Only a short while has passed since Round 2 Fuji, but it's already time for the Round 3 "SUZUKA GT 300km - Fan Festival-" which will be held at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka, Mie Prefecture) on May 19th (Sat) and 20th (Sun). Suzuka event had been known as a staple mid-summer race competed out in 1000km up to last year, but it now has become a 300km race from this year. The change should speed up the race pace and create more close-battles on the field. In addition, each of the different car models in GT500/G300 have been equally strong this season, and the contention at Suzuka must be intense as ever.
GT-R conquered Round 2, will LC500 squad strike back at Suzuka ?
LEXUS LC500 squad started out the season with four consecutive wins from the season opener last year, but they are yet to score a win after two races this season. Nonetheless, they were engaged in the battle for leading position and concluded with a podium finish in both races which indicates that they are not any less competitive than other two rival car models. Favoring the circuit with four wins in the past, No.38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) is certainly a victorious candidate of the Suzuka race so is No.36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima / Yuhi Sekiguchi), a team which achieved back-to-back win two years in a row at Suzuka 1000km. The chance is high also for No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita) whose handicap weight is rather lesser.
Looking at the opposing side, the GT-R fleet is in high spirit after No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) conquered the Round 2 Fuji. However, the results brought in by other cars besides No.23 car were not that impressive. But, on the other hand, the handicap weight will be lighter because of that. Considering their past performance at the circuit, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough) would be one to watch along with No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo). MOTUL AUTECH GT-R with handicap weight set at 52kg will be loading 35kg of actual weight and having the fuel flow restrictor narrowed by one more level. In such situation, the team will probably set the aim for finishing at a higher position rather than going for the win
Can NSX-GT win consecutively at Honda's home track Suzuka ?
Despite the one-two finish at the season opener in Okayama, the NSX-GT fleet looked dimmed at Round 2 Fuji with eighth place finish by No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takuya Izawa) being the highest position achieved by the fleet. Especially, the drastic increase in handicap weight seemed to have severe impact on the winner and runner-up of the opening round, No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure) and No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button), respectively. In addition, Fuji was not a favorite circuit of the NSX-GT fleet, thus, they may had taken an approach to "not to push too much" for the sake of the championship. However, the story may be different at the Suzuka race as the rivals in the top group will also see an increase in the handicap weight plus Button in No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT had marked a fastest lap during the official test held at Suzuka before the Round 2 Fuji. The fleet must had carried out various simulations during the test by loading a certain amount of weight assuming a result anticipated for the Fuji race. We may be very likely to see NSX-GTs swinging back and fully charging at Round 3 Suzuka. Among the NSX-GT fleet, KEIHIN and RAYBRIG sure are the teams to watch for considering their performance at the season opening round, but No.8 ARTA NSX-GT with less handicap weight as well as last year's Suzuka 1000km winner No.63 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette / Kosuke Matsuura) can also be drawing attention.
Strategy is the key but all cars have a chance in GT300 class
The field is very intense and close for the GT300 class too this season. Up until last year, we could certainly say that if a race was on a high-speed track, then FIA GT3 cars would have advantage, and if on a technical track, then it was JAF-GT300 or mother-chassis cars. However, this season we also saw FIA GT3 cars engaged in the battle for top position during the early part of the race on the technical track of Okayama, but at Round 2 Fuji with a high-speed track, although the race was won by FIA GT3 car No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw), the second place was fought over by No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) and No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Kohei Hirate). Suzuka is a circuit where the difference between different car categories merely shows, like seen in the results from past two years with LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) winning last year and No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT winning two years ago. This will probably remains the same even if the race distance changes from 1000km to 300km.
In terms of handicap weight, winner of previous race ARTA BMW M6 GT3 is mandated with 52kg and opening round winner No.18 UPGARAGE 86 MC (Yuhki Nakayama / Takashi Kobayashi) and No.7 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller) are both set at 40kg, therefore, three cars will probably aim for a point scoring position in upper group. Contrastingly, teams that could not score large points in last two races, including No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), No.10 GAINER TANAX triple a GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Hiroki Yoshida), SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, and No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Yuichi Nakayama), should be taking on Suzuka keen to grab a win.
Suzuka event has turned into a 300km race from this year. Considering there will be less opportunities than the 1000km race to gain back the loss during the race, of course, the qualifying would become more important and the race pace should become faster. Fans should also focus and keep the eyes on every moment of the new Suzuka round.
