Honda didn’t have to wait long to see the new Civic Type R-GT win in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series, and what a win it was: A 1-2 finish for Honda at the Fuji GT 350km Race, led by the winning #8 ARTA Mugen Civic Type R-GT of Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita.
Sunday’s 77-lap race at Fuji Speedway was the first race in over two months, and the first leg of SUPER GT’s traditional “mid-summer triple” rounds – followed by the upcoming Suzuka 350km and Sugo 300km. It was a big opportunity for some teams to make up ground in the championship after tough starts to the season.
No team took that to heart like the squad behind the bright orange #8 ARTA Civic. The duo of Matsushita and Nojiri won pole position on Saturday, and then on a scorching summer Sunday afternoon, Nojiri led the GT500 field to the green flag and through the first corner. The three Hondas that qualified up front held their positions early on, with the #100 Stanley Civic of Tadasuke Makino in second, and the Dunlop-clad #64 Modulo Civic of Takuya Izawa in third.
Nojiri spent the first half of the race steadily building his lead over Makino, while both began to break clear from Izawa. Behind them, Nirei Fukuzumi was on a charge from eighth place on the grid. Eventually, his #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra moved up to fifth behind the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra of Hiroaki Ishiura. On lap 21, Fukuzumi drew alongside Ishiura headed into TGR Corner and grabbed fourth place, then closed in on Izawa. With a bold send up the inside of Panasonic Corner (turn 16), Fukuzumi moved up into the top three.
Many observers were curious to see how the extra 50 kilometres would affect strategy. The one-stop strategy was ideal, but how early would cars begin to come to pit lane? That question was answered as soon as lap 29 when the #3 Niterra Motul Nissan Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) went into the pits for routine service.
Several top cars followed in soon after, and the #100 Stanley Civic came in on lap 32, for routine service and a change of drivers to Naoki Yamamoto.
Nojiri stayed out two more laps, bringing the #8 ARTA Civic in on lap 34. Matsushita exited the pits with the net lead over Yamamoto, while the top two Toyotas effectively traded positions – as TGR Team KeePer Cerumo used the undercut to get the #38 of Toshiki Oyu out ahead of Kazuya Oshima in the #14 Eneos GR Supra.
By the time all cars had pitted, Matsushita had a lead of around 5.8 seconds over Yamamoto – but the two-time GT500 Champion began reeling him in quickly through traffic. In just four more laps, that gap came down to under a second and a half. By Lap 47, that lead was less than a second, and Yamamoto seemed poised to take the lead for Team Kunimitsu.
But Matsushita was able to stay ahead, and as the sun began to set and the track cooled off, the #8 ARTA Civic was able to stabilize its margin and start pulling away again. With 15 laps to go and most eyes transfixed on other battles behind them, Matsushita pulled out the gap back to 2.5 seconds.
From there, smooth driving was enough for Matsushita to take the chequered flag and the milestone first win for the Civic Type R-GT in its first year as Honda’s GT500 flagship vehicle, replacing the second-generation NSX. It was also the perfect cure for two painful three-hour races in the spring, where the #8 team retired due to drivetrain problems at Fuji and Suzuka.
For Nojiri, his tenth career GT500 win encompasses two important career milestones: He became the ninth driver to reach double-digit victories in SUPER GT’s premier class. He also extends his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to eight, dating back to 2017.
“Until now we have had some hard times, but I came into this race as the starting driver with the aim of putting that all behind us,” said Nojiri. “Since I was able to do that, it is very satisfying.”
Nojiri heaped praise on his co-driver’s poise in the second half of the race: “When the #100 car started to close in on Matsushita-san from behind, I had fears for a while of the old ghosts returning. But in the closing laps, he was able to run strongly and pull away in the lead. Matsushita-san, I love you for that!”
