2024.10.11

【Round 7 Preview】 Extended to severe 3-hour race, intensity much higher than last year at the battle of Autopolis!?

The AUTOPOLIS GT 3 Hours RACE, Round 7 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series will be held at Autopolis in Oita Prefecture on October 19th (Sat) and 20th (Sun). This season's Autopolis will host its first 3-hour race, and, by theory, it will be a longer race than last year. The track has been known for being hard on tires as well as cars, which raises the difficulty of the race itself, and it is easily predicted that the battlefield will be fiercer than in previous years. In addition, with the Round 5 Suzuka being postponed to December due to typhoon, the upcoming event will be considered the sixth race of the season, therefore, the success weight rule will be the same as the Round 6, scored points multiple by 2kg. The top teams in the point standing of GT500 class will continue to face difficult situation, but they cannot lose ground at upcoming event either. Of course, Autopolis will be critical for GT300 class as well in order to survive in the title contention. We might witness an Autopolis battle that exceeds the intensity of last year's race that was already ever fierce.

※Above photo is from last year's Round 7 Autopolis.

 

 

■Autopolis information
◎Track details
Length: 4,674m
Width: 12 to 15m
Elevation difference:52m

◎Track records
GT500
1'31.131 Nirei Fukuzumi / No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT
2023 Round 7 Qualifying – Q1 (October 14)
GT300
1'42.016 Yuui Tsutsumi / No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT
2023 Round 7 Qualifying - Q2 (October 14)

 

 

　At last year's Round 7 Autopolis, No.36 au TOM’S GR Supra started off from 13th in qualifying but outpaced all cars ahead of it to complete a come-from-behind win after even overtaking 2 rivals competing the title with. It continued on and won the final round to become the 2023 champion with 3 wins in the year. This season, No.36 car will take on Autopolis, the turning point that led the team to the championship, with the driver duo of Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita as the number one in the point standing. The team would want to score a big point again, but the success weight (SW) lies heavily on them this season. Also, the upcoming Round 7 is only sixth race of the season due to the postponement of Round 5 Suzuka to December from typhoon impact. Calculation of SW will be the same as previous race, scored points times 2kg, with this and No.36 car will have some 98kg of SW. No.37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi) at second in the point standing also has a heavy SW at 96kg, therefore, these two cars will probably need to do a race where they just have to try to pick up as many points as they can even at Autopolis where the impact from SW is said to be not so visible.
　Teams other than these top 2 out of the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 squad that are likely to be in the fight for top position are No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima / Nirei Fukuzumi) and No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuichi Nakayama). No.14 car's SW is not light, 58kg, but the speed of Oshima and Fuzukumi will probably shine again at Round 7 considering their performance in recent 2 races where the duo fought hard in the battle for top as well as podium positions. 38kg of SW is manageable for No.39 car. They would want to grab their first victory since 2020, it would be since 2019 for Autopolis.

 

   

 

 

　At the Round 4 Fuji, No.8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri / Nobuharu Matsushita) marked the first victory of Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT. Contrastingly, the consecutive podium finishes by the CIVIC fleet that lasted for 4 races since the season opener ceased at the Round 6 SUGO. SUGO is a mid- and high-speed technical track with steep ups and downs. Some describes the stage of this battle, Autopolis, has a similar characteristic as SUGO, and there are opinions that say upcoming Round 7 will be another difficult battle to fight for CIVIC TYPE R-GT, which speed has been the weapon that put it in an advantageous position, but there were also drivers who explained the know-how from NSX-GT that was always fast at Autopolis will be an effect. It will be interesting to see how the CIVIC TYPE R-GT fleet will challenge their first attempt at Autopolis.
　In the search for teams bearing the expectation, third-ranked No.100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino) with SW 86kg may concentrate on earning points. In contrast, No.17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Kakunoshin Ohta) with rather light SW at 52kg has not scored a win yet, thus, they must be filled with ambition to win at Autopolis. No.64 CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa / Riki Okusa) can be an interesting car to follow especially with an SW of 14kg which is almost same as no weight in the GT500 class. The car is the only GT500 car that wears Dunlop tire, so if they can select a tire that suits the temperature and weather of race weekend, then they might have a chance for fighting for the lead.

