Super Taikyu, Sugo: Wins For TKRI And Team SDA Engineering
The Eneos Super Taikyu Series Supported by Bridgestone made the trek up to Sportsland Sugo last weekend for a pair of three-hour races.
In the Group 1 Race held this past Sunday afternoon, the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daisuke Matsunaga, Yuya Motojima, and Yuhki Nakayama scored the team’s first-ever overall and ST-X class win. Earlier that day, Team SDA Engineering made history and became the first ST-Q class entrant to take a Super Taikyu overall race victory – as the #61 Subaru BRZ CNF Concept of Koichi Hirota, Hideki Yamauchi, Takuto Iguchi, and Kazuhiro Ito took the chequered flag.
This was also the first weekend for Bridgestone to provide both dry and wet-weather tyres to all teams. The Bridgestone badge now appeared on the number plates of every car, along with the updated co-sponsorship of the series. For this weekend, teams in the Group 2 race continued to use Bridgestone Potenza high-performance street tyres instead of slicks.
It was an early 8:45 AM green flag for the Group 2 race, which featured 23 cars – including the two carbon-neutral fuelled “Toyobarus”, the #61 Subaru BRZ and the pole-sitting #28 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept.
The three-hour race was a shining example of what is possible in terms of driving standards for pro-am endurance racing: There were no Safety Cars or Full Course Yellow (FCY) interventions from lights to flag, and all 23 cars finished the race.
Toyota employee and Nürburgring 24h mechanic Keizo Kato started the race from pole position aboard his #28 Toyota GR86. He held the top spot for the opening minutes before Subaru ace driver Iguchi, from third on the grid, drove past him and into the lead.
Iguchi led all the way to the end of his opening stint, and Hirota, the Subaru road car engineer and co-founder of Team SDA Engineering took over.
The ST-4 class #86 TOM’s Spirit Toyota GR86 assumed the overall lead in the middle stages after Takamitsu Matsui started the race, then handed off to SUPER GT GT500 Class championship leader Sho Tsuboi. Tsuboi came in with just over an hour remaining, where Toyota’s leading civilian vehicle test driver, Hisashi Yabuki, would finish the race.
Yamauchi drove the #61 Subaru back to the overall lead with 40 minutes left in the race, diving up the inside of Yabuki at the Hairpin Corner (turn four). Yamauchi then drove off to a commanding, landmark win in the Group 2 race.
The #61 Subaru BRZ completed 110 laps and finished more than a minute ahead of the #28 ROOKIE Racing GR86 of Kato, Kenta Yamashita, Daisuke Toyoda, and Eisuke Sasaki. Despite the strong start, ROOKIE Racing’s GR86 had engine issues which kept them from challenging for the win as the race progressed.
In the head-to-head competition between the #28 and #61 this year, Subaru has now pulled out to a 2-1 lead.
TOM’s Spirit was all but assured the ST-4 class win right until the very end. The #3 Endless Sports GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Ryo Ogawa/Togo Suganami) was running fourth overall and second in class, with Suganami – a week removed from his first Super Formula Lights race win – trying to chase down Yabuki. Suganami caught up to within six-tenths of Yabuki and they were ahead of Yamauchi just as the overall leader took the chequered flag, ensuring that Suganami would have one chance to pass for the class win.
With a perfectly-executed move up the inside of the Hairpin Corner and through the S-Bend, Suganami drove the deep blue #3 GR86 to the lead and would go on to win by just over a second on the road. That pass gave Endless Sports its first ST-4 class win since 2019, and the first since the introduction of their new Toyota GR86.
The #86 TOM’s Spirit GR86 of Yabuki, Matsui, Tsuboi, and Shunsuke Kohno consolidated second place, ahead of the #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86 (Hirotaka Ishii/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Dai Mizuno) in third, 12 seconds ahead of the #884 SHADE Racing GR86 (Masahiko Kageyama/Yuji Kunimoto/Shinnosuke Yamada/Teppei Tsuruta) in fourth, with the #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kousei Kanto/Kyosuke Inomata/Takahisa Ohno/Shigetomo Shimono) rounding off the top five.
Flawless in the first two races, the championship-leading #60 Team G/Motion’ GR86 (Resshu Shioya/Takao Seto/Kengo Yamamoto) had a lacklustre day and finished seventh in class.
