2021.11.28

Rd. 8 Race　GT500: au TOM'S GR Supra digs deep for the win and comes from behind to take title as well! STANLEY NSX-GT taken down by misfortune

The FUJIMAKI GROUP FUJI GT 300km RACE, Round 8 (final race) of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m×66 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture on November 28 (Sun). In the GT500 class, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi) charged hard to the front from a 4th-position grid start to take a come-from-behind victory. In the GT300 class, the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) won the race. By finishing 3rd in this race, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) were able to win the first-ever series title for a SUBARU car in the GT300 class.

 

 

 

 

　As with the preceding day’s qualifying, Fuji Speedway was blessed with clear blue skies and virtually no wind for excellent race day conditions. The pre-start Formation Laps got underway at 1: 00 in the afternoon. After two laps of the circuit, the final races of the season burst into action.

　At the start, the pole-sitting No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra that moved out into the lead unchallenged, but behind it a close-fought battle developed. From the pack, it was Yuhi Sekiguchi starting from 4th position in the No .36 au TOM'S GR Supra that emerged with a hold on 2nd place. Following it came the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra. In 4th position came the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT, which had qualified in 2nd position and was a strong contender for the title as the current ranking leader. Behind it came another title contender, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT, putting on the pressure and trying to overtake No. 1.

　As competition heated up in this final race of the season, the first upset came early, on the third lap. The cause was a collision between the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R running in 10th position and the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT, as the two exited the Panasonic Corner (last turn). Things worsened as the following No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra and No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT also got caught up in the crash. The resulting damaged forced car No. 17 out of the race, while No. 12 also ended up losing considerable ground. With this, these two cars were effectively out of the title race.

　Not long after this, on the 7th lap of the race there was a collision between GT300 cars that cause one to come to a stop at trackside, which brought out the Safety Car. This erased the roughly 4-second lead that car No. 14 had built up. And then, taking advantage of this at the restart of the race, car No. 36 moved to the inside of car No. 14 at the TGR Corner and pull off a perfectly maneuvered overtake to move into the lead. Then car No. 37 also succeeded in passing No. 14 to move into 2nd position. Since both car No. 36 and car No. 14 had to win this race in order to clinch the series title, what followed was a fierce battle for position. Also, behind this battle between the GR Supra cars, two Honda NSX-GT cars, No. 1 and No. 8, were also battling at close quarters.

　As the lead group entered the 22nd lap of the race, both No. 1 and No. 8 made their routine pit stops early. It was here that No. 8 apparently had trouble with a door that resulted in a loss of more than 10 seconds, which dropped it back in the field out of series point range. On the next lap, car No. 14 made its pit stop as the race reached the 25th lap, and so did the leading car No. 36.

 

 

 

　By the time all of the GT500 class cars had finished their routine pit stops, car No. 36 still held the lead, with Sho Tsuboi now at the wheel. Holding on not far behind came car No. 14, followed in turn by car No. 37. Some way back from these three, car No. 1 held 4th position. If this order held to the finish No. 1’s Yamamoto would clinch the Drivers title for the season. So, it looked as if Yamamoto was on his way to his second consecutive season title.

　However, on the 51st lap of the race, tragedy struck. As No. 1 tried to enter the TGR Corner (first turn), a GT300 car pushed in on its inside. The GT300 car was also in a battle for the win, and its sharp hard braking failed to hold, causing it to slide into the side of car No. 1. The damage this caused to car No. 1 forced it to return to the pit, and by the time repairs were made an it returned to the race it had lost so much ground that there was almost no chance of getting any series points.

　Meanwhile, the pace of car No. 14 running in 2nd place began to slow, and this prompted Sho Tsuboi in the leading No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra to put on a spurt of speed. This dropped No. 14 to 3rd position, with No. 37 now firmly in 2nd but trailing the leading car No. 36 by more than 5 seconds with ten laps remaining in the race.

 

 

　Running alone this way, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra went on to take the checkered flag and its first win of the season. Finishing in 2nd and 3rd places respectively came the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Sacha Fenestraz) and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita), while two more GR Supra GT500 calls followed to give them a sweep of the top five places.

　The first finisher among the Honda NSX-GT cars was the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) in 6th place. As for the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars that were running their final race in SUPER GT before the introduction of a new model next year, the top finisher was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) in 7th place.

　With these results, the 2021 season Drivers championship went to the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra’s Yuhi Sekiguchi and Sho Tsuboi, in a come-from-behind title win. For Tsuboi, it was his first GT500 class win and a dramatic title victory to boot. As for the team championship, the 2021 title went to the No. 36 TGR TEAM au TOM'S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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