For the first time in 27 years, the bright blue Calsonic Team Impul Nissan has won the biggest prize in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series.
Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette drove the #12 Calsonic Impul Z to a second place finish in Sunday’s Motegi GT 300km Race Grand Final, enough to clinch their first GT500 Drivers’ Championships and end a quarter-century title drought for Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s team – along with a first championship for the new Nissan Z GT500 in its debut season.
Nissan won both championships after a dramatic finish in the GT300 class, which saw the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 of Kiyoto Fujinami and João Paulo de Oliveira win their second titles in a span of three years for Kondo Racing – while the #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 of Hideki Mutoh and Iori Kimura ended a frustrating 2022 season with their first win.
The setting was the recently rechristened Mobility Resort Motegi, on a beautiful, sunny autumn day. With ambient temperatures of 17°C, and track temperatures hovering around 30°C, the cool weather was going to be a unique challenge in this title-deciding race.
Five GT500 teams and their drivers entered the 63-lap finale with a mathematical chance to become champions for the 2022 season. Likewise, there were six teams and ten drivers that still had a chance at winning the GT300 championships. For the remainder of the 42-car field, this was a chance to leave it all on the tarmac and finish their seasons on a high, in front of over 26,500 enthusiastic fans (39,500 over the two-day weekend).
Makino won the pole for the first time in his career on Saturday, and took the start aboard his silver, black, and orange Stanley NSX. Only a win would give Team Kunimitsu a chance at becoming the champions – and with that incentive, Makino led the field away through turns one and two, and quickly broke away. On its Yokohama tyres, the #19 WedsSport Advan Toyota GR Supra of Yuji Kunimoto was fighting to hold onto second from the Calsonic Z of Baguette.
Behind them, came an immediate championship flashpoint: The #3 CraftSports Motul Z of Katsumasa Chiyo and the #8 ARTA NSX-GT of Tomoki Nojiri went into turn five side-by-side. As Nojiri was trying to overtake around the outside of the right-hand corner, Chiyo locked up into the braking zone and hit Nojiri, sending the ARTA NSX spinning down to the tail end of the field.
Chiyo held onto fourth position in the immediate aftermath, trying to chase down Baguette in third. But after a review from the stewards, Chiyo was assessed a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, and NDDP Racing, the GT500 points leaders heading into the weekend, were hit with a critical blow to their hopes of winning the championship.
Up front, Makino had broken out to a seven-second advantage over Kunimoto as the classes interlocked around the track. Sho Tsuboi in the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra made contact with the GT300 class #30 apr GR86 GT of Hiroaki Nagai at turn three, sending Nagai’s car spinning out in the middle of the double left-hander in front of traffic. Two GT500 cars, the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) and the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama), were collected and suffered terminal damage, along with the #30 apr GR86, and the GT300 class #25 Hoppy Schatz GR Supra (Takamitsu Matsui/Seita Nonaka), all four knocked out in quick succession.
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This incident brought out a Full Course Yellow (FCY), and a subsequent Safety Car intervention, to clean up the debris. Separately, the #23 Motul Autech Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) made contact with a GT300 car in the final sector, and suffered damage which forced them into the garage for three laps – taking them out of podium contention.
Chiyo was able to serve his penalty just before the FCY board was displayed – a massive break for he and co-driver Mitsunori Takaboshi. What’s more, the #17 Astemo NSX-GT of Nobuharu Matsushita was able to get up to fourth place after starting eleventh. The race was due to resume soon after, but soon after the classes were separated on the front stretch, a frightening and bizarre accident unfolded on the front stretch.
The #5 Mach Syaken/Air Buster MC86 of Yusuke Tomibayashi was hit hard from behind by the #31 apr GR Sport Prius PHV of Yuhki Nakayama under Safety Car conditions. The impact destroyed the rear housing of the Mach MC86, and crumpled the front of the Prius.
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Both Tomibayashi and Nakayama, who admitted fault and apologised for the crash, were able to climb from their cars uninjured, a testament to the safety and integrity of the current crop of GT300 vehicles.
It was a sad end to the final race for apr’s line of Toyota Prius GT300 racing cars after 11 years, and Team Mach may have had their long-serving Mother Chassis vehicle written off as well.
