2022.09.18

Rd. 6 Race GT500: CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z reads weather for pit strategy to win its second race of the season!

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.

 

 

 

 

 

In the morning of race day at Sportsland SUGO there were clear skies, but before noon ominous clouds began to fill the sky until a light rain began to fall on the track just after 1:00 in the afternoon. But it hadn’t turned into serious rain by the time the race started at 2:00. That led the 15 cars of the GT500 class to start the 84-lap race with dry-purpose slick tires. The team of the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra that had been unable to run a qualifying Q1 session the previous day managed to repair the trouble to its engine’s turbocharger system and was able to start the race from the back of the grid.

On the first lap of the race, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura), starting from 2nd position on the grid managed to pass the pole-starting No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) and take the lead. No. 19 was then passed by the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) as well to fall back to 3rd position. Due to a crash by a GT300 class car on that first lap, the Safety Car was brought in to control the race for two laps before it was restarted.

The gaps between the leading car No. 38, car No. 100 in 2nd and No. 19 in third gradually began to widen until the 12th lap of the race when full-fledged rain finally began to fall and quickly make it a wet track. On the 14th lap the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) returned to the pit and was soon followed on the 15th lap by the three leading cars and the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) among others, that all changed to wet-use tires.

Alternatively, the cars that opted to keep running on the track without stopping to change tires included the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu) and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), both of which were able to maintain a fast pace on the wet track and move into a 1-2 lead. When the rain began to fall even harder around the 19th lap of the race, a GT300 car ran off the track and came to a stop, which caused an FCY (Full Course Yellow) to be called. Just after the GT300 car ran off the track and anticipating an FCY call, cars No. 16 and No. 23 quickly returned to their pits and changed to wet-use tires. This quick decision making would end up giving these two cars a big advantage in the second half of the race.

With this, by the time all of the GT500 cars had changed to wet-use tires and returned to the race, car No. 38 found itself in the lead. It was followed in order by cars No. 39, No. 23, No. 16 and No. 3. Among these, the cars with the strongest paces were No. 23 and No. 3, apparently due to the good match between the cars and the wet-use tires they were now driving on. With this momentum, car No. 23 managed to pass No. 38 and take the lead in the race. Also, Chiyo in car No. 3 passed No. 38 as well to move into 2nd position. This gave the two Nissan Z GT500 cars a 1-2 lead.

 

 

 

 

 

In the middle stages of the race, the cars made their routine pit stops. The leading car No. 23 made its pit stop on the 44th lap. Car No. 16 made its pit stop on the 49th lap, and car No. 38 on the 51st lap.

When car No. 23 made its pit stop, that put Chiyo in car No. 3 temporarily in the lead, and with his fast pace, Chiyo managed to extend that lead over the cars behind him, and that led to the decision to hold off on making his pit stop as long as possible. Eventually he nearly reached the regulation limit for the number of laps a single driver could run at the 55th lap of the race. That is where Chiyo in car No. 3 made his pit stop. It happened to be at a time when the rain had lightened, so the team was able to change to slick tires and put the second driver Takaboshi back in the race.

After this pit stop, car No. 3 continued to hold the lead. In the closing stages of the race with about ten laps remaining, the rain began to fall more heavily again, but at this point No. 3 had a more than 20-second lead over car No. 23 running in 2nd place. This margin gave Takaboshi the freedom to refrain from forcing the pace by carefully maintain his lead position while shaving it off second by second, lap by lap.

In this way, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) that had started the race from 11th position on the grid emerged to win its second race of the season following its win in round 3 at Suzuka. This was the third win of the season for the Nissan Z GT500, and its second consecutive win following the one in the previous round at Suzuka. Finishing in 2nd place came the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), giving the Nissan Z GT500 a 1-2 sweep in the race. Finishing 3rd was the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu), for its first podium finish since Round 4 at Motegi in the 2020 season.

With this victory, the No. 3 driver pair of Chiyo and Takaboshi climbed back on top in the series Drivers title ranking. Also, a 5th-place finish in this race gave the winners of the last round, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z pair of Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette, 2nd position in the ranking 3.5 points behind the leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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