Round 3 Motegi : Race GT500

　2026 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 3 Race, the “MOTEGI GT 250 RACE took place on November 7th (Sat.) afternoon (4,801m x 53 laps), being blessed with fair weather, and the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette) that started from 6th position on the starting grid passed the cars in front of it to give the NISSAN Z NISMO GT500 is first win of the season. In the GT300 class, the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Shinichi Takagi) that started from 2nd position on the grid went on to win its second consecutive race of the season. Tomorrow, November 8th (Sun.) the final race of the season will take place here at Motegi.

　The Round. 3 race was run under clear skies at Motegi as a 250km race run over 53 laps. The race started at 2:00 in the afternoon after a 2-lap formation run.

　Fraga driving the pole-starting No. 64 Modulo HRC PRELUDE-GT (Riki Okusa / Igor Omura Fraga) made a good start to come through the first corner in the lead. The leading cars in the four front positions on the grip all came through the first lap in their starting positions. After that, Baguette in the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette) passed the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION Z (Teppei Natori /Atsushi Miyake) to move into 5th position.

　However, entering the 3rd corner of the same lap there was an accident involving four GT300 class cars, which caused a Full Course Yellow (FCY) call to be made. The Safety Car (SC) was immediately brought out to control the race. After the cars were recovered and oil spills on the track were cleaned away, the race was restarted from the 8th lap. Here, the No. 17 Astemo HRC PRELUDE-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Yuto Nomura) caught and passed the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi）to move up into 12th position.

　At this point, by the 10th lap the leading car No. 64 held a 1.850 sec. lead over the No. 16 #16 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Ren Sato). However, as the pace of car No. 16 slowed, by the 15th lap that gap had grown to more than 4 seconds. Closing in behind car No. 16 came the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi / Kazuya Oshima). On the 1st corner of the 16th lap car No. 14 pulled alongside No. 16 and passed it into 2nd position on the following 3rd corner. On the 19th lap of the race No. 16 returned to its pit. At the same time, the No. 19 WedsSport BANDOH GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Sena Sakaguchi) also returned to its pit.

　On the 21st lap car No. 12 running in 5th position also returned to its pit. There they changed drivers from Baguette to Hiramine. Then the leading car No. 64 and the car 14 running in 2nd position both made their pit stops on the 22nd lap. No. 64 changed drivers from Fraga to Okusa and returned to the track. The next to make its pit stop was the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Sacha Fenestraz), where the team opted for a no-tire-change strategy. Thanks to this, it was able to return to the race before car No. 64, but Okusa in car No. 64 was able to catch and pass No. 39 on the back straight of the 24th lap to return to be a virtual leader. Car No. 14 also caught and passed car No. 39 on the back straight of the 27th lap to return to 2nd position. Following behind car No. 39 came car No. 12, which had move up to 4th position thanks to its pit work speed.

　Now driving car No. 12, Hiramine caught and passed car No. 39 on the 90-degree corner of the 28th lap and took the tentative 3rd position. When the No. 8 #8 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta / Hiroki Otsu) held off until the very limit for the first stint on the 35th lap to make its pit stop, it meant that all the GT500 class cars had finished their pit stops. With this, car No 64 found itself back in the lead. In its pit stop, car No. 8 had only changed its left front tire that gave it the most pick-up. before returning to the track. With this it returned to the track in 5th position behind car No. 12.

　Meanwhile, car No. 12 had passed car No. 14 on the in-side the 90-degree corner of the 36th lap to move up into 2nd place. And then it went on to pull up on the in-side of car No. 64 and pass it to move into the lead, after which it sped away at a fast pace of 1-minute 40 seconds per lap to pull away from the pack.

　Driving car No. 8, Ohta succeeded in passing car No. 14 at the 90-degree curve of the 40th lap and then went on to use the same technique to pass car No. 64 on the 42nd lap and move into 2nd position. Car No. 14 followed in the path of car No. 8 catch and passed car No. 64 at the 5th corner of the 43rd lap, and then went on to close in on car No. 8 as its pace began to slow. From there, Ohta in car No. 8 fought diligently to hold off the attack of car No. 14 that had been executing passes at points all around the track. As a result of this, the pace of cars No. 8 and No. 64 began to slow, which enabled car No. 12 to expand its lead steadily to 6.6 seconds by the 43rd lap and 15.1 seconds by the 47th lap.

　Car No. 14 went on to catch and pass car No. 8 at the hairpin turn on the 49th lap to emerge in 2nd position, but by that time the leading car No. 12 was no longer in sight, and from there the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette) went on to finish the 53rd and final lap of the race with a grand lead of more than 20 seconds and take its first win of the season. Of course, this became an inspiring win for the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars that had been struggling this season. Also, for TEAM IMPUL it was their first win since they claimed the title in August of 2022 in the 5th Round at Suzuka, and when he was interviewed on a J SPORTS broadcast, team Manager Kazuki Hoshino was so overwhelmed with joy that it brought tears to his eyes.