The Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone travelled west to Okayama International Circuit, the site of its double-header round with two three-hour races held this past Sunday.
Dean Chen, Kakunoshin Ohta, and Jayden Ojeda scored the victory for Craft-Bamboo Racing in the Group 1 race, while Shuji Maeijma, Masaaki Nagashima, Tsubasa Mekaru and Seiya Motojima led Okabe Jidosha Motorsport to a win in the Group 2 race that morning.
27 cars entered the Group 2 race, mostly from the ST-3, ST-4, and ST-5 production classes. They would be joined by the #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster CNF Concept and the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru HighPerformanceX Future Concept out of the ST-Q class.
Maejima and Nagashima drove the blue and white #15 Okabe Jidosha Nissan Fairlady Z34 to the ST-3 and overall pole position on Saturday morning. In ST-4, the #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kyosuke Inomata/Kohei Tokumasa/Takahisa Ohno/Hirohito Ito) captured its second consecutive pole, while in ST-5, the top spot in qualifying went to the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Daichi Okamoto/Ryohei Arioka/Soichiro Yoshida) for the third time. All three cars went on to win their respective classes from the pole in the Group 2 race.
The quartet of Maejima, Nagashima, Mekaru, and Motojima in the #15 Nissan controlled the race from start to finish. After Maejima handed off to Mekaru, the #15 Nissan had a 20-second lead over the field. Mekaru and Motojima would retain control and win the race after 102 laps, with a 25.681-second margin of victory.
Behind them were the two Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350s: The #38 (Toshiki Komura/Yuma Shoji/Toshiki Ishimori) in second, and the #39 (Shinya Fujita/Takashi Ito/Dai Mizuno) in third place. All four ST-3 cars finished on the lead lap with the #16 Okabe Jidosha Z34 (Kazuomi Komatsu/Toru Tanaka/Tetsuya Tanaka/Masaya Kohno) in fourth.
The #38 Tracy Sports with Delta RC 350 gained three points on the #39 car, whittling the gap in the championship down to nine points. Tracy Sports with Delta is assured of its fifth consecutive ST-3 Championship no matter what – so the only question that remains is which of its two cars will win the title?
It was more of a dogfight down the order in ST-4. The #66 Over Drive Roadster RF of Kohei Tokumasu started on pole, but Tokumasu surrendered the lead to Ryo Ogawa in the #3 Endless Sports Toyota GR86 on the opening lap.
But after a long first stint from Tokumasu, the #66 Roadster regained the lead by about six seconds, while the #3 Endless GR86 and #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86 ran second and third.
Takahisa Ohno had expanded the #66 Roadster’s lead in class and handed the baton over to Kyosuke Inomata for the final stint, while Togo Suganami and Yusuke Tomibayashi got aboard the #3 and #41 GR86es to close the race out. After a Full Course Yellow for a stranded ST-5 car (the #222 Honda Cars Tokai Fit4 RS broke down with a mechanical problem), Suganami and Tomibayashi battled hard for second place. With ten minutes left, Tomibayashi overtook Suganami for second in class.
Inomata’s lead had shrunk but he had enough pace in hand to take the victory. Not only was it the first ST-4 class win for the fourth-generation Mazda Roadster RF and the Over Drive (odula) team, but it was the first time since the 2017 season opener at Mobility Resort Motegi that the ST-4 class victory went to a car other than the Toyota 86/GR86 – ending a streak that lasted 44 races!
The #41 Tracy Sports/Delta GR86 of Tomibayashi, Hirotaka Ishii, and Shunsuke Ozaki finished second, about four seconds behind the #66 Over Drive Roadster RF, and three seconds ahead of the #3 Endless GR86 of Ogawa, Suganami, and Hiroyuki Saka. Rounding out the top five in class were the #60 Team G/Motion’ GR86 (Resshu Shioya/Masayuki Minato/Keisuke Ohara) and the #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Masahiko Kageyama/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada/Teppei Tsuruta).
These results give Tracy Sports with Delta’s crew a three-point lead over Endless Sports in the race for the ST-4 Championship. SHADE Racing is still mathematically eligible in third place, but from a 26.5-point deficit with 32 points available, even a pole-to-win victory may not be enough to overcome the deficit.
Perhaps the best racing came out of the ST-5 class, all involving Mazda Roadsters. Yuga Furutani went from third to first on the opening lap to put the #27 Maple Hiroshima Racing Team Roadster in front, followed by the #120 Club Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster of Shohei Oda, and the #88 Muramo Roadster of polesitter Murakami.
The #27 Roadster had a nearly 20-second gap over the #120 in the middle stages as Noriyuki Higuchi led Eiichi Honda, but Murakami Motors’ strategy would allow them to catch up. After a short stint from Arioka, Okamoto got aboard with about 80 minutes left.