The Safety Car period was extended as the remaining cars circulated through pit lane while crews worked on cleaning up yet another mess of debris and crashed cars. Had the mischievous demons of Sportsland Sugo somehow taken a day trip to Motegi?
After 35 minutes of combined FCY/Safety Car interventions, finally, the race resumed on lap 21, right at one-third distance, which is when teams were expected to pit as early as possible within their window. Matsushita and Baguette, the two drivers traded for one another in the off-season, were scrapping it out for third position, but while Matsushita was able to get ahead out of the Hairpin Curve, Baguette immediately re-passed him down the hill through the right-hand 90° Corner to regain third place.
On lap 22, the WedsSport Supra pitted from second place, and a driver change was made from Kunimoto to Sena Sakaguchi. The CraftSports Z also made its pit stop at the first opportunity, changing drivers from Chiyo to Takaboshi. On the following lap, the leading Stanley NSX and second-placed Calsonic Z pitted, with Yamamoto and Hiramine boarding their respective cars for a long final stint. The Astemo NSX cycled to the lead for one lap before pitting, and Koudai Tsukakoshi took over for the closing stint.
The au Supra of Tsuboi ran long, before pitting on lap 36. That officially cycled Yamamoto to the lead. The two-time champion was running a steady pace in the Stanley NSX, just over a second ahead of the Calsonic Z of Hiramine – who was now in a championship-clinching position in second.
Behind them, the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra was now running third in the hands of Kenta Yamashita, after Kazuya Oshima started 11th. And the Astemo NSX of Tsukakoshi was fending off the CraftSports Z of Takaboshi for fourth place. Takaboshi struggled early in his stint, but once his Michelin tyres were out of their graining phase and in their optimal window, he closed right in again – and on lap 51, Takaboshi went to the pit wall to slipstream past and outbraked the Honda into turn one.
The top four in GT500 spread out into one-second intervals as the laps began to tick down.
Yamamoto ran a steady pace to put the finishing touches on a masterful race victory for Team Kunimitsu.
And behind them, Hiramine took the chequered flag to finish second and clinch the championship for he, his co-driver Baguette, and Team Impul.
It was the seventh career win for Yamamoto, and the third for Makino. For Honda, it was their fifth straight win at their second home track at Motegi.
And, it was the first win for Team Kunimitsu since the death of their founder and namesake, Kunimitsu Takahashi, on 16 March. His portrait hung in the garage of the team at every race, and that portrait was brought down for the post-race celebrations by their acting team director, Kazuhiro Kojima.
Makino, talking through the perspective of his opening stint, said: “In the early stages of the race we were able to maintain a good pace, but when the Safety Car came out, we lost the lead we had built up. But after the restart I was able to keep calm as I drove, and I think that is why I was able to pass it on to Yamamoto-san for the second half. This year we had difficult races up to mid-season, and then things got steadily better in the second half of the season. And I think that in this final round we were able to show our team’s strength, so I am very happy.”
“Although it was the last race of the season, I am glad that we were able to run a strong race,” said Yamamoto. “But today’s real stars were the people of the Calsonic Impul Z team. I want to congratulate them and say that I hope we will race well again next season.”
An emotional Hiramine broke down in tears of joy after getting out of his car. The celebrations began along the home stretch for one of SUPER GT’s ever-present teams, now champions once again. The perseverance of both drivers, finally rewarded.
When Baguette departed Honda at the end of 2021, few would have faulted him if he’d opted to leave Japan to be with his family after spending so much time apart during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in staying for a ninth season and joining Nissan for 2022, he finally achieved a long-sought GT500 Championship after coming close two seasons ago. The man once most famous for being the “other guy that almost won the 2011 Indianapolis 500”, now has a SUPER GT championship to go with his titles won in Formula Renault 3.5 Series (2009) and WEC LMP2 (2013).
“A lot happened before I actually started driving, like the battle with car #19, and the pick-up [of rubber from the track] on the tyres, as well as the FCY call and the Safety Car intervention,” recalled Baguette. “But I was still able to believe in myself and move forward in position. In the second half, Hiramine-san ran a fantastic race to bring us to the second place finish. And that also brought us the championship title.”