Team G/Motion’ still leads the ST-4 standings heading into their “bye week” at Autopolis, but the gap has come down to 21 and a half points over the second-ranked #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86, while Endless Sports’ perfect win from pole puts them within 30 points of the top of the table.
Four months after Tetsuya Yamano suffered a heavy crash in the final hour of the Super Taikyu opening round at Suzuka, he drove the #72 Nihon Automobile College (NATS) Mazda Roadster to the ST-5 class win alongside co-drivers Makoto Kanai and Toshiya Nojima. It was the trio’s second straight ST-5 class win at Sugo.
Kanai maximised the fuel economy of the 1.5-litre Öhlins/NATS Roadster in a mammoth 57-lap opening stint, allowing Nojima and Yamano to sprint home to the chequered flag.
The #17 Team NOPRO Mazda Demio Diesel Turbo (Hideyoshi Nishizawa/Tobio Ohtani/Misaki Konishi/Toshihiko Nogami) followed up its Fuji 24 Hour Race win with a second-place finish at Sugo, a big surprise for the car which typically isn’t favoured in the shorter, sprint-like races. But series rookie Konishi drove well above expectations in the opening hour to keep Team NOPRO in position for a podium.
Completing the ST-5 podium was the #65 Over Drive Roadster (Shuichiro Hokazono/Hirohito Ito/Tatsuya Ota/Sena Kuronuma) in third, which led most of the first half of the race. An all-Mazda top five was rounded out by the #88 Murakami Motors Roadster (Hiroyuki Murakami/Ryohei Arioka/Soichiro Yoshida/Daichi Okamoto) and the #50 Love Drive Roadster (Isao Ihashi/Takashi Ohi/Junko Fujii/Mitsuhiro Kunisawa), with the #67 Team Yamato Honda Fit3 RS (Shinya Uchiyama/Ryohei Yasui/Yoshihiko Nakamura) in sixth as the best non-Mazda.
Team NOPRO’s #17 Mazda leads the ST-5 standings by six points over NATS, with the Over Drive #65 sitting third in the table, 30 points out of first place.
GROUP 2 RACE RESULTS (by class) >>
After a brief intermission came the Group 1 race, featuring the cars from ST-X, ST-Z, ST-1, and ST-2 classes, plus the #32 Toyota GR Yaris prototype from ROOKIE Racing and the #271 Honda Civic Type R CNF-R from Team HRC, both ST-Q cars using carbon-neutral fuel.
After securing pole position in qualifying the day before, gentleman driver Hiroaki Nagai led the field to the green flag in the #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3. But Motojima, who started fourth in the #23 TKRI/Matsunaga Construction Mercedes, made a lightning start and by the time the field made it to the double right-hand SP corners, Motojima had taken the lead.
He built a 50-second advantage through the end of his opening stint. Just as Daisuke had taken over for his compulsory one-hour stint, the #111 Buzz Kota Racing McLaren 570S GT4 of Max Salo broke down at the final corner, triggering the first FCY intervention of the race. There’d be no weekend “double” for team owner Kota Sasaki after he won the Formula Beat (formerly JAF Formula 4) race on Saturday.
Half an hour later, the ST-Z leading #885 SHADE Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 went off at Horseback Corner. An electrical problem forced young Eijiro Shimizu to go off into the gravel. A second FCY, then a Safety Car, was deployed.
The battle for the win which followed looked as if it would come down to either the #31 Lexus, the #23 Mercedes, or the #1 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, which had assumed the lead once all the ST-X runners made their final pit stops and driver changes. But the apr Lexus fell to the wayside due to a gearbox issue which put them in the garage for 30 minutes, and HELM Motorsports had to serve a drive-through penalty for changing tyres while refuelling.
This opened the door for Nakayama to cruise to the Group 1 race win, the first for TKRI (Tatsuya Kataoka Racing Invitation) since it stepped up to the premier class last season. It came at the site of their lone ST-Z class win in 2021, where Daisuke and Motojima drove the Mercedes-AMG GT4 to victory.
The #1 HELM GT-R of Yutaka Toriba, Yuya Hiraki, and Reiji Hiraki finished 20 seconds behind in second place after serving its drive-through penalty. And the #14 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes (Ryuta Ukai/Naoya Gamou/Hibiki Taira/Tatsuya Kataoka) followed up its Fuji 24 Hours win with a third-place finish. With Kataoka’s private team on the top step of the podium, and himself on the third step as driver and team manager of the ROOKIE Racing Mercedes, it was a good day for the SUPER GT legend!
