2021.04.11

Rd. 1 Race GT500：GR Supras battle furiously and ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra emerges with first win in the team’s second year

The “Takanoko Hotel Okayama GT 300 Km RACE,” opening round of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3,703 m x 82 laps) on April 11. Race Sunday was blessed with fine spring weather, and despite with-corona restrictions like social distancing, the fans were back to enjoy the first race here at Okayama in two years.
In the GT500 class the winner was the No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra driven by Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita, and in the GT300 class victory went to the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN AUTOMOBILE TECHNICAL COLLEGE GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira).

 

 

 

　The wind blew strongly, but the skies were clear. Before the start of the race just after 1:00 in the afternoon, the air temperature was warmer than the day before at 19℃ and the track temperature has risen to 36℃.

　At the start, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra’s Sena Sakaguchi started from pole position and managed to hold the lead. Behind him came the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima), followed by the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi) and three more TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars holding their starting grid positions. Charging hard from a 12th-position start also came Ronnie Quintarelli in the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, who passed the No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) on the fifth lap to take 6th position and go on to chase the five GR Supras in front. After this, a GT300 had a collision in the middle of the pack and spun out. It came to a stop sticking partly out into the track, which brought out the Safety Car, but the accident itself had no effect on the leading GT500 cars.

 

 

　When the race was restarted, car No. 14 continued to chase the leading car No. 37 at some distance, and these two cars gradually began to pull away from car No. 36 in 3rd position and the following pack. This was only the second GT500 race for Sakaguchi in the leading No. 37, but skillfully avoided giving the 2019 GT500 champ Oshima in car No. 14 trying to pass him any opening, as the breathtaking battle continued into the race with no more than a few tenths of a second separating the two.
　On the 33rd lap of the race, another GT300 class car spun out and came to a stop with half the car sticking out onto the track. Seeing this, most of the teams saw this as a good chance to make their driver change and called their cars back to the pit. In the GT500 class, all 14 cars, other than the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Daiki Sasaki) rushed back toward the pits, and together with the same-minded GT300 class cars, the scene was one of mass congestion. Among the cars in the pits, it was the No. 14 team that finished their pit work especially fast and managed to get their second-stint driver, Kenta Yamashita, back into the race in the lead position. Meanwhile, car No. 37’s second driver, Ryo Hirakawa, lost some time in getting started and found himself back on the track in 4th position.

 

 

 

　The race was restarted after the Safety Car intervention from the 40th lap. The lead was in the hands of car No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Yamashita), but closing in from behind came the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi). Soon, Tsuboi, who proved fast on all sectors of the Okayama track, was maneuvering to attack Yamashita again and again from around the 45th lap. Tsuboi would succeed in pulling side-by-side with Yamashita entering the corners, but the leader wouldn’t let him past. Between the 51st and 55th laps, both drivers alternately recorded the fastest laps of the race, as neither gave advantage away in terms of speed. Each time Yamashita would come up behind a GT300 class back marker, Tsuboi would try to slip in for an attack, but Yamashita was always quick to block him with excellent machine control. This kind of breathtaking duel went on for 20 laps.

　In the final stages of the race, going into the hairpin on the 75th lap, Tsuboi tried to pull even on the outside by delaying his braking but ended up entering the turn with too much speed and running off the track at the outside. Tsuboi was able to get back onto the track with a minimum of lost time, but he still ended up nine seconds behind Yamashita, and that sealed the victory for No. 14.

　With its tires now badly worn in the last few laps, the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra would give up some of its lead to the closing No. 36, but Yamashita was able to manage his margin of lead to the goal line. For TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE, this was felicitous first win in the opening round of only their second season of GT500 competition. For Oshima, this was his seventh GT500 class win, while for Yamashita it was his third.

　Finishing the race in 2nd and 3rd places respectively were the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi) and No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra, while 4th place also went to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Heikki Kovalainen/Yuichi Nakayama), giving the GR Supra a sweep of the top four places.

 

 

　Of the Honda NSX-GT cars the best finish was the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette), which had battled stubbornly from its 9th-position start to pass the No. 38 ZENT GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) in the latter stages of the race and claim 5th place.

 

 

　Of the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), which had shown its famed speed in the early stages of the race, eventually had to retire without finishing due to machine damage after a collision when a GT300 car spun out on the 50th lap while running in 9th position. So, the best finish for the Nissan teams was the 9th-place finish by the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo).

 

 

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