It's time for SUPER GT's famed intense battle of 2023 to open its curtain. Season opening round of 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, "OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE", will be held at Okayama International Circuit in Okayama Prefecture on April 15th (Sat) and 16th (Sun). Newcomer Nissan Z GT500 captured the glory of GT500 champion last season, however, the competition against the two rival models that are keen to bounce back may get even more intense right from the season opening race this season. In addition, the season opener could be providing another chronicle of 3-consecutive wins at Okayama by No.14 GR Supra of GT500 class and No.56 GT-R of GT300. However, there are opposing forces that are denying the possibility. Debuting race of new model No.31 Lexus LC500h in the GT300 class is also an eye-catcher of the upcoming event. Even a blink of an eye is not allowed at the season opening round in Okayama that has a lot to offer once again this year.
*Above photo is from official Okayama test held in March, 2023.
Can No.1 car demonstrate regal performance? Win is most wanted by No.23 car
All cars in the GT500 class will be using carbon-neutral fuel (CNF) from the season opening round this season. The three manufacturers have focused their efforts to, even by putting their reputation at stake, and successfully completed modifying their engines to accommodate the new fuel during the past offseason. With the effort and accomplishment, teams must be also working tirelessly on laying out a strategy based on the fuel-efficiency, characteristics, etc. of CNF. It could be interesting to put these into perspective also to determine the power balance between various car models. There are continued to be a wide variety of cars fielded by major automakers to SUPER GT, which will definitely draw attention at the season opener. First in the list would be Nissan Z GT500 that made a debut in the GT500 class last year. At last year’s season opening round in Okayama, No.23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) got onto the podium already with a third-place finish. Sister-team's No.12 car also started to show impressive performance from the middle of the season, one of which the car captured victory after starting from last in the class at Round 5, and went on to eventually clinched the title. The team returns to Okayama as No.1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette) this season. It would be interesting to see how the team, which struggled in finding a right setup and ended in seventh place in the race at Okayama last year, will demonstrate champion's fight in style. After finishing the season with no win after all despite capturing a third place at last year's Okayama, No.23 must be hungry for victory. No.3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi), falling short of the title despite scoring 2 wins last year, is another contender that should have eyes kept on.
Can No.14 car complete 3 consecutive Okayama wins? Expectation is high for No.38 car's comeback
Season opening race in Okayama has been a fortunate place for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing that has scored 5 wins out of 8 races since 2014. The year the squad switched their car to LEXUS RC F. (No race was held in Okayama in 2020) No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima), especially, is continued to be considered the top favorite since the team is in a winning streak from 2021. If the team completes 3 consecutive wins, then that would tie the record of 3 straight Suzuka wins held by No.23 car, and that is certainly an eye-catcher. TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 squad would want to regain lost ground after settling with only 2 wins last season. No.38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) must have the strongest determination out of the squad considering a chain of issues forced them to conclude the season without stepping up on the podium even once. The team had a decent result at last year's Okayama race though, a 4th place finish which is a tying season-best record, hence, they could be competing for the win at upcoming season opening race. No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuichi Nakayama) can bear the expectation as well with their record of a second place in the qualifying behind No.14 car at last year's Okayama event.
Watch closely on ARTA with new team structure! Is No.100 car top favorite?
Just by looking at the race classification, Okayama has not been a favorable place to the Honda NSX-GT squad, surprisingly. However, No.100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino) finished in 2nd place in the race after capturing a third fastest position in the qualifying last year. In fact, the team has 6 podium-finishes since 2011, including aforementioned result, enough to consider Okayama as favorite track to them, and, therefore, they deserve to be in the list of victorious candidates. ARTA has undergone a major change in their team organization. They were competing in the GT500 class under 1-car team structure with only No.8 car up to last year, but No.16 car has been added to the ARTA organization to form a 2-car structure. This will also enhance their data collection, and so the expectation is higher for the team to produce a good result and recapture the title. In the 2-car organization, 2 drivers of last year's No.8 car have separated to each assume the ace driver role of No.8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Toshiki Oyu) and No.16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi / Hiroki Otsu). No.8 car now has "Mighty" Nojiri and "Fast" Oyu to complete "Mighty and Fast" combination. It will not be surprising to see No.8 car, the 2019 Okayama winner, engaged in the battle for the victory.
Champion No.56 GT-R is solid, but watch out for BRZ and Lamborghini!
Carbon-neutral fuel (CNF) will also be deployed to the GT300 class from this season, however, with the vast variety of car models and the number of cars in the class, GTA had determined during the offseason that the readiness of each car to adapt to the new fuel was not progressing uniformly. Deployment of CNF to the GT3000 class has been postponed to Round 3. Therefore, classic gasoline fuel will be used at the season opener in Okayama. The class champion is undoubtedly a top favorite in this class also, and No.56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira / Teppei Natori) takes the honor. The team won the season opening race in Okayama and stayed at the top position in the ranking until the final round last year. It once appeared the title slipped away from the team during the race of the last round, but the race turned out miraculously, at least to them, and brought the crown to the Nissan team for a second time. The team continues with De Oliveira as their ace driver and adds Teppei Natori, whose experience in GT are only the 2021-season and the final round of last season, but the highest achievement in Super Formula Light is the champion, to form a new driver combination. Can they accomplish 3 consecutive Okayama wins with this new team organization? Their top contender would be last year's Okayama pole-sitter No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi). The Subaru team may not be in satisfactory condition considering the crash it suffered during the official test in Okayama, but they could well be in the fight for a top position with the fundamental competency the team has.
Contrarily, two Lamborghini Huracan GT3, RC F GT3, and Audi R8 LMS seemed to be having good progress during the test. Huracan GT3 tends to be acknowledged for its speed on a straightaway, but the car has actually performed well at Okayama in the past. It has clocked impressive lap times during the tests in this and last years, and there is expectation for No.88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Yuya Motojima) to capture the first win under the driver duo. No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Shinichi Takagi) and No.6 DOBOT Audi R8 LMS (Yoshiaki Katayama / Roberto Merhi Muntan) need to be paid attention also for the performances shown during the Okayama official test, a session top time and a second fastest time of Day 1 after No.88 car, respectively. No.96 car is fielded by a team operated by Okayama Toyopet and has won a race at Okayama, so there is obviously a hope for their second Okayama win. No.6 car will be handled by Katayama, who worked extensively on preparation for the season opener by running on the Okayama track for a long accumulative distance, and Roberto Merhi Muntan, a former F1 driver. Although it was Merhi Muntan who recorded the second fastest lap time, Katayama was only 0.01 second behind in his best time, well enough to become a dark horse at Okayama. GT300 class will be seeing a new model car again this season. No.31 apr LC500h GT (Koki Saga / Kazuto Kotaka) has introduced a race car built based on LEXUS LC500h this season. No.31 car is replaced with a new hybrid GT300 machine from its predecessor Prius PHV. It is said to suit high-speed tracks better, but the car caught everybody by surprise by marking a second fastest lap time during the Day 1 afternoon session of the official test in Okayama. What kind of performance can we expect to see at the season opening round, its first race?