Sporting the purple, green, and orange EVA Unit-01 colours for this race, the #202 KCMG Honda NSX GT3 (Paul Ip/Ho-Pin Tung/Marchy Lee) had a quiet but comfortable run to fourth place.
After the gearbox trouble suffered earlier in the race, the #31 apr Lexus of Nagai, Kazuto Kotaka, and Koki Saga finished 20th overall and fifth in class.
Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing continues to lead the ST-X Championship standings by eight points over HELM Motorsports. In fact, the top six teams in the standings are separated by 20.5 points – including GTNET Motor Sports, who withdrew its #819 Daishin/MP GTNET GT-R before the weekend.
The battle for ST-1 went the way of the #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto/Kazuho Takahashi), who finished fifth overall. It’s their second ST-1 class win of the season, a lap ahead of the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Tatsuya Hoshino/Manabu Orido/Kenji Hama/Jake Parsons), in eighth overall.
K’s Frontier KTM Cars leads the ST-1 standings by 9.5 points as the class takes its “bye week” at Autopolis, as planned by the Super Taikyu entrants in the numbered classes.
The magical debut season for Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave kept rolling on as the #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Manabu Yamazaki, Hiroki Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, and Kohta Kawaai took its third win in a row to start the 2023 season – despite carrying 60kg of Success Weight heading into the weekend.
Yoshida had his hands full battling for position throughout the early stages of the race, while also trying to save fuel. Once the SHADE Racing GR Supra broke down and out of the lead, Hattori brought the GreenBrave GR Supra to the pits to change drivers to Yamazaki.
Yamazaki held on over the course of his final stint to finish sixth overall and win the ST-Z class by just 10.067 seconds ahead of a hard-charging #26 raffinée Nissan Mechanic Challenge Z GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Ryuichiro Tomita/Teppei Natori).
Third in ST-Z with its first podium of the season was the #20 Naniwa Densou Team Impul Z (Yuki Tanaka/Kazuki Hiramine/Kazuki Oki/Kazuki Hoshino), which meant both Nissan Z GT4s from Team Impul and Team ZeroOne reached the class podium for the first time in Japan. The #22 Porsche Team EBI Waimarama Cayman GT4 RS CS (Kizuna/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano/Shota Kitazono) fought for the lead early on, then consolidated fourth ahead of the #19 Birth Racing Project Porsche (Kenji Suzuki/Takeshi Suehiro/Kohei Fukuda/Tatsuya Tanigawa).
Three different models have won in ST-2 this season as the #6 Shinryo Racing Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X of Tomohiro Tomimasu, Yasushi Kikuchi, and Masazumi Ohashi prevailed in a close battle over the #13 Endless Toyota GR Yaris (Masaya Hanazato/Mizuki Ishizaka/Reimei Ito/Hitoshi Okada), by just 6.374 seconds after three hours of racing.
This was Shinryo Racing Team’s first win since the #7 Lancer won the 2021 Fuji 24 Hours – and eventually took home the team’s first-ever series championship – but the first for the #6 car driven by team founder Tomimasu since 2019 at Mobility Resort Motegi! The #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic Type R (Hiroaki Ishigaki/Junichi Kidachi/Hideki Kakinuma) finished third in ST-2.
Endless Sports’ GR Yaris continues to lead the ST-2 standings after three races on the strength of its Fuji 24h class win, 13.5 points ahead of Honda R&D Challenge.
Finally, in ST-Q, the #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing GR Yaris (Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Masahiro Sasaki/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura) finished 16th to “win” the ST-Q class, and in fact, was just 7.1 seconds behind the ST-2 class winner.
The GR Yaris prototype which first competed in 2020, was called back into action this weekend as the GR Corolla H2 Concept sat out this race for improvements ahead of its planned return at Autopolis.
Meanwhile, pre-race mechanical troubles forced the #271 Civic Type R CNF-R (Hideki Mutoh/Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) to start from the pit lane. The Civic would finish 19th in just its second race, 11 laps behind the GR Yaris.
GROUP 1 RACE RESULTS (by class) >>
The Super Taikyu Series returns on 30 July for a single, five-hour race around Autopolis International Racing Course.
Images © STO
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