After postponed from initially scheduled end of May, the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 3 "FUJIMAKI GROUP SUZUKA GT 300km RACE" will be held on August 21st (Sat) and 22nd (Sun) as the fourth race of the season after the Round 4 Motegi. Considering Suzuka is reputed as one of the most challenging circuit in the world, this year's "mid-summer Suzuka" is expected to be brutal as well as exciting again like last year. Teams in the upper group of point ranking may face difficulty with accumulated success weight given it will be the fourth race of the season, but, on the other hand, the teams with lighter success weight could be having a higher chance of winning the race. From a different perspective, failing to score decent amount of points here could affect team's pursuit of the title. The mid-summer Suzuka can very likely be determining the destiny of championship.

※Please follow the measures put in place to avoid the spread of COVID-19 by the regional government and/or the circuit while you are at as well traveling to/from the circuit.

　Both of the two races held at Suzuka last year were won by No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli). The speed and dominance of the No.23 car was especially prominent at the Round 3 held at the end of August, same time of the year as this season, where the car qualified second and then won the race. No.23 car also won the Round 6 Suzuka held in October last year, despite a bit of luck brought by a deployment of safety car, and, together with the second-place finish by No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, the outcome was showing how strong the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 can be in the race. Given this season's model is practically the same as last year's, the car should continue to be in good fit with Suzuka again this year. Moreover, both No.23 and No.12 (Kazuki Hiramine / Nobuharu Matsushita) have lesser success weight, thus, along with No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate / Katsumasa Chiyo), the Nissan teams are definitely candidates for victory.
　GT-Rs were indeed strong in the race at Suzuka last year. However, in the qualifying, it was the Honda NSX-GT squad that was more noticeable. Pole positions of the two races held at Suzuka was claimed by No.64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa / Hiroki Otsu) and No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Nirei Fukuzumi). Although the squad was not able to clinch the win in the race, they matched up pretty well against the GT-R fleet with No.100 (No.1 STANLEY NSX-GT [Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino] this season) and No.64 cars finishing at second and fourth at Round 3, respectively, and No.8 car finishing in third place at Round 6. Of course, continuing to fall behind a car built by other manufacturer on the track of Honda may affect dignity. Teams like No.8 and No.64 cars with lesser success weight and No.16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara / Toshiki Oyu) with two young drivers who boast a good track record at Suzuka could be competing for the top position in the qualifying as well as the race.

　TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 squad hasn't been too outstanding at Suzuka if you compare with two rival car models. However, the squad is said to have implemented a remedy for Suzuka this season and they can well be in the center of spotlight. This is especially true for No.19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Ritomo Miyata) who has been showing improved performance since they deployed a new tire at Round 2, capturing pole position at Round 2 and finishing in second place at previous race after battling for the top position until the end from the start where they launched from the second highest grid. The team leads the top candidate list for the Suzuka race victory together with No.38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) who unwillingly has the lightest success weight (SW) among the GR Supra squad.

　Contrastingly, though, the point standing leader No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita), forth ranked No.37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa / Sena Sakaguchi), and sixth ranked No.36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Sho Tsuboi) will be in a difficult situation to target an upper position with their success weight being 52kg or more. Nevertheless, the Oshima/Yamashita duo managed to win the race at the 2019 Round 5 Fuji with a success weight of 70kg, and No.23 car made a huge come-from-behind win at last year's Round 6 in Suzuka after starting from very end of the pack. There is always a chance for unexpected to happen.

　With a wide variety of car models competing in the GT300 class, there are instances where a certain type of car models outrun others depending on the characteristics of the track. This is often referred as "good fit". Suzuka's track layout is very well-balanced and the turns are not lopsided to one characteristic, having from high- to low-speed turns, and it also has long straightaways that enable high speed. Mid-engined cars having characteristics similar to that of the sportscars and open-wheel cars tend to exert their speed on such type of circuit.
　Indeed, if you look back last year, numerous mid-engined cars were seen in the upper positions at the races held at Suzuka: No.18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (driven by Takashi Kobayashi / Teppei Natori duo this season) and No.2 muta Racing Lotus MC (driven by Hiroki Katoh / Ryohei Sakaguchi duo this season) finished second and third in the race, respectively, and No.55 ARTA NSX GT3 (driven by Shinichi Takagi / Ren Sato duo this season) qualified second at Round 3 while No.21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (driven by Shintaro Kawabata / Takuro Shinohara duo this season) took the win at Round 6.
　GT300-regulated and GT300 mother-chassis cars enjoy advantage too by having wider range of suspension setting, and, in that sense, No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi), No.31 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuhki Nakayama), and No.5 MACHSYAKEN GTNET MC86 MACH GO (Yuya Hiraki / Reiji Hiraki) require a close look throughout the weekend.
　No.11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Hironobu Yasuda) and No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Hibiki Taira) do not fall under these vehicle characteristics mentioned above, but they are noteworthy for how they have been performing impressively at Suzuka Circuit. No.11 car won the Round 3 race last year and then captured fifth position in the qualifying and competed in the upper group during the race at Round 6 while carrying a success weight of 100kg. Success weight situation is already a bit hard with 75kg at this season's Round 3, but they can be expected to show runs that would put them in the upper group during the race along with the point leader No.56 Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami / Joao Paulo de Oliveira) that races in the same GT-R GT3. No.96 car, also, boasts impressive record at Suzuka, pole position at Round 6 of last year, a victory from second fastest in qualifying in 2019, and a pole-to-win in 2018. Considering the light success weight, the team should be included in the victorious candidates.

　Holding of Round 3 Suzuka is realized by enormous effort put by many people involved after going through 3 months of delay. With the opportunity given to race at Suzuka, the drivers and teams must be determined to perform at even higher level. The conditions are expected to be the same as the Suzuka 1000km in the past and last year's Round 3, thus, the spectators would need to be well prepared for "severe heat" too, just like how drivers behind the wheel will do, when watching the race at the circuit. All the measures must be taken to prevent heat exhaustion and heatstroke, such as wearing a hat, rest in sufficiently cool location, etc., as well as COVID-19 infection. For those who cannot visit Suzuka Circuit, you can fully enjoy the intense and heated battle through the broadcast by J SPORTS on live, recorded program, and on demand, and the SUPER GT Plus, a TV program broadcast via the network of TV Tokyo (all channels offered only in Japan. For overseas, Motorsport.tv distributes qualifying and race live).