And for Hiramine, it was the culmination of a nearly impossible journey to GT500 Championship glory. Ten years ago, Hiramine was dropped from the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) academy and didn’t race competitively for nearly two years. JLOC threw him a lifeline for his GT300 debut in 2014, Kondo Racing gave him a chance in their Super Taikyu ST-X (GT3) programme – which turned into an opportunity to race for them in GT300 in 2019. And it opened the door for an open audition at Fuji that offseason where his talents proved undeniable – which led to his unlikely GT500 call-up with Team Impul.
“We did it! Thank you, everyone,” exclaimed Hiramine. “It was a tough race. I want to give my heartfelt thanks for all the support we have received until now from the people at Bridgestone and Calsonic and for lots of support from our sponsors, not to mention everyone on our team and our Team Manager Mr. Hoshino and my great teammates. I also want to thank the team for taking me on as a driver. I have run out of strength and words, and all I can say is thank you, thank you all.”
It was the first time a Team Impul driver had won the Drivers’ Championship since Masahiko Kageyama won it all in 1994 and 1995, the first and second seasons of what was then known as the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC). And it was their first Teams’ Championship since the inaugural ’94 season.
Nissan picks up their first set of GT500 titles since the works NISMO team won their second of back-to-back titles in 2015. And the new RZ34-generation Fairlady Z continues a trend of every new Nissan GT500 vehicles winning the championship in its debut season – succeeding four different generations of GT-R/Skyline GT-Rs and the previous Fairlady Z33.
After years of near-misses, team director Hoshino could finally celebrate another title, as well as his son Kazuki, who joined the family team as an advisor this off-season. Chief engineer Toshiomi Oeki, who once led MOLA to a pair of titles in 2011-12 as their team principal, won his first since moving to Impul in 2020.
Toyota salvaged a podium from what was trending towards a disastrous outcome for their fleet of six cars after qualifying. Oshima and Yamashita were mathematically eliminated from title contention yesterday after qualifying towards the back, but they felt no pressure and drove their Eneos Supra to a comfortable third place finish, their first podium finish since their opening round victory in Okayama.
Takaboshi finished a close fourth, as he and Chiyo consolidated second in the GT500 Drivers’ Championship ahead of Yamamoto and Makino in third. The penalty assessed to Chiyo was regrettable, but his co-driver did all that he could to give his team a fighting chance in the end.
Both drivers showcased the full extent of the talent that was always there throughout the 2022 season, a breakthrough win at Suzuka, another at Sugo.
While Tsukakoshi and Matsushita finished in fifth, unable to stay with the rest of the top four in the closing stages. It was another near-miss with the championship for Astemo Real Racing, and for their ace driver Tsukakoshi. They finished the year fourth in the championship.
The #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz/Ritomo Miyata) closed out their season with a sixth-place finish. It was Fenestraz’s final race in Japan as a Toyota factory driver, after three seasons, he will join Nissan for his maiden season in the Formula E World Championship. The #19 WedsSport Supra of Kunimoto and Sakaguchi finished seventh, ahead of the #8 ARTA NSX of Nojiri and Nirei Fukuzumi in eighth.
Tsuboi and Giuliano Alesi came home in ninth in their #36 au Supra, and the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) picked up the last point in tenth. Tachikawa completed his 24th season driving for Team Cerumo, and only the ensuing weeks will tell us whether the 48-year-old, three-time series champion has driven his final race as a GT500 driver.
While all of this unfolded, the GT300 class championship went to the very last lap of the season! But it all began on the opening lap with the two Honda NSX GT3s on the front row. Kimura in the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 led the field through turn one, but Takashi Kobayashi in the #18 UPGarage NSX GT3 drew alongside out of turn two, then outbraked Kimura into the left-hand turn three to pick up the lead of the race.
Further back, the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport was hoping to make a charge through the field from 16th on the grid. But off the start, Takuto Iguchi couldn’t gain ground – in fact, he lost positions after the opening lap, suffering from a lack of top end speed and unable to put the Subaru’s cornering strengths to good use in traffic. The 2021 champions weren’t a factor in the final race, as Hideki Yamauchi would bring the car home to a whimper of a finish in 20th.
During the string of successive incidents and the long Safety Car period, the #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R of Hironobu Yasuda was just one of a few cars that came in to top off for fuel. But Yasuda left the pits while the red light was on, resulting in a ten-second penalty stop after the race resumed. Yasuda and Keishi Ishikawa were longshots to win the title in any event, they would eventually finish 13th. Another long shot crew, the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara), ran inside the top ten until an unscheduled pit stop dropped them to 18th.
