 broke down at turn four, resulting in a Full Course Yellow. The FCY was withdrawn on lap 43, and on lap 45, Motojima pitted and handed off the TKRI AMG GT3’s cockpit to Yuhki Nakayama. Nakayama ran until lap 84, when TKRI made their second pit stop and entrusted gentleman driver Daisuke Matsunaga with the final stint.
Fuji 24 Hours winners HELM Motor Sports suffered a setback on lap 64 when gentleman driver Yutaka Toriba spun off at turn two and hit the guardrail. Toriba, Yuya, and Reiji Hiraki would return to the race after several minutes of repairs to their #62 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, but they finished 18 laps down, 16th overall and last in class.
All the while, the #888 Grid Motorsport AMG GT3 was making a bid for the victory. Takagi had taken over for the final stint after Kurosawa started the race, and Berry put in a solid middle stint. By the time all the ST-X leaders had made their final routine stops, Takagi was fourth, behind three gentleman drivers – Matsunaga in the leading #23, Hideki Nagai in the #31 Denso apr Lexus RC F GT3, and Joe Shindo in the #9 MP Racing GT-R.
On lap 85, Takagi got past Shindo with ease. Gaining nearly two seconds per lap on the cars ahead of him, Takagi overtook the younger Nagai for second on lap 96, and then overtook Matsunaga for the overall lead on lap 106.
It was a heroic final stint from Takagi that helped drive Grid Motorsport to their first-ever Super Taikyu Series victory in just their third race, completing 120 laps over three hours.
The #16 Porsche of Hiroaki Nagai, Yuta Kamimura, and Daisuke Ito finished second thanks to a final stint charge from Kamimura, who was able to pick his way past the gentleman drivers in front of him, and even got to within a few seconds of race leader Takagi before being slowed by backmarkers. Completing the ST-X podium was the #31 Lexus of Hideki Nagai, Koki Saga, and Kazuto Kotaka.
With the win, Grid Motorsport now lead the ST-X standings by nine points ahead of GTNET Motor Sports and the #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R (Noboyuki Oyagi/Kiyoto Fujinami/Takayuki Aoki/Natsu Sakaguchi), which finished in sixth. HELM Motor Sports drop to third in the table, 11 points behind.
In ST-1, the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra of Yuui Tsutsumi, Yuichi Nakayama, and Kota Matsui won the class with a seventh place overall finish. They grabbed the lead after the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Kenji Hama/Manabu Orido) went to the garage with mechanical issues. The #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) retains its points lead after finishing second in class and eighth overall.
The ST-Z class didn’t last long at the front of the field but still had a battle for class victory to settle over three hours. And thanks to the timing of their pit stops, the #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Supra GT4 of Manabu Yamazaki, Sho Tsuboi, Seita Nonaka, and Shinya Hosokawa was able to break away to the lead and take the class win, their first of the season.
On the road, the #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu) took the chequered flag in second position. But after the race, SHADE Racing were given a six-lap penalty for a minimum drive-time infringement – their gentleman driver, Hayashi, had failed to complete the requisite 50 minutes of driving per the series’ sporting regulations.
That moved the #22 Porsche Team EBI Waimarama Cayman RS (Kizuna/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano/Riki Okusa) to second in the class, followed by the #111 Hiroshima Toyopet Racing GR Supra (Toshiyuki Matsuda/Yuga Furutani/Yoshiaki Nakamura/Yasutaka Hinoi), finishing third after skipping the Fuji 24h.
Despite the post-race penalty SHADE Racing would finish sixth in class and score enough points to overtake Team 5Zigen at the top of the ST-Z standings by just two points. Corolla Shin-Ibaraki CSIRacing are third following their victory at Sugo, 15.5 points back of first place.
And after a successful first race at the Fuji 24h, the new Nissan Z Racing Concept returned to Sugo as an ST-Q entry. The #244 Max Racing Z of Tetsuya Tanaka, Toru Tanaka, and Atsushi Miyake finished 13th overall, completing 110 laps.
Images © Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
