The SUZUKA GT 450km RACE, Round 5 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place on August 27 (Sun.) at Suzuka circuit (1 lap 5,807m) in Mie Prefecture. With the air temperature at a hot 33 degrees Celsius for this 450km race, it was the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) starting from pole position that kept the lead effectively throughout the race to win in the GT500 class. In the GT300 class, the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) won its second race of the season.

　With the 2023 season now in its middle stages, Round 5 was held at Suzuka Circuit under a blazing sun with the air temperature exceeding 30℃. The track surface temperature also reached 50℃ in the early stages of the race, and it was perhaps these harsh conditions that contributed to Full Course Yellow (FCY) being called three times in the course of the race. The race began at 2:45 in the afternoon, with a Traffic Safety Promotion Parade led by eight police motorcycles and three patrol cars of the Mie Prefectural Police, followed immediately by a formation lap to start the 77-lap race.

　After starting from Pole Position, Hiroki Otsu driving the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT and gradually expanded his lead over the pack until he had a roughly 3-sec. lead over the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Ronnie Quintarelli) in 2nd place by the fifth lap of the race. At this point, running in 3rd position was the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Nobuharu Matsushita) that had started from 3rd position on the grid.

　Meanwhile, behind the leaders, the series point leader, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo), which was carrying Success Weights just short of the maximum at 98 kg, chose the strategy of making an early first pit stop on the sixth lap to try to move up in the order, as did the 7th position grip-starting No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) on the eighth lap. However, being unable to pick up the pace, No. 3 ended up dropping farther back in the pack. Also, in the last stint of the race, car No. 8 suffered damage in a collision with car No. 37 that made it run off the track, and then forced it to return to the pit for repairs. Thus, that early strategy failed to bring a good result for either car.

　Entering the 11th lap of the race, the leading car No. 16 noticed an accident involving a GT300 car and decided quickly to enter the pit just before the accident led to the calling of an FCY, thus being able to complete its first refueling and a change of tires before returning to the track. At this point, the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Kohei Hirate) running in 6th position opted for the same strategy, but since it was later judged to have entered the pit lane after it was already declared closed for the FCY, it ended up receiving a 60-sec. penalty that dropped it far back in the pack as well.

　On the other hand, the bold strategy had worked splendidly for car No. 16. As a result, by the time all the cars had finished their first pit stop, No. 16 came away with a 30-sec. lead over 2nd place. After that, No. 16 continued to run at a strong pace until it stopped for its second refueling on the 44th lap, where the team changed drivers to Nirei Fukuzumi and got him back in the race with their lead still intact.

　As for car No. 23 running in 2nd place, it made pit stops on the 18th and 42nd laps, and after changing drivers in the second stop it set out to chase No. 16 at a pace faster than the leader. But due to the size of the lead No. 16 had gained with the first pit stop, No. 23 was not able to catch it before the race ended.

　On the contrary, car No. 17, which had held off on making its first pit stop until the 27th lap, got caught for three laps behind the No. 3 car that had made an early pit stop, and thus being unable to pick up the pace, it was eventually passed by the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) that had made its first pit stop on the 15th lap.

　In the end, the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) won the 77-lap race with a lead of 10.045 sec. over 2nd place, in what proved to be a perfect win from pole position. For Fukuzumi it was his fifth win, and for Otsu it was a jubilant first win in SUPER GT. What’s more, it was also the first win for car No. 16 since joining the ARTA team. And for ARTA and the Honda NSX-GT it was the first win of the season. Especially satisfying was the fact that this was the first win for the NSX-GT on Honda’s home course of Suzuka Circuit since the 3rd round of the 2018 season (by the No. 8 NSX-GT). And considering the fact that from next season Honda will change to a new race car based on the CIVIC TYPE-R GT, this was indeed a spectacular last race for the NSX-GT at Suzuka.

　Finishing the race in 2nd and 3rd places were two TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars, the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita).

　It turned out that in the post-race inspections a violation was found on the No. 23 car that finished the race in 2nd position. The violation was that the skid block (a part determining minimum ground clearance) had been shaved down more than the regulation allowed, thus causing it to be disqualified. With this, the top finisher among the Nissan Z GT500 cars became the No. 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) that finished in 5th place.

　As for the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) that came here to Suzuka as the series point leader, it eventually finished in 12th place, while the 2nd-ranked No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miayata) finished in 11th place, meaning that neither car was able to earn any series points this time. So, there was no change in the top two spots in the ranking. Meanwhile, the driver team of Fukuzumi/Otsu for the winning No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT moved up into 3rd position in the Driver standings.