“I just want to say first of all that it is great to have gotten the first win for the Civic Type R! I am really glad we have gotten this win,” added Matsushita, who recorded his third career GT500 victory. “Nojiri-san gave us a big margin of lead, but Yamamoto-san in car #100 was very fast. I thought that he might catch us, so I switched gears, put the metal to the floor and charged ahead with all I had.
“And the car was able to keep pace, and the tyre performance was also good, so we were able to take the win. I want to thank everyone for this.”
Completing Honda’s milestone 1-2 finish – the first Honda 1-2 since Autopolis in 2022 – was the #100 Stanley Team Kunimitsu Civic of Yamamoto and Makino, recording their best finish of the season in second.
Yamamoto and Makino would make the biggest inroads in the GT500 Championship race, moving up to second place in the table behind TGR Team au TOM’S drivers Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita.
TGR Team KeePer Cerumo’s Ishiura and Oyu finished third, giving Cerumo its first GT500 podium since the Autopolis round in 2021 – and the first podium since Yuji Tachikawa transitioned from lead driver to Team Director. For Oyu, this was his first GT500 podium since leaving Honda for Toyota this off-season.
In fourth place was the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra of Oshima and Fukuzumi, 2.5 seconds back of the #38 car.
Nissan’s fleet had a mostly wretched day at Fuji: Both NISMO-run cars, the #3 Niterra Motul Z and the #23 Motul Autech Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli) finished a paltry 12th and 13th. The #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) was battling for points until Natori suffered a slow left-rear puncture with 15 to go.
The only saving grace was a fifth-place finish for the #12 Marelli Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) – one position ahead of the #64 Modulo Civic of Izawa and Riki Okusa, whose sixth-place finish was the best for a non-Bridgestone GT500 entry this season. Hiramine made an opportunistic move behind slower GT300 traffic to fight past Okusa late in the race.
Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita put together a brilliant drive to go from 14th on the grid to securing precious championship points in the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra. Tsuboi ran a long first stint to try and gain track position, and Yamashita took over the car from tenth place.
Yamashita’s battle with Natori for ninth place was especially gripping – the Nissan was much faster on the straights without any fuel-flow restrictors, but the Toyota seemed to be quicker in the corners. Yamashita got past Natori before the #24’s puncture could have spoiled the fun, then ran down the #19 WedsSport GR Supra of Sena Sakaguchi for eighth place. And then on the last lap and the last run to the chequered flag, the #17 Astemo Civic of Koudai Tsukakoshi ran out of fuel, and Yamashita drove past for seventh place!
Tsukakoshi and Kakunoshin Ohta dropped only one position to eighth despite that, ahead of Sakaguchi and Yuji Kunimoto in ninth. Rounding out the points scorers was the #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi), which started the day getting airborne off the kerbs at turn 12 during Sasahara’s first stint, and ended it with Alesi passing the #16 ARTA Civic of Ren Sato for the last points-paying position.
Tsuboi and Yamashita continue to lead the GT500 Championship standings, but their lead has dropped to four points over Yamamoto and Makino heading into the Suzuka 350km on 1 September.
For the first time in 32 races, K2 R&D LEON Racing stood victorious in the GT300 class. The black #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou, Takuro Shinohara, and team manager/reserve driver Haruki Kurosawa picked up a runaway victory.
Shinohara led from the start of the race, ahead of the new #87 Metalive S Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Natsu Sakaguchi. But the story of the early laps was carnage and attrition amongst several other cars.
The #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) was tagged from behind on the opening lap by the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan). That inflicted severe damage to the Subaru’s diffuser, and a bad race would only get worse from there when the car stopped off of 100R Corner – according to Subaru and R&D Sport, the pit lane speed limiter refused to disengage following a Full Course Yellow. Iguchi and Yamauchi finished 12 laps down in 24th.
The #9 Pacific NAC VSPO AMG (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yuta Fujiwara) only made it a single lap before stopping near the entrance of the pit lane with a terminal differential issue. An engine mapping problem caused the #50 Anest Iwata Lexus RC F GT3 (Igor Omura Fraga/Yuga Furutani) to come in for a once-over and drop off the lead lap.
