2022.09.18

Rd. 6 Race GT300: A successful strategy of delaying the driver change in the rain brings victory to muta Racing GR86 GT!

Round 7 Sportsland Sugo : Race GT300

The SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 6 of the 2022 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at Sportsland SUGO (one lap: 3,586 m x 84 laps) in Miyagi Prefecture on September 18 (Sun.). The race run under difficult conditions with rain falling mid-race, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) in the GT500 class was able to maintain a high pace and with good strategy succeeded in winning their second victory of the season. In the GT300 class, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Hiroki Kato/Yuui Tsutsumi) team predicted the weather and succeeded in taking a come-from-behind win.

 

 

 

 

 

Driver Nobuteru Taniguchi of the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG that had qualified to start from 14th position the day before, was struck by appendicitis during the night before, which forced him to withdraw from the race. Thinking about the fans hoping to see the No. 4 car in the race, the team decided that Tatsuya Kataoka would run as long as he is allowed according to the regulations. Also, engine trouble forced the No. 6 Team LeMans Audi R8 LMS to withdraw from the starting grid and return to the pit before the start, thus necessitating a pit start for the race.

During the early stages of the race, the pole-starting No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) was able to keep the lead, where it was followed by the No. 87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi) and No. 88 weibo Primez Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima), which had started from the 3rd and 4th grid positions respectively. Meanwhile, behind the leaders, the No .60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno), the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara), No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra (Takamitsu Matsui/Seita Nonaka) and the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Hideki Mutoh/Iori Kimura) became involved in a fierce battle for 5th position.

As the GT300 class race was entering its 12th lap, the rain that had stopped for a while suddenly began to fall heavily and quickly make the track wet. While many of the cars made the decision to return to the pit and change to wet-use tires at this point, cars No. 88, the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara/Augusto Farfus), the No. 10 TANAX GAINER GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita/Riki Okusa) and the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Keishi Ishikawa) stayed on the track and continued to run on their slick tires. Among these cars that continued running, it was car No. 7 that was able to run at an especially fast pace.

These cars running on slick tires chose to extend their pit stop until the 1/3rd point in the race distance where a driver change would be possible. It was here that they changed to wet-use tires, but it happened that the rain began to let up from about the 39th lap of the race and the track quickly began to dry out. Seeing this, a number of cars in the lead group, including car No. 61, the ranking leader car No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), and cars No. 10 and No. 11, all made the decision to change to slick tires.

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike the other teams that had been hurriedly changing their strategies with the changing weather, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT that had started the race from 13th position on the grip changed to rain tires on the 14th lap, after which the driver Hiroki Katoh continued to drive on with a strategy of delaying it routine pit stop as long as possible. Like the veteran driver he is, Katoh continued to adapt his pace in accordance with the changing conditions, and as the other cars made their pit stops, he was able to emerge in the lead by a large margin over 2nd place by the 36th lap of the race.

It was on the 49th lap of the race when car No. 2 finally made its pit stop and changed drivers to Yuui Tsutsumi. At that point the rain had lessened, so No. 2 was able to return to the race on slick tires. Still holding the lead when he rejoined the race, Tsutsumi was able to run on alone to the finish in run-away style.

After that, there were drastic changes in position among the cars as the rain and track conditions fluctuated, and as the race entered the final stages, cars No. 11 and No. 10 were battling nose-to-tail for 2nd position. Following in 4th position was car No. 7, with the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) closing in on it.

But, another change in the weather condition would come in the final stages of the race. With about 10 laps remaining in the race, the rain began to fall strongly again. This was followed by an intensifying of the battle for 2nd place between No. 11 and No. 10. After this cars No. 7, No. 56 and also No. 65 were staging a three-way battle.

In the end, car No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Hiroki Katoh/Yuui Tsutsumi) ran on unchallenged to its first victory of the season. It was a happy first win for the TOYOTA GR86 that debuted this season. The battle for 2nd continued right down to the line, with the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Keishi Ishikawa) emerging in 2nd place at the end, followed by No. 10 TANAX GAINER GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita/Riki Okusa) in 3rd place.

Finishing 4th was the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), which enabled its driver pair to hold their position at the top of the Drivers ranking. Four points back in 2nd place in the Drivers ranking stands the No. 10 Tomita and Okusa pair, while in 3rd position stands the No. 11 pair of Yasuda and Ishikawa, giving Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 drivers the top three ranking spots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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