Once the leaders came in with just over an hour to go, that strategy allowed Okamoto and the #88 Roadster to cut up to second place, behind the #27 of Haruhiko Sugino. Meanwhile, Tatsuya Minowa had taken over the #120 and was charging his way up from third.
With 30 minutes left, Sugino, Okamoto, and Minowa were bumper-to-bumper, and Okamoto would eventually break Sugino’s defence to take the lead. Minowa followed him through into second place and the two battled for the lead for the rest of the race, all the way to the last lap. Okamoto in the #88 Muramo Roadster held on for the team’s third win of the season, winning by just 0.344 seconds over the #120 of Honda, Minowa, and Oda.
The #27 of Sugino, Furutani, and Higuchi finished third, giving Maple Hiroshima Racing Team its first podium of the season in ST-5.
Fourth in ST-5 went to the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Otani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami), which had been repaired overnight after Nogami rolled his car during Qualifying Practice the afternoon before. The #76 Progress Racing Roadster (Ryosuke Moroi/Junpei Kato/Hitoshi Sakai/Takashi Nara) in fifth and the #65 Over Drive Roadster (Tatsuya Ota/Shuichiro Hokazono/Sena Kuronuma/Takuma Ikeda) made it a Mazda sweep of the top six, but the #65 might have been in contention for a podium until picking up a 60-second penalty stop for pitting under a Full Course Yellow.
Murakami Motors’ #88 now leads the ST-5 Championship standings by nine points over Team NOPRO’s #17, while the Over Drive #65 trails by 26.5 points.
The #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster CNF Concept (Hiroshi Kawata/Yuui Tsutsumi/Ryohei Sakaguchi) finished 25th overall after overcoming an electrical issue during the race, completing 85 laps. Four laps behind in 26th was the #61 Subaru HiPerfX (Kazuhiro Ito/Hideki Yamauchi/Takuto Iguchi/Masafumi Hanazawa) which lost over 30 minutes in the garage with a variety of issues.
After a brief intermission, the Group 1 race began on Sunday afternoon – featuring the headlining ST-X, ST-Z, and ST-TCR classes, plus the ST-1 and ST-2 classes. From ST-Q, the #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Yaris DAT Concept and #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R CNF-R completed the 32-car grid.
Chen and Ohta drove the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to pole position, their second of the year. Chen was standing in for Jeffrey Lee as the team’s ‘A’ Driver for the weekend – and since he didn’t meet all of the STO’s standard criteria for an amateur driver, the #33 car would have to serve a drive-through penalty as its ‘A Driver Handicap’.
This allowed the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 of Kazuto Kotaka to take the lead in the opening lap, and away from the other ‘A’ drivers including Ryuichiro Oyagi in the #81 Daishin Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, who slotted into second. Jayden Ojeda started the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes and after serving the drive-through, he was on a mission to catch up again.
Clouds had rolled over Okayama International Circuit by the start of the race, and after half an hour, it began to rain. Ojeda worked his way through the pack and got back up to second place within 35 minutes, trying to close in on Kotaka before the first round of pit stops.
Kotaka was the last of the ST-X front-runners to pit, and while Hiroaki Nagai left the pits with the lead, it would only last for a few seconds. Craft-Bamboo made an early first pit stop and driver change, allowing Chen to get up to speed quickly and drive past Nagai into first place.
The gap between them remained around five seconds throughout their middle stint, as the rain began to fall harder – but not hard enough for teams to switch to wet tyres. Once the leaders made their final pit stops, Ohta in the #33 Mercedes-AMG had a sizeable advantage over history-maker Miki Koyama in the #31 Lexus, now second – but being caught rapidly by the #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG of Naoya Gamou, who took second place for himself.
Gamou was able to cut into Ohta’s gap a little bit over the last 45 minutes, but not enough for him to make a serious challenge for the lead. Ohta took a big win for Craft-Bamboo Racing, their second in Super Taikyu, after 111 laps.
And now that the team has confirmed it will run in the final round at Fuji Speedway, Craft-Bamboo Racing have now become serious contenders for the ST-X Championship after rising to second in the points table.
The #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Mercedes-AMG (Ryuta Ukai/Giuliano Alesi/Naoya Gamou) finished second, 10.692 seconds behind, and completing a Silver Arrows 1-2 finish. The #31 apr RC F of Nagai, Kotaka, Koyama, and Koki Saga completed the overall podium in third place.
In fourth was the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Yuhki Nakayama) which continued to pick up points and finished fourth, two laps ahead of the #81 Daishin GT-R GT3 (Noboyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Aoki/Ryuichiro Oyagi) in fifth.