The race restarted, and immediately, a handful of GT300 cars dove into the pits. It was mandatory for teams to change all four tyres during their routine pit stops in this final round, so the timing and the execution would be critical.
Kobayashi brought the UPGarage NSX into the pits on lap 26. Kakunoshin Ohta was strapped in for the second stint, but a problem with the clutch resulted in a slow pit stop and cost them the net lead.
Two laps earlier, the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra of Kohta Kawaai had pitted, and so too did the #10 TanaX Gainer GT-R of Riki Okusa, both of whom were the sole competitors for their teams in the Drivers’ Championship. Their respective title hopes now rested in the hands of co-drivers Hiroki Yoshida, who missed the Fuji Golden Week race due to COVID-19, and Ryuichiro Tomita, whose commitments in GT World Challenge Europe forced him to miss the previous race at Autopolis.
Kimura’s second-half turn of form gave ARTA confidence to leave their rookie driver out for a longer opening stint. With a 77-second gap to the projected net leader Yoshida, Kimura brought the car in for its stop after 36 laps. That delta allowed Mutoh to re-enter the race with a lead of just under ten seconds from Yoshida in second, with Tomita in third and J.P. Oliveira now running in a championship-clinching position in fourth.
So long as they held position, Oliveira was in control of his championship destiny. But fate had other plans. As Oliveira was completing lap 42, the right front wheel of the Realize GT-R came loose, then came off completely. Oliveira did a remarkable job to bring the car back to the pits for four new tyres, and got back out on track. But their championship aspirations, at this point, were surely finished – at an absolute best case scenario, they no longer controlled their destiny.
Tomita, now third, was in position to help his co-driver Okusa clinch the GT300 Championship on his own, in his rookie season, while Kawaai was in position to finish second in points if Yoshida could hold onto second in the GreenBrave Supra.
But there was one other twist in the saga: JLOC had their two cars inside the top ten, with the #87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini Huracán GT3 making a dash for the podium after topping off with fuel – and taking a set of soft tyres – during the extended Safety Car period. With that, Natsu Sakaguchi was able to charge through the pack, and Kosuke Matsuura, who took over on lap 36, was continuing the ascent up the order.
Matsuura overtook Tomita for third, and soon it became clear that the #10 TanaX GT-R was struggling for grip late in its stint on its Dunlop tyres. Tomita and Ohta locked horns for nearly a full lap, as Tomita tried desperately to hold onto fourth place. But eventually, with seven laps to go, Ohta was able to pass Tomita around the outside of the Hairpin Curve and pull away.
Matsuura then caught Yoshida with four laps to go, and passed him at the 90° Corner to take second place. Kawaai could no longer win the championship as they ran, while Tomita, in fifth, was still in position to clinch the title for Okusa – on countback.
But the drama wasn’t over – the #88 Weibo Primez Huracán of Takashi Kogure had already closed to within striking distance at this point. With worn tyres, Tomita made his Nissan as wide as he could. They ran tail-to-nose as they took the white flag. Kogure committed to the outside of turns one and two, and drove around Tomita – while Fujinami, in the Kondo Racing garage, leapt up and pumped his fist in the air, knowing that move had just won them the championship!
It was all unfolding behind Mutoh, who had plenty of time to manage the gap in his closing stint. He took the chequered flag after 60 laps, giving ARTA the win by a margin of four seconds. Mutoh and Kimura became the eighth different winners in eight races – the first time in SUPER GT that the GT300 class has had a different winner in every race since 2006, with nine winners in nine races.
It was ARTA’s first win in GT300 since the 2019 race at Sportsland SUGO, which set Shinichi Takagi and Nirei Fukuzumi on their way to the championship that year.
Kimura, who struggled for form at the start of his rookie season, was able to take a sound victory that reinforced his amazing talent. “I’m not going to cry today,” Kimura laughed. “I am happy that we were able to start from the best possible position as pole starters, and to see that best view all the way to the goal. Since this has been a year when I have been supported until this result by all the fans and our sponsors, and by our Team Manager Mr. [Aguri] Suzuki and everyone on the team, I am really glad to have been able to end it all in such a good way.”
