More than a week after the race ended under a red flag, the results are now official from both classes of the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ Suzuka GT 450km Race. For the first time in nearly seven years, TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh and the famous blue and gold #19 Toyota have won a race in SUPER GT’s top class!
Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi were declared the winners of a shortened Suzuka 450km race after a frightening accident, a red flag at three-quarters’ distance, a protest from over half the GT500 grid, a time penalty, and an unsuccessful counter-protest.
History had been made in Qualifying on Saturday, 3 June: Hideki Yamauchi tied the all-time record for career GT300 pole positions when he put the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport at the top in time trials. His 13th career pole ties him with Kota Sasaki and Shinichi Takagi.
Meanwhile, Sho Tsuboi qualified on pole position for the first time as a GT500 driver. The 2021 series champion earned the right to start up front in the #36 au TOM’s Toyota GR Supra.
From the drop of the green flag on Sunday, Tsuboi led the GT500 field and was determined to break away, while Kunimoto held onto second place, hoping to keep the WedsSport Supra up towards the front after many strong qualifying performances turned to poor race results. Bertrand Baguette started fourth in the #1 Marelli Impul Nissan Z, then overtook the #100 Stanley Honda NSX-GT of Tadasuke Makino at the Hitachi Astemo (Triangle) Chicane to grab third place.
The GT300 class #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) lost its right-rear tyre and came to a stop at the NISSIN Hairpin, bringing out a Full Course Yellow and then a Safety Car.
Tsuboi continued to lead after the restart, while Kunimoto stuck with him in second. The man on the move at this stage was Katsumasa Chiyo in the #3 Niterra Motul Z: He started 12th, but had worked his way up to eighth place before the first GT500 car made its pit stop on lap 19.
Kunimoto brought the WedsSport Supra in from second position on lap 26, while Tsuboi in the au Supra continued to lead until the end of his stint on lap 29. Kunimoto handed the controls of the #19 over to his young team-mate Sena Sakaguchi, and Ritomo Miyata, who’d been named as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s newest WEC Challenge driver just days before the start of the weekend, took over from Tsuboi in the #36.
The undercut allowed Sakaguchi to assume the race lead. Meanwhile, the #1 Marelli Z of Baguette had jumped to second by pitting on lap 19. And the #23 Motul Autech Z of Ronnie Quintarelli, who started eighth, jumped up several places by pitting on lap 18 and overtook Miyata on his out lap to assume third place.
Baguette closed the gap down to just under a second before he brought the Marelli Z in for its second and final pit stop on lap 42. The Belgian got out of the car for Kazuki Hiramine to take it to the chequered flag.
On lap 46, both the leading #19 WedsSport Supra and the second-placed #23 Motul Z came in for their final pit stops. Sakaguchi stayed on board for his double stint while Mie Prefecture’s own Tsugio Matsuda took over the #23 Motul Z.
Two laps later, Miyata brought the #36 au Supra in for its final pit stop. He drove out on cold tyres and overran turns one and two enough to let Sakaguchi slink past him and back into what would be the net lead of the race.
This left the #3 Niterra Z, which had first come in on lap 30 and changed drivers from Chiyo to Mitsunori Takaboshi, to assume the lead. Lap 58 passed, and the race reached three-quarters’ distance with Takaboshi still yet to make his second and final compulsory pit stop for refuelling and any necessary tyre or driver changes.
Sakaguchi was still leading Miyata, but the Bridgestone-clad au Supra was starting to close in on the Yokohama-clad WedsSport Supra, from seven seconds down to just two. And quite a long way behind them, Hiramine and Matsuda were fighting for what should have been the final spot on the podium – until it all ended disastrously for Matsuda.
Trying to hustle through GT300 traffic and stay in touch with Hiramine, Matsuda went three-wide out of 130R corner, but then made contact with the #30 apr Toyota GR86 GT of Manabu Orido in the middle. Matsuda’s car was pitched off to the right and got airbourne as it spun backwards, hit the catch fencing and tyre barriers at the very end of the runoff between 130R and the final chicane.
Simultaneously, the #87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Kosuke Matsuura, who was to the right of Orido and Matsuda, was sent careening into the guardrail with an impact that ripped away most of the front and right side of the car. Orido somehow avoided any serious damage and drove away as the Safety Car was deployed, but the sheer amount of debris that had been ejected onto the course meant a Red Flag was almost immediately waved after.