 

   

 

 

　No.3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi / Atsushi Miyake) held a high-ranked position after winning the Round 2 Fuji for the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 squad this season, but the team dropped down to fifth in the point standing after completing the race at Round 6. No.3 and many other teams fielding Z must be wanting to take a high-end position at the upcoming Round 7 Autopolis.
　With a heavy SW of 70kg, however, No.3 car may need to play conservatively and only try for a podium-finish if they have a chance. For No.12 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette) and No.23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Ronnie Quintarelli) who trail right behind No.3 car in the point standing, missing a podium-finish here could eliminate them from the title contention. No.23 car may have a bigger chance at Round 7 since their SW is still at 46kg and the teams above them in the standing are imposed of fuel flow restrictor limitation. Z squad have not been able to win here in recent years, but the track should not be an issue considering the the characteristics of the car. Keep the hope high for No.23 and 12 cars to lead the squad to bounce back at upcoming Round 7 Autopolis.

 

   

 

 

　The first point to give close attention in the GT300 class at Round 7 Autopolis is the qualifying. It must have become famous that, starting from this season, all cars run in Q1 and Q2 and the result of qualifying is determined by the combined time. Qualifying format of the GT300 class was changed from the Round 5 Suzuka of this season, and, instead of dividing Q1 into 2 groups, all cars run for 20 minutes. Rule on tires also changed and 2 sets (8 tires) of tires can be used now instead of 1 set (4 tires) [no rule change on mandatory use of tires used in qualifying at the start of the race.] However, this, too, has not been exercised yet due to Round 5 being postponed to December and the qualifying of Round 5 was canceled because of adverse weather. Round 7 will be the first event to have the new qualifying format applied. It would be interesting to see how teams will pursue attack laps from Q1 without being able to develop know-how and strategy.
　The first key team in upcoming qualifying is No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) that favors Autopolis, qualified in second place last year. With a light success weight (SW), the team is named as the top favorite for pole position by many predictions. Despite having the heaviest SW of 50kg, last year's pole-sitter No.2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi / Hibiki Taira) could still be showing speed, so are No.7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara / Niklas Krütten / Bruno Spengler) and No.18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi / Syun Koide / Yusuke Mitsui).

 

   

 

　For the race, No.61 car could be unfolding staple rocket-start and escape with its boasting speed if it can capture an upper position in qualifying. There could be teams that have advantage in tire management and able to take a strategy of not changing tires in the 2 mandatory pit-stops or just changing 2 tires in one of the pit-stops while some others could be changing 4 tires in each of 2 pit-stops opting for the speed, making it difficult for the predictors to foresee the leader until the final phase of the race.
　Last year, No.52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida / Seita Nonaka) that took no tire change strategy one time outpaced No.2 car that changed tires twice and snatched consecutive Autopolis wins. With the event extended to a 3-hour race, the number of laps (distance) is anticipated to increase from that of last year if it progresses normally. Still, it is unknown whether no tire change is feasible or a different strategy prevails. Or, if the race gets rough due to temperature or weather, then we may see teams nailing a huge come-from-behind by taking advantage of the situation like how No.65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou / Takuro Shinohara / Haruki Kurosawa) did at previous SUGO race after starting from 15th position on the grid.

　GT300 regulated race cars, such as No.52, 2, and 61 cars as well as No.31 apr LC500h GT (Kazuto Kotaka / Jin Nakamura / Yuki Nemoto) , are seen to be strong at Autopolis. If the 3-hour race becomes indeed a long-distance race, then teams might be forced to change 4 tires at each of 2 pit stops they have to take because Autopolis has always been hard on tires. If that is the scenario, then the FIA-GT3 regulated race cars with much more horsepower can well be racing in the top group. The limitation applied this season on SW to 50kg at maximum would also provide enough chance to the cars currently ranked in the upper group (thus with a heavy SW) to fight for a position on the podium. Point leader No.65 as well as No.2 car and No.777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii / Charlie Fagg), second and third in the standing, respectively, could still be opting for a conservative strategy, but the teams that need to survive through upcoming Round 7 in order to stay in the title contest must be determined to win, and No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), No.56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Joao Paulo de Oliveira), No.7, and No.52 are in such situation. There going to be close battle, going head-to-head, at every corner of Round 7 race in the GT300 race and it will definitely be more fierce than last year.

 

   

 

 

 

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