But the race turned when on Lap 24, the #25 Hoppy Schatz Toyota GR Supra (Togo Suganami/Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato) stopped near Dunlop Corner. Thankfully it was nowhere close to the spectacular fire from this event last year, but it was still a race-ending mechanical problem, and one that brought out a Full Course Yellow.
Shinohara spotted the stranded Hoppy GR Supra in the final sector and his team called him into the pits for routine service, just before the FCY was deployed. No other cars came down to pit lane, and as long as Gamou could get to the end without stopping, this would be the race-winning moment.
Gamou spent his 46-lap stint managing his resources and clicking off quick laps, ultimately driving on to take the win by a whopping 31-second margin. It was his and LEON Racing’s first win since the September 2020 race at Mobility Resort Motegi.
“Luck was on our side, but I am especially glad because we were able to put together a race that really satisfied us,” said Gamou, who collected his sixth career win in GT300. “We were able to get this win in front of my family and many other fans, so I really feel good. I thank everyone so much!”
For Shinohara, it was his second career win – his first since the November 2021 race, also at Motegi. “We were able to pull away at the start and were also helped by the good timing of our pit stop. And then Gamou-san did a fantastic job for us in the second half. I am so glad for all this,” said Shinohara.
“Regarding the pit stop, all I did was report the condition of the car that had stopped over the radio, and it was the decision of the people in the pit to have me come in. But that decision was very important, so I am glad I made that call.”
Kurosawa won’t get credit for the win as a driver, but he was certainly proud to return the LEON Racing team to the top step of the podium as the Team Director.
Behind them, the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka completed a Mercedes-AMG 1-2 finish in second, while the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/João Paulo de Oliveira) came home in third.
Taniguchi spent much of his closing stint fighting to stay ahead of a hard-charging Oliveira, and he was able to do just that. On a weekend when SUPER GT honoured the memory of the late Team Taisan founder Yasutsune Chiba, it was only appropriate that Taniguchi, a former Team Taisan driver, could stand on the podium – the 50th of his career.
The #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charlie Fagg) showed that its win at Suzuka was no fluke and finished fourth. The two JLOC Lamborghinis were fifth and sixth with the #88 JLOC Lamborghini (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) besting the #87 Metalive Lamborghini (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi). Both JLOC cars changed rear tyres only in a race where teams tried different tyre strategies even in the summer heat.
It didn’t work out for two teams that tried fuel-only stops: The #31 apr Lexus LC 500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Jin Nakamura/Yuki Nemoto) used the strategy to jump to net second place after its stop, but the hybrid Lexus would tumble down to 12th at the chequered flag. As for the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka), they dropped out of the points with a mechanical issue and retired from the race with six laps left.
The #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 (Seiji Ara/Niklas Krütten/Bruno Spengler) finished seventh in a race driven exclusively by foreign imports Spengler and Krütten.
Thanks to a long first stint, the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) mounted a comeback from 18th to finish eighth, allowing Tsutsumi and Taira to maintain their slim lead in the GT300 Championship.
The #6 Uni-Robo Ferrari of Katayama/Merhi would finish ninth, while the final points-paying position would come down to a photo finish. By just nine milliseconds, the #11 Gainer Tanax Nissan Fairlady Z (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa) not only finished its first race but also scored its first top-ten finish!
This came at the expense of the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari (Kei Cozzolino/Lilou Wadoux) which ended up in 11th.
Normally, a 21st-place finish for the #22 R’Qs AMG GT3 wouldn’t be a noteworthy result – but during her first stint, Miki Koyama made some attention-grabbing overtakes in the middle of the GT300 pack, and brought the #22 car closer to the sharp end of the grid than this car has been in some time.
The only other retirement was the #96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) which dropped out with a damaged radiator.
Images © GTA