It was, of course, Kimura’s first career win, and the first, incredibly, for the 2013 GT300 Champion Mutoh, who was celebrating his 100th career race! “It had been a difficult season up until now, so I really wanted us to get a good result in this final round,” Mutoh said. “And I am glad that we were able to end it with the best possible result in this win. Personally, I was happy to be able to enjoy a celebration of my 100th race with a great result like this. I want to thank everyone who has cheered for and supported me until now.”
This 23rd win for ARTA in GT300 – including their predecessors at A’PEX Racing from 1998-2002, may well be the last. Amidst rumours of a restructuring at ARTA that would result in the closure of their GT300 programme, along with the announcement that technical partner Servus Japan will not be returning to support the team in 2023 – if this is the last GT300 win for the team formerly known as Autobacs Racing Team Aguri, it is a storybook ending for a 25-year lineage.
All the way down in 19th, at the tail end of the lead lap, Oliveira took the chequered flag and secured a second set of titles for Kondo Racing, supported by the student and service mechanics of the Nissan Mechanic Challenge programme. That secured a double championship for Nissan, the third for the GT-R GT3 family.
Fujinami wept openly after the race in his television interviews. At 27, the Nissan Driver Development Programme (NDDP) alumni has won his second title in three years – to go with his back-to-back Super Taikyu top class titles. “This was really great,” said an elated Fujinami. “We won the title in 2020 but lost it last year. It wasn’t an easy task to get consecutive titles. And there was trouble again in this race [that kept us from getting any series points], so this is really a miracle.”
“I knew that if we didn’t give up hope to the end, we could still win the title. After we won the first round of this season, the Success Weight we had to carry was a real burden. But thanks to the great efforts of the team and the people at Yokohama Tyre, we were able to maintain our lead in the series points, and that got us to this amazing result. I am really so glad for this all.”
“With heavy load of Success Weight we had to carry from the second round onward this season, we fought on though the tough races that followed,” said Oliveira, who became the first foreign driver to win multiple GT300 championships. “In this race, there was really nothing to do when our tyre came off. But we managed to keep running and get back to the pit. When I heard from the team over the radio after the finish that we had won the championship, I couldn’t believe it. But I was just so happy. I want to thank the team and Fujinami-san. And I want to thank everyone for cheering for us today.”
And unlike their last championship, team owner and former driver Masahiko Kondo was part of the championship celebrations – he’d withdrawn from the public eye in 2020 after details of an extramarital affair went public. Shinichi Yonebayashi won his second title as chief engineer of the #56 team.
The #87 Bamboo Airways Huracán came home to a second-place finish, picking up the first JLOC podium of the season – and the first since Matsuura and Sakaguchi joined the #87 crew last season. It looked more like the form of a past GT500 staple and an exciting GT300 underdog in the case of Matsuura and Sakaguchi, respectively.
Yoshida brought the GreenBrave Supra home to a third place finish, which meant fourth in the Drivers’ Championship for his young co-driver Kawaai, and fifth for Yoshida himself. Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave finished their 2022 campaign with consecutive podium finishes.
The #18 UPGarage NSX of Kobayashi and Ohta finished in fourth, followed by the #88 Weibo Huracán of Kogure and Yuya Motojima in fifth.
Tomita’s valiant drive in the closing laps came up just short. The #10 TanaX GT-R dropped two more places to eighth at the chequered flag, and Okusa finished third in the Drivers’ Championship, half a point behind runners-up Iguchi and Yamauchi.
On the last lap, they were passed by the #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi), and the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), who finished sixth and seventh respectively, with the Miku AMG edging out the TanaX GT-R by four thousandths of a second at the chequered flag.
Rounding out the GT300 top ten, the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 (Seiji Ara/Augusto Farfus) picked up a ninth place finish, and the new combination of Takayuki Aoki and 2021 Super Formula Lights champion Teppei Natori brought the #360 RunUp Rivaux GT-R a tenth place finish.
Another memorable Autobacs SUPER GT Series season has drawn to a close. But preparations for 2023 are already set to begin on Monday with a special test of the series’ new supply of carbon neutral fuel (CNF). In time, the 30th season of SUPER GT racing will begin, and with it, another great chapter in the series’ history will be written.
Images © GTA, Honda, Nissan
