2024.05.04

Rd. 2 Race GT500: After a successful start dash Niterra MOTUL Z goes on to a perfect win! Felicitous first GT500 win for Miyake after defending the lead in the second half

　Round 2 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE” was held on May 4th (Sat./Holiday) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m × 3hours) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atushi Miyake) started from 2nd position on the grid to quickly take the lead and ran on to finish the race unchallenged for the win. In the GT300 class, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) never lost the provisional lead to take a perfect win from pole position.

 

 

 

 

 

　As the first time-limit-based SUPER GT race, the Round 2, “FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE” started under clear skies at Fuji Speedway. At 1:30 in the afternoon, the line of SUPER GT machines was led by nine motorcycles and four patrol cars of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police through a traffic safety promotional parade run. This was followed by a formation lap and then the start of the 3-hour race.

　Just after the start, it was the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) starting from 2nd position on the grid that was first to come through the TGR Corner (first turn). Its starting driver Takaboshi passed the pole-starting No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta) on the out-side and ran on to a 1.494-sec. lead in the first lap alone. Car No. 17 struggled to not be left behind by No. 3, but only to then be pressured from behind by the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli) in 3rd position.

　Then, on the 23rd lap car No. 23 also pulled alongside car No. 17 on the out-side at the TGR Corner, after which the two cars ran side-by-side through to the exit of the second corner, where No. 23 managed to move into 2nd position before the Coca Cola Corner. Some 50 minutes after the start, the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) running in 9th position made a pit stop on the 30th lap, after which the other teams began making their first pit stop one after another.

　Now running in 3rd position, car No. 17 made its pit stop on the 34th lap. There, it refueled and changed its tires but didn’t change drivers. Although the GT500 class doesn’t show as wide a range of race strategies as the GT300 class, there were differences in how the teams used their two drivers. Car No. 23 running in 2nd position made its pit stop on the 38th lap. It made a driver change but opted for a strategy of changing their long-life tires and stretching out their use until the second pit stop. With the difference in this strategy, by the time they finished their first pit workload, car No. 17 had moved up into 2nd position again. Then it was the leading car No. 3 that made its pit stop on the 40th lap. As with car No. 17, the team decided to keep Takaboshi driving for a second straight stint. And from here, car No. 3 picked up its pace and pulled away steadily from 2nd place and the rest of the pack. By the end of the 55th lap, its lead had grown to about 15 sec. and by the 66th lap it was about 20 seconds.

　After that, Nojiri in the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita), which had started in 4th position on the grid and had continued to hold that position, now caught car No. 23 that was having trouble maintaining its pace and passed it into 3rd position on the first turn of the 71st lap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　As the race approached it its second hour entering the 72nd lap, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) running in 13th position made a pit stop, which led the other teams to also start making their second pit stop.

　At this point, car No. 17 running in 2nd position made its pit stop on the 74th lap. Here it lost more than 10 sec. in changing its tires. With this, when cars No. 23 and No. 8 finished their pit stops, they returned to the race in 2nd and 3rd positions respectively, while No. 17 dropped to 4th position. But Ohta in car No. 17 began closing on them at a fierce pace. Ohta pulled up alongside No. 8 a number of times. But No. 8 wouldn’t give up, thus a fierce battle developed between the two CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars. However, with less that 10 minutes remaining in the race, as the lead cars were about to finish their 110th lap, No. 8 suddenly slowed down. It went back to its pit and ended the race there.

　With fierce battles playing out behind it, car No. 3 made its second pit stop on the 75th lap and changed drivers from Takaboshi to Miyake. This left the task of bringing home the win to the GT500 rookie, and on the 80th lap he had a margin of lead of some 36 seconds. Maintaining a strong pace, car No. 3 ran down the final laps. When the Checkered Flag was waved at the end of the three hours on the 117th lap, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) took its first win of the season. For Takaboshi it was his fourth win, and for Miyake it was already his first win in just his second race since stepping up to the GT500 class.

　Finishing 2nd was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli), which gave the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 a 1-2 finish in front of the large crowd of spectators. Finishing 3rd was the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta), thus giving the CIVIC TYPE R-GT another podium finish following the one in the previous round.

　Also, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) that won the previous round at Okayama but started this race in a difficult 11th position on the grid, it continued to move up steadily from the early stages to finally finish in 4th place as the fastest TOYOTA GR Supra GT500. Through this great effort the Tsuboi/Yamashita pair retained their lead in the Drivers stading.

 

 

 

 

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