TGR Team au TOM’s Wins The SUPER GT Fuji Golden Week Race
SUPER GT’s annual Golden Week classic at Fuji Speedway did not disappoint!
The #36 au TOM’s Toyota GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata took a well-executed victory in the Fujimaki Group Fuji GT 450km Race, which was run to completion without any Safety Cars or Full Course Yellows.
A fantastic double stint from Tsuboi and two perfect pitstops from the TOM’s Racing crew put Miyata in a great position to cruise to the victory – the second career win for both drivers in GT500, and the first for the #36 au TOM’s crew since the 2021 season finale at Fuji.
The pole-winning #100 Stanley Honda NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) had a stranglehold on the opening stint but fell behind the au Supra after the first round of pit stops.
But both cars will take well-earned results after their own separate disappointments in the opening round at Okayama.
Late dramas for the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Nissan Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) elevated the intra-make battle between the #8 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu) and the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) to a fight for the last podium position. Amazingly, Oyu’s car slowed down on the penultimate lap, and Tsukakoshi drove past to give the Astemo NSX the final podium position!
The #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) finished fourth, ahead of the top Nissan, the #3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi), in fifth.
A nail-biting finish in GT300 saw the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R of João Paulo de Oliveira and Teppei Natori win from pole position – but only just!
Hibiki Taira in the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 lost the lead but kept the pressure on Natori, both pursuing their first career wins in the series. Despite a great final corner from Taira, Natori held on by 0.579 seconds to give Kondo Racing team the win!
Taira and Yuui Tsutsumi finished second aboard the #2 muta GR86, and the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) rounded out the podium in third.
More to come!
Images © GTA
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