The race was declared over – but the question on everyone’s minds would be, once Matsuda and Matsuura were reported awake and alert, who actually won the race?
When the chequered flag waved, the #3 Niterra Z of Chiyo and Takaboshi had won from 12th on the grid, 31.782 seconds ahead of the #19 WedsSport Supra of Kunimoto and Sakaguchi. The problem was that the Niterra Z had yet to make its second compulsory pit stop as required in the race regulations, and the race had reached the point where full championship reports would be awarded.
A protest was filed by nine of the GT500 teams, and shortly afterwards, an updated set of results was published, placing the #19 WedsSport Supra first after a 60-second time penalty was given to the Niterra Z. This, in turn, caused a counter-protest from NISMO, who operates the #3 Niterra Z through its sister team NDDP Racing.
This counter-protest was ultimately halted after GT Association Chairman Masaaki Bandoh (who has had no direct involvement with the team he founded since assuming the role of Chairman) came to an agreement with NDDP Racing Team Director, Jiro Shimada, that the rules would be clarified in the future to avoid any potential confusion should something like this occur in the future.
And on 12 June, eight days after the race had ended, the GT500 results were official: The WedsSport Bandoh team won its first GT500 race since the October 2016 round at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. It ended a 2,445-day winless streak for the team and for ace driver Kunimoto. It was Sakaguchi’s first win in the premier class.
Tsuboi and Miyata came just 2.902 seconds away from taking back-to-back wins this season, following their dominant victory at the Fuji GT 450km Race in May. As it stands, a second-place finish for TGR Team au TOM’s ensured that Tsuboi and Miyata would head into the two-month summer break with the GT500 Championship lead.
Reigning GT500 Champions Hiramine and Baguette would finish third in the blue Marelli Z, for their first podium of the season. And after the 60-second time penalty was applied, Chiyo and Takaboshi were credited with a fourth-place finish.
It wasn’t such a good day for the Hondas at Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit. The #100 Stanley NSX-GT of Makino and Naoki Yamamoto picked up decent points in fifth place, but that was the best that any of the NSX-GTs could accomplish.
Behind them, the rest of the top ten included the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) in sixth, the #16 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) in seventh, and the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) which scored its first points in eighth. The #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) was ninth, and the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) was tenth.
Matsuda and Quintarelli were credited with a 13th-place result, one lap down. Matsuda was also given a 40-second time penalty after the race for causing a collision, but that’s merely a clerical note from the race that was.
Two weeks have passed from the date of Matsuda’s accident to the publication of this race report – here is the latest update on Tsugio Matsuda’s condition.
Of course, after the accident, Matsuda was airlifted to the nearby hospital for further evaluation. He was able to move his body and respond to the SUPER GT First Rescue Operation (FRO) team but reported pain in his hip and a bloody mouth, according to J Sports pit reporter Shima Takeuchi. Nissan and NISMO announced that evening that he had not suffered any serious or life-threatening injuries in the crash, but he would remain in the hospital for further evaluations.
On 7 June, three days after the accident, Matsuda was transferred out of the hospital’s intensive care unit and into a general hospital ward in order to begin his rehabilitation, with the aim of racing at the Fuji GT 100 Lap Race in August. Matsuda’s specific injuries have not been disclosed, and while not life or career-threatening, they were significant enough to limit his activities.
While rehabbing, Matsuda did not attend the most recent Super Formula Championship round at Sportsland Sugo – where he serves as Team Director for KCMG – or even get a chance to watch this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Matsuda spent his 44th birthday in rehab to get race fit again – but considering the violence of the crash, it could have been so much worse.
Again, it’s a testament to the safety and integrity of the current-generation GT500 cars. Here’s hoping that SUPER GT’s all-time wins king can come back in just under two months’ time in full fitness.
Things were more straightforward in GT300, where the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 of Seiji Ara and Masataka Yanagida used the less orthodox pit strategy to go from 16th to win the spring race at Suzuka for the second year in a row.
Ara started the race and immediately dove for the pits at the end of the first lap for fuel, which counted as one of his two compulsory pit stops and effectively allowed them to run a one-stop race. The #52 GreenBrave Supra of Kohta Kawaai also pitted on the first lap from 20th on the grid. One lap later, the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 of Hibiki Taira came in for a splash of fuel, after starting fourth.
