2021.09.12

Rd. 5 Race GT500: CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Takes First Win in Five Years! Hiramine/Matsushita Celebrate Their First GT500 Victories

The SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 5 of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at Sportsland SUGO circuit (one lap: 3.704 km x 84 laps) in Miyagi Prefecture on the afternoon of September 12 (Sun.). In the GT500 class, the winner was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R driven by Kazuki Hiramine and Nobuharu Matsushita, taking their first GT500 class race win since 2016. In the GT300 class, after taking their third pole position of the season, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) went on to take their first win in three years.

 

 

 

 

　The race’s Formation Lap started on schedule at 1:30 in the afternoon. But due a failure to get a proper formation in time, an extra lap had to be added to the scheduled two laps, thus shortening the race itself one lap to 83 laps.

　Starting from pole position, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) began to run away from the pack at a high pace. Giving chase to the leader was the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Toshiki Oyu) starting from the 2nd grid position, but No. 8 was able to pull away in the lead. But rather than catching up, No. 16 found itself being chased by 3rd-position grid starter, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Nobuharu Matsushita) which was recovering from a somewhat slow pace shortly after the start, and the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette), and when the GT500 field began coming up on GT300 class back markers on lap 7, No. 16 found itself in a 3-way side-by-side battle for 2nd with No. 12 and No. 17. Unable to pick up the pace, No. 16 was passed in succession by its two pursuers and gradually fell away from the leaders.

　After finishing the qualifying in 12th position, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) subsequently developed engine trouble and was forced to change to a new engine for the race, for which the Sporting Regulation designated a 5 sec. penalty stop after the start, which meant that it dropped back to the very back of the GT500 class.

　With a battle for 2nd place going on behind it, the leading car No. 8 continued to run away at a high pace, eventually building up a roughly 10-sec. lead by the 11th lap of the race and a nearly 20-sec. lead by the 15th lap. After emerging alone from the 3-way battle for 2nd, Matsushita in car No. 12 began to narrow the gap with the leading car No. 8. That gap was down to about 10 seconds when No. 8 made its routine pit stop on the 31st lap, after which No. 12 ran on for another three laps before making its own pit stop.

　By the time all of the GT500 cars had ended their pit stop on the 36th lap of the race, car No. 8 was back in the lead. About 5 to 7 sec. behind it, however, car No. 12, now driven by Hiramine was giving chase. Following the lead two another 2 to 3 sec. back in 3rd position came car No. 17. In 4th position was the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto), which had made its routine pit stop early, on the 27th lap of the race. Despite carrying heavy load of 80 kg in Success Weight, No. 1 had fought its way up valiantly from a 10th-position grid start.

 

 

 

　The race proceeded in exciting fashion into the middle stages with hot competition playing out around the track. But a series of upsets and setbacks were soon to play out. To begin with on lap 37, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo) that had progress to the point of battling for 3rd position was suddenly struck with machine trouble and had to drop out of the race. Then, on the 46th lap, a drive-through penalty was placed on the top-running car No. 8. The reason for the penalty was the failure to properly lay a changed tire down on the ground during the pit stop. Next, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Ritomo Miyata) came to a stop at the exit to the last corner. Flames began to lick out from the front underside of the car, which brought out the Safety Car to control the race.

 

 

　While this accident was being attended to, the pit road was open and car No. 8 took advantage of this timing to make its drive-through but failed to recognize that the red light was on at the exit from the pit. This resulted in another penalty that completely dropped No. 8 of competition for a finish near the front.

　When the race was restarted on the 53rd lap, it was car No. 12 that had taken the race lead. Chasing it were cars No. 17 and No. 1, but the battle between these two NSX-GT cars soon heated up. Seeing this, No. 12 started a spurt to try to open up its margin of lead. Then another upset befell the race on the 63rd lap, where the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kenta Yamashita) suddenly started to slow down on the straight. The machine finally came to a stop at the end of the straight and an Full Course Yellow (FCY) measure was taken while the stopped car was being recovered.

　This FCY did not result in any loss in No. 12’s margin of lead, however, and the race resumed on the 65th lap. With this, Hiramine in the leading car No. 12 began to increase his lead over 2nd place. Meanwhile, No. 1 took advantage in a momentary slowing of car No. 17’s pace to pass it and move up into 2nd position.

 

 

　After this, No. 12 continued to widen its lead over No. 1 in 2nd place and take the checkered flag and the win without being threatened. This win for the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine/Nobuharu Matsushita) was the team’s first since their victory in Round 5 at Fuji back in August of the 2016 season. There were tears in the eyes of Hiramine and Matsushita as they shouted out there thanks to the fans in the stands. For both drivers it was their momentous first GT500 win. Finishing in 2nd was the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino), the 15 series points this gave them kept them in 1st (Yamamoto) and 2nd (Makino) positions in the Drivers ranking. Finishing the race in 3rd place was the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette), which moved them up to 3rd place in the series ranking as well. Finishing in 4th place after climbing steadily from a 14th position start was the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi).

 

 

 

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