The new #30 Team Handwork Challenge GT-R GT3 (Ryuji ‘Dragon’ Kumita/Daiki Sasaki/Rin Arakawa) was on course to finish fifth until Arakawa collided with the #72 NATS Honda Civic Type R of Tetsuya Yamano. The #30 Nissan retired less than 10 minutes from the chequered flag, while the #72 NATS Civic drove on with front body damage.
In ST-Z, the pole-sitting #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Manabu Yamazaki/Hiroki Yoshida/Naoki Hattori/Seita Nonaka) had a chance to clinch the championship before the final race of the season. Yoshida started first in class but soon gave way to the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Riki Okusa who moved into the lead. Kazuki Oki in the #20 Naniwa Denso Team Impul Nissan Z NISMO GT4 quickly worked his way up to second place, and they ran close together in first and second with Okusa holding the advantage.
The #20 Nissan pitted first, and then the #34 Audi came in – briefly handing the lead to the #21 Hitotsuyama Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Sean Walkinshaw, before he came in for routine service. The #34 Audi re-emerged with the lead, Masaki Kano was 11 seconds ahead of James Pull in second.
The Anglo-Malaysian driver closed in on Kano enough to where, by the time both cars made their final stops, the #21 Mercedes-AMG was back in the class lead with Daisuke Yamawaki ahead of the #34 Audi of Ryoma Henzan. Despite Yamawaki’s best efforts, Henzan took the lead with 22 minutes left.
Kano, Henzan, Okusa, and Hironobu Yasuda scored the victory for Techno First and for their Audi R8 LMS GT4, the team’s second win at Okayama in a row. The #21 Hitotsuyama Mercedes-AMG finished second on the road, but was later disqualified due to a minimum ride height infringement.
This elevated the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota back up to second place, and the #20 Naniwa Denso Team Impul Nissan (Yuki Tanaka/Kazuki Oki/Kazuki Hiramine) into third in class, followed by the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan (Tadao Uematsu/Tsugio Matsuda/Kimiya Sato/Teppei Natori) in fourth, and the #22 Porsche Team EBI Cayman GT4 (Shota Kitazono/Rintaro Kubo/Naoya Yamano/Yugo Iwasawa) in fifth.
With these results, Saitama Green Brave’s second-place finish was enough for them to clinch their second consecutive ST-Z Championship.
There was also heartache at the end of the race for the #555 AutoFactory Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Kazutaka Tokufuji/Jun Tashiro/Go Nagata), which was running third in class until Tokufuji went off at the final corner on the last lap and didn’t take the chequered flag.
M&K Racing’s pair of Honda Civic Type R TCRs finished 1-2 in the ST-TCR class, led by the #97 Honda of Mitsuhiro Endo, Shinji Nakano, and Shion Tsujimoto – who took their second win of the season.
The #98 Honda (Shigeru ‘Kizuna’ Sato/Lee Jung Woo/Sena Yamamoto) finished second in class to maintain a 6.5-point advantage over the #97 car.
The #24 KMSA Motorsport Hyundai Elantra N TCR (Choi Jeong Weon/Masanobu Kato) successfully finished its debut Super Taikyu race, third in ST-TCR and on the same lap as the leaders.
In ST-2, the #6 Shinryo Racing Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) recovered from back-to-back retirements to win for the first time this season.
They held off the #225 KTMS Toyota GR Yaris (Kengo Ichijo/Shunji Okumoto/Rikuto Kobayashi) who finished second in class, while the #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic Type R (Hiroki Ishigaki/Akira Bitoh/Junichi Kidachi) was third, putting three makes on the podium in class.
The #13 Endless GR Yaris (Masaya Hanazato/Mizuki Ishizaka/Reimei Ito/Hitoshi Okada) was fourth, followed by the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda (Makoto Kanai/Tetsuya Yamano/Toshiya Nojima).
KTMS leads Endless Sports by 9.5 points in the ST-2 title race, with the Nihon Automobile College squad still on the fringe of mathematical contention, 27.5 points behind.
The #2 K’s Frontier KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto) finished 17th overall out of 26 finishers.
Coming home 24th was the #32 ROOKIE GR Yaris DAT Concept (Akio ‘Morizo’ Toyoda/Daisuke Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Yasuhiro Ogura), which ran a trouble-free race at the same pace as the other ST-2 cars. Sadly, the #271 HRC Civic CNF-R (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) spent most of the race in the garage and retired less than 20 minutes away from the chequered flag, completing only 38 laps.
With six rounds complete, only one remains. Super Taikyu returns to Fuji Speedway on 17 November for the final, four-hour endurance race, where seven championships will be decided!
Images © STO, Thomas Cheng/C36 Photography, Toyota
