45 Cars For Motegi Super Taikyu 5 Hour Race

45 cars from eight classes are on the provisional entry list for next week’s Motegi Super Taikyu 5 Hours Race, the fifth round of the 2023 Eneos Super Taikyu Series Supported by Bridgestone.

At the head of the field, six GT3 cars in the ST-X class are still fighting for the 2023 season championship. There are no significant changes to the entry list since the last round at Autopolis. Currently, the #14 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 has a 13-and-a-half-point advantage with three races left. But there will be additional motivation for the #202 KCMG Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 to do well, as Mobility Resort Motegi is one of two Honda-owned circuits.

That same motivation should also spur on a fun two-car battle in ST-TCR between the new FL5-generation #97 M&K Racing Honda Civic Type R, and the older FK7-gen #5 AI’ Racing Civic. Formula 1, Le Mans, and SUPER GT veteran Shinji Nakano is back in the #97 Civic this weekend, while Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) graduate and current Super Formula star Ren Sato has been added to the lineup for the #5 Civic.

Ten cars are entered in the ST-Z class, which regains the #22 Porsche Team EBI Waimarama Cayman GT4 (Shota Kitazono/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano) after a one-race planned vacation. Also returning is the Auto Factory team and its Mercedes-AMG GT4, which hasn’t raced since the Fuji 24 Hours due to a crash in the race. Shigehiro Ikemoto and Jun Tashiro are back aboard the #555 Mercedes this weekend.

In addition, Audi Team Hitotsuyama has brought in an excellent reinforcement for this race to drive the #21 Audi R8 LMS GT4: Ritomo Miyata, the current championship leader in Super Formula, and the newest member of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC Challenge programme.

Miyata has maintained a strong relationship with privateer Hitotsuyama Racing in recent years and drove this car full-time last season.

For the first time in 2023, all seven ST-Q cars will share the same track together. This includes the returning #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru BRZ CNF Concept, which won the Group 2 race at Sportsland Sugo in its last appearance – and the #230 NISMO Nissan Z Racing Concept, which is back for the first time since the Fuji 24 Hours. Nissan factory drivers Kohei Hirate, Daiki Sasaki, and Mitsunori Takaboshi will be behind the wheel of the GT4-based, carbon-neutral fuelled Z.

Honda will also hope for a strong run from the #271 Team HRC Civic Type R CNF-R of Takuya Izawa, Hiroki Otsu, and Hideki Mutoh in the same class.

ROOKIE Racing will again substitute the liquid hydrogen #32 Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept with its GR Yaris, which will redebut as the GR Yaris DAT Concept. It will be installed with a new sports-tuned, eight-speed automatic transmission.

While the ST-5 class won’t be in action, ST-1 and ST-4 return to action as part of the class rotation.

Currently in ST-1, the #2 K’s Frontier KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) leads the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Tatsuya Hoshino/Manabu Orido/Kenji Hama/Jake Parsons) by nine-and-a-half points. The KTM is keen to extend its advantage and secure a third straight series title.

ST-4 class underdog Team G/Motion’ won the first two races and capitalised on the misfortunes of some of the category’s stronger teams, but at Sugo, the favourites began to hit back – including the #3 Endless Sports Toyota GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Ryo Ogawa/Togo Suganami), which won in a last-lap thriller at Sugo, and the #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86 (Dai Mizuno/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Hirotaka Ishii) which finished third in that race. Can G/Motion’ and team leader Resshu Shioya continue to fend off the dominant forces of ST-4 in these final three races?

Also, for the first time this season, a team has a championship-clinching scenario: The #13 Endless Sports Toyota GR Yaris of Masaya Hanazato, Mizuki Ishizaka, Reimei Ito, and Hitoshi Okada can clinch the ST-2 championship next week if they leave Motegi with a 32-point lead in the standings. Endless Sports may only need to win its class to secure the title, depending on which team scores the two bonus points for pole position.

Feature image © STO