Craft-Bamboo Racing and its partners came to the 50th Suzuka 1000km with a theme for the event: “Every taxi has a story.”
Their two Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs, one competing for outright honours in Pro, and the other looking to defend its Pro-Am Cup class win, are liveried in tribute to the familiar taxi cabs of Tokyo and Hong Kong which have taken people from place to place for generations.
This weekend at Suzuka Circuit, the drivers of the leading #77 Mercedes-AMG were chaperoned around the famous figure-eight by a real Tokyo taxi driver in an authentic Toyota JPN Cab. The fare charged depends on who you ask (though it was paid), and the lap time was never disclosed, but by all accounts, it sounds like the drivers had a fun time going “slow car fast” around the course.
Now the serious work starts. All alone as Mercedes-AMG’s only official factory-supported team, and as one of only two Mercedes teams in the Pro category, Craft-Bamboo Racing Director Darryl O’Young knows that a lot is riding on the shoulders of his accomplished team at the 50th running of Japan’s great endurance sports car race.
“I think that’s a big responsibility for our team,” he told DSC. “We need to make sure the car is reliable, and we do a good job. Each time, different teams in different places pass the torch to win this championship, so we have to do our part in Suzuka and hopefully deliver a result.”
When it comes to the bigger picture of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, this time it’s Craft-Bamboo’s turn to take the torch from Mercedes-AMG’s Western counterparts, like Winward Racing, whose Ravenol-sponsored car won the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
2018 winning squad Team GMR isn’t here at Suzuka this year and neither is the celebrated Goodsmile Racing, which puts an even brighter spotlight on Craft-Bamboo to fuel Mercedes’ bid for the IGTC Manufacturers’ Championship. All while a congested race weekend has left the Silver Arrows a bit short-handed when it comes to available factory talent.
“It’s been a tricky race the last couple of years,” O’Young admitted, when it comes to the clashes with series like DTM, NLS, and the European Le Mans Series.
For the broader international audience, Mercedes-AMG performance drivers Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin will be the focus, as they rightly should be. They won the Nürburgring 24 Hours together for Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol (Winward Racing). Martin added a Bathurst 12 Hour win to his season ledger.
Stolz, who was second at the Spa 24 Hours with co-driver Maro Engel, could take the championship lead by the end of Sunday, as championship leader Engel will not be at either Suzuka or Indianapolis while he honours his DTM commitments.
But Mercedes-AMG and Craft-Bamboo’s ace in the hole this weekend is a young man who typically wears the badge of another manufacturer: Kakunoshin Ohta, the Honda works driver who has been a podium finisher in the top classes of SUPER GT and IMSA, and who currently leads the Super Formula Championship with just four races remaining.
“I’m super excited for this weekend,” said Ohta, who’s worked with Craft-Bamboo Racing for three years in the Super Taikyu Series. “I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time, since last year’s Suzuka 1000km.
“It’s a privilege for me, and a big task, to be honest. This is, I think, the only race where we can fight in a big race like this; this event has many great drivers, and Suzuka is one of the most spectacular events in the calendar.”
O’Young is among the Japanese driver’s biggest backers. “We’ve been quite fortunate to work with Kaku the past three years,” he said. “He’s a weapon when it comes to single-lap pace, and overall major contributions. I think that it’s also great to bring local flair to the race in combination with the AMG drivers, it’s always a plus.”
Ohta has had an affinity for Suzuka going back to the early years in his career: His first career wins in FIA Formula 4, Super Formula Lights, and Super Formula all came at Suzuka. Four of his ten career Super Formula wins have come here. And while it’s perplexing that he hasn’t yet won in SUPER GT GT500, Ohta is coming off a third-place finish at Suzuka three weeks ago. Oh, and he won the Super Taikyu Suzuka 5 Hour race in April, driving for Craft-Bamboo Racing’s upstart Japanese division.
When asked what makes Ohta so proficient around Suzuka, he remarked, “It’s the flow. I like high-speed corners; it’s about the rhythm, control, maximising the downforce. Everyone loves this track, it requires instincts to be fast. You can’t just slow down and accelerate, you have to keep the speed as high as possible and control it.”
Another man who’s crafted a legendary career in Japan is aboard the #28 Pro-Am car: Brazilian João Paulo Lima de Oliveira returns to the Suzuka 1000km for the first time since 2017, when he won the pole for the final 1000km under the management of SUPER GT.
Oliveira’s hall of fame-worthy credentials are highlighted by Japanese Formula 3 and Formula Nippon (Super Formula) championships, and two titles in SUPER GT GT300 – with a third potentially within reach. If there were two things that eluded him, during his time as a Nissan factory driver he missed out on winning a GT500 championship, and the overall victory at the Suzuka 1000km.
Even if the first place trophy is just for his class, Oliveira would be thrilled to finally make it to the top step of the podium in this historic race. “It’s a good opportunity, and I’m very excited to take on the challenge this weekend,” Oliveira said.
“For myself, the challenge is also to see how I compare in terms of pace with the other drivers in the other car. We have data to share, we can take a look at things together – and I can see myself at that level.”
He’ll have a solid supporting cast to lean on, in last year’s Pro-Am class winner Kevin Tse, plus Super Taikyu and Japan Cup champion Daisuke Yamawaki, both of whom have experience at the wheel of the current Mercedes-AMG GT3 platform.
“We have to structure our race within the limitations we have, what suits us best during the race. I’ll possibly have three stints during the race. It’ll be quite a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it,” Oliveira added.
O’Young added, “Coming off last year’s win, it’s been one of our targets to come back and return with a win again. Last year, it was definitely not by pace, we felt that the BOP was not bad for us last year, but not amazing either. it was more of a race of attrition, really.
“A lot of drivers struggled with heat last year. It was one of our biggest problems that we’re trying to resolve. It was a massive strategy game to get us the win, and at the end of the race, it came down to seconds – it was a very close race.
“We’re not having any illusions that we’re gonna turn up and it’ll just be easy, at all. It’s a very competitive, prime grid.”
Images © SRO Motorsports Group / Gruppe C Photography
