ARTA Leads Honda Double Victory At Suzuka Summer 450km
The #16 ARTA Mugen Honda NSX-GT of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu won from pole position at the Suzuka GT 450km Race today, leading a Honda double victory at Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit while also ensuring a final GT500 victory for the Honda NSX at the circuit.
It gave Honda its first Suzuka GT500 win since 2018, as Fukuzumi and Otsu controlled the race virtually from green to chequered. Fukuzumi captured his first win since the 2021 Fuji Golden Week race, while Otsu scored his maiden GT500 class win.
They finished 10 seconds ahead of the #23 Motul Autech Nissan Z of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli in second. This race marked Matsuda’s return to his home circuit, 12 weeks after his spectacular crash in the spring race earlier this year. The #39 Denso Kobelco SARD Toyota GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) held on to finish third after being chased by multiple contenders in the final stint.
While the #3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) finished outside the points in 13th, Chiyo and Takaboshi still holding a five-point lead in the GT500 Championship.
The GT300 class turned with a well-timed pitstop that propelled the #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 of Takashi Kobayashi and Syun Koide to its second win of the year. Koide came into the pits right before a Full Course Yellow came out, as did the #87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi).
Koide, the Honda junior driver of the future, held off the former Honda factory driver Matsuura to secure the Honda double victory, one second ahead of the JLOC-entered Bamboo Airways Huracan, which nearly secured JLOC’s first win in four years.
The pole-winning #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) salvaged third place despite ending up on the wrong side of the FCY intervention.
Kobayashi and Koide, by way of their second win of 2023, have retaken the GT300 championship lead on countback ahead of BMW M Team Studie’s Seiji Ara. Ara and Bruno Spengler finished 16th in the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3.
More to follow
Feature image © GTA
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