2024.04.14

【Rd. 1 Race　GT500】 Last year’s champion au TOM'S GR Supra takes a complete victory from pole position while fierce battles played out behind it

The opening round of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE, took place on April 17th at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3,703m × 82 laps). In fine weather conditions that verged on unseasonal heat, the GT500 class saw a perfect win for the pole-starting No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita). In the GT300 class, the opening round victory went to the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) thanks to a successful no-tire-change race strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

　This day at Okayama International Circuit brought early summer-like weather, with the air temperature at the start climbing to an unexpectably warm 27℃. It was in these favorable conditions that the 2024 season’s opening race started after a Traffic Safety Promotion parade lap led by five Okayama Prefectural Police motorcycles.

　After the start, it was the pole-sitting No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi) that took the lead coming through the first turn. Following No. 36 in their grid order came the 2nd position No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi) and the 3rd and 4th position starters, the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tadasuke Makino) and the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Toshiki Oyu).

　However, behind this, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Ronnie Quintarelli) was pushed to the out-side and off the track at the first corner by the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima), causing it to drop to 9th position. What’s more, at the ATTWOOD Curve of the first lap, there was a collision by two GT300 class cars that caused one to run off the track, and then car No. 14 spun out when coming out of the REVOLVER Corner, and in an attempt to avoid hitting No. 14, the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta) came to a stop at trackside. This series of accidents brought out the Safety Car on only the second lap of the race.

　The car No. 14 that spun out had also collided with the No. 12 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Bertrand Baguette) and due to the resulting damage to the rear of the car, No. 14 had to return to the pit, where it had to spend a long time for repairs. Also, car No. 12 was given a Drive-through Penalty for that accident. It wasn’t until the 8th lap that the race could be restarted, and from there car No. 36 began to pull away in the lead at a fast pace. By the 20th lap of the race, it had built up a solid lead of about nine seconds, and when 1/3rd of the scheduled race distance had been complete on the 28th lap, No. 36’s lead had grown to and formidable 12 seconds. After this, No. 36 returned to the pit on the 32nd lap and changed drivers from Tsuboi to Yamashita.

　Meanwhile, car No. 39 running in 2nd position was being followed closely by cars No. 100 and No. 38. On the ATTWOOD Curve of the 18th lap, No. 38 moved into 3rd position after overtaking No. 100 from the out-side. After that, No. 38 continued to close the gap on car No. 39. However, when No. 38 made its pit stop on the same 29th lap as car No. 100, time was lost in changing the right front tire of No. 38, and this enabled car No. 100 to return to the race in front again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　Among the top ten cars in the GT500 class race, the only car that hadn’t made its pit stop by the mid-point in the race was the leading No. 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara). Having started from 11th position on the grid, No. 37’s strategy was to delay its pit stop, and it wasn’t until the 53rd lap that it finally returned to the pit. This strategy proved successful, enabling the team to finish in 7th place and earn four valuable series points.

　This pit stop by No. 37 brought car No. 36 back into the lead. After this, No. 36 steadily increased its margin of lead over car No. 39 in 2nd position, from 8 sec. on the 55th lap to 7 sec. on the 70th lap and 10 sec. on the 75th lap and go on from there to complete the race’s 82 laps. With this, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) scored a perfect pole-to-goal win in the opening round of the 2024 season. This gave both Tsuboi and Yamashita their 5th win, and it was their first win together as a same-age driver pair. Also, for the No. 36 team and Tsuboi, this was their third straight win starting from last year’s Round 7 at Autopolis.

　Behind the winner, Yamamoto in 3rd position in car No. 100 had pulled up on the tail of Nakayama in car No. 39 and was charging hard. But No. 39 made skillful use of the GT300 class back-markers until the end to keep No. 100 from passing. In the end, the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) finished 2nd. In a rainy race here last year, it was the two Nissan Z GT500 cars No. 23 and No. 3 running on tires that fit the track conditions better that had scored a 1-2 finish, but this time it was the first 1-2 finish since 2021 for the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 that has been strong at Okayama in recent years.

　Also, for Honda, which has changed to the CIVIC TYPE R-GT as its base car this season, the 3rd-place finish by the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) at the end of a fierce battle brought a well-earned podium finish in the car’s debut race.

　As for the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 camp, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli) which was dropped back to 9th position after an accident in the first lap of the race, it climbed back steadily through the pack to finish first among the Z machines in 5th place. Also, the GT500 rookie Miyake, who drove the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) in the second stint, was able to finish in 6th place, a mere 0.883 sec. behind No. 23.

 

 

 

 

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