Kawaai was able to jump ahead of Taira and Ara after these pit stops while polesitter Hideki Yamauchi led in the #61 Subaru BRZ. Then the Safety Car was deployed for the stranded UPGarage NSX, and an eight-second lead that Yamauchi had built over the #11 Gainer TanaX Nissan GT-R GT3 of Keishi Ishikawa vanished.
After the top two cars made their first pit stops using the orthodox strategy, the #2 muta GR86 of Taira was now leading, ahead of the #52 GreenBrave Supra of Kawaai, and the #7 Studie BMW of Ara.
That order changed during the second round of routine pit stops and driver changes. As Yanagida boarded the #7 Studie M4, BMW Team Studie x CRS had a clean pit stop on lap 36. They pulled out ahead of Hiroki Yoshida in the #52 GreenBrave Supra, after one of the GreenBrave mechanics had trouble securing the right-rear wheel. Two laps later, the #2 muta GR86 pitted from the lead, and Yuui Tsutsumi got on board with fresh tyres. But he too overshot the entrance to turns one and two and drifted off track, letting Yanagida drive past and into the net lead.
After 50 laps, Ara, Tsutsumi, and Yoshida were effectively running in a three-car train, while the fourth-place #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R of João Paulo de Oliveira was closing in rapidly from what was a 30-second deficit.
Unfortunately, the red flag for Matsuda and Matsuura’s big crash ended the thrilling three-car chase and Oliveira’s pursuit of the leaders.
A year after BMW Team Studie gave the new M4 GT3 its first win in Japan, they did it again – this time coming from deep in the field to do so. The win was Ara’s second in GT300 competition, and for Yanagida, it was his first win since Round 2 of the 2020 season at Fuji Speedway in August, when he was driving the Lotus Evora Mother Chassis for Cars Tokai Dream28.
That team’s successor, muta Racing INGING, picked up its second consecutive runner-up finish thanks to Tsutsumi and Taira. As he did before, Team Director Hiroki Katoh was registered to drive but opted to let his young pupils run the whole race instead.
Yoshida and Kawaai finished third for Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave – which was their second straight third-place finish – and the top three finishers once the results were declared official, were covered by just 1.383 seconds.
Fuji 450km winners Oliveira and Teppei Natori finished fourth in the #56 Realize GT-R, while the #11 Gainer GT-R of Ishikawa and Ryuichiro Tomita (plus Yusuke Shiotsu, who did not run) completed the top five and earned its first top-ten finish of the year.
The timing of the first Safety Car did not help the #61 Subaru BRZ to say the least – Yamauchi and Takuto Iguchi would slump to sixth in the final order, but it was also their first points-paying finish of 2023. The #60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) was seventh, followed by the #10 Ponos Gainer GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa) in eighth.
Out of the frightening crash which ended the race, and after a pit lane start, the #30 apr GR86 of Orido, Hiroaki Nagai, and Yuta Kamimura still finished ninth in its class and earned championship points, the first for a Pro-Am team in 2023. Completing the top ten was the #20 SHADE Racing GR86 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu, Shinnosuke Yamada did not run).
With the two-month summer break still in effect, the GT500 Championship leaders Tsuboi and Miyata lead by seven points over NDDP Racing’s Chiyo and Takaboshi. Matsuda and Quintarelli are 11 points behind, and after the win in Suzuka, Kunimoto and Sakaguchi are 14 points behind, on the same number as Yamamoto and Makino. And with Ritomo Miyata’s most recent win in Super Formula at Sugo, he now leads both of Japan’s major racing championships as 30 June approaches.
In GT300, Oliveira and Natori lead the championship on countback over Tsutsumi and Taira – both are on 30 points but the Kondo Racing team’s win at Fuji breaks the tie. Yoshida and Kawaai trail by just two points, Ara is five points back on his own, and despite a non-scoring result, the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou and Takuro Shinohara is just six points behind.
The SUPER GT Series returns on 5-6 August for the Fuji GT 100 Lap Race, Fuji Speedway’s summer race and the first leg of the series’ Midsummer Triple.
Images © GTA
