2022.11.06

Rd. 8 Race GT500: STANLEY NSX-GT comes from pole to take its first win of the season! Title goes to 2nd-place finishing CALSONIC IMPUL Z!

Rd. 8 Race GT500

The MOTEGI GT 300km RACE GRAND FINAL, Round 8 of the 2022 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on November 6 (Sun.) at Mobility Resort Motegi (4,801m x 63 laps) in Tochigi Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) started from pole position to win the race. The series title went to the race’s 2nd-place finisher, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette). In the GT300 class, it was also a win from pole position for the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Hideki Mutoh/Iori Kimura), but in a trouble-bent contest for the season title it was the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) that emerged the champions.

 

 

 

 

 

　For the final round of the 2022 series, the skies were clear over Mobility Resort Motegi. All 15 cars competing in the GT500 class lined up on the starting grid to start the 63-lap race following the Formation Lap.

　At the start, the pole-sitting No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) took the lead, followed in order by the 2nd and 3rd qualifiers, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto) and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Bertrand Baguette). From the third corner, car No. 12 made a quick attempt to move on car No. 19, but their positions remained unchanged. Behind them, a battle developed between the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) and the No. 8 ARTA NSX GT3 NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi), which eventually sent car No. 8 off into the gravel. Out in front of these developments, the leading No. 100 managed to increase its margin of lead.

　It was on the ninth lap that the first real changes took place. First of all, car No. 3 was given a drive-through penalty, which put a yellow light on its title contender status. Then, machine trouble forced the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) to return suddenly to its pit. What’s more, a collision took place between the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Giuliano Alesi) and No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) as they battled for 10th position, which resulted in a multi-car crash including the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) and two GT300 class cars. This crash caused cars No. 24 and No. 39 to retire from the race.

　What’s more, with cars No. 3 and No. 23 now absence from the lead group, it meant that the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita), which had started the race from the 10th grid position and climbed to 8th position on the first lap of the race, suddenly found itself running in 3rd position. This meant a boost in No. 17’s chances of joining cars No. 100 and No. 12 as another real contender for the season title.

　The earlier multi-car crash had resulted in an Full Course Yellow (FCY) to be implemented as well as a Safety Car (SC) intervention. During the laps of the SC run, two GT300 class cars collided on the home straight and suffered serious damage to their machines. This extended the SC run and delayed the restart of the race until the 21st lap. When the race finally did restart, the following lap happened to be the limit for starting routine pit stops, and five cars, including the 2nd-running car No. 19, opted to make their pit stops on that lap. All the other cars made their pit stops within the next two laps, with the exception of car No. 36, which opted to extend its stint.

 

 

 

 

 

　While car No. 36 continued to extend its first stint before making its pit stop, car No. 100 (Naoki Yamamoto) continued to hold its position as the actual race leader. Emerging behind No. 100 in 2nd and 3rd positions were car No. 12 (Kazuki Hiramine) and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kenta Yamashita). Competing for 4th position were car No. 17 and the rapidly climbing car No. 3.

　When car No. 36 finally made its routine pit stop on the 36th lap, car No. 100 was once again running in the lead position. At times there were sudden shortenings of the gaps between the top three lead cars, but none of the moves resulted in an overtake. As for car No. 3, with its title chances at stake, it was anxious to move on car No. 17 and finally succeeded in overtaking it on the 51st lap of the race to move into 4th position.

　For a while, these top five cars continued to fight it out with gaps of about one second between them and the tension of the title race clearly evident. But eventually, the gaps between them gradually widened.

　In the end, the race victory went to the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino), as they managed a tremendous pole-to-goal win in this final round.

　Finishing in 2nd place was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette). Third place went to the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita), meaning that once again all three makers had one car on the podium. Behind them in 4th and 5th places came two season title contenders, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) and the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita), while the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz/Ritomo Miyata) finished the race in 7th place.

　With these results, the 2nd-place finishing No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z driven by Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette won double titles for the Driver and Team championships. For TEAM IMPUL, this was its first season title since 1995 (in what was at the time the All Japan GT Championship).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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