2023.04.16

Rd. 1 Race GT500: Overcoming the rough weather, MOTUL AUTECH Z Wins from Pole Position

The opening round of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE took place on April 16th at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3,703m×82laps). It started raining just before the start of the race, and as the track conditions changed with the amount of rainfall, it was the teams in both classes that read these changes best that would emerge as winners. In the GT500 class it was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), and in the GT300 class the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) each took their first wins of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

　The 2023 season’s opening race at Okayama started at 1:30 in the afternoon, following a parade run led by three Okayama Prefectural Police patrol cars. The weather was clear from morning until the end of the warm-up run. But then raindrops began to fall as the parade run started.

In the early stages of the race, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Ronnie Quintarelli) took the lead from pole position and began to pull away, with the No. 3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo) following from its 2nd-place grid start. But the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) made a determined catch-up effort, moving up into 3rd position. It then began to quickly close the gap on car No. 3, and finally got on its tail by the seventh lap of the race.

　However, as the rain intensified, the cars were forced to change from slick tires to wet-use tires. Car No. 23 and the cars behind the leader quickly returned the pits one after another from the 15th lap. Car No. 100 chasing the two Nissan Z GT500s also pitted on the 16th lap. At this point, a GT300 car ran off the track, causing a Full Course Yellow (FCY) call. As two more GT300 cars stopped one after another, the Safety Car (SC) was brough out to control the race.

　During the SC run, the rain subsided, and blue skies spread overhead. On lap 19, the pit lane was opened again, and cars No. 3, No. 19 and No. 1 went in for their pit work. It was here that car No. 3 decided on a refueling strategy, along with its tire changes. Car No. 100 was in the lead at this point. At the same time, the No. 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara) moved up into 2nd position. Meanwhile, car No. 23 changed to rain tires, causing it to slow down at one point and drop to 3rd position.

　After the race resumed on lap 23, car No. 23 temporarily dropped as low as 6th position, but then began to catch up furiously as its tires warmed up. On lap 25, it passed two cars to recover to 4th position. Meanwhile, the No. 100 car in the lead had also lost pace, and by the 28th lap it was overtaken by the No. 36 au TOM'S GR SUPRA (Sho Tsuboi) and also by car No. 23 and others. In addition, No. 100 was given a 60-sec. penalty stop for conducting pit work during the FCY, which put it out of contention for the lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　Car No. 23 caught up with the leading car No. 36 and passed it from the outside at the first corner of the 41st lap to take the lead again. Around this time, the road surface began to dry, and one team after another returned to the pits to change to slick tires and make their required driver changes. As for car No. 3 that had dropped to 13th position at one point, it pitted on the 44th lap and changed drivers. The team was able to send Mitsunori Takaboshi back into the race in considerably less time than its rivals. The No. 23 car made its pit stop on the 46th lap, where the team changed to slick tires and made their driver change. At the end of the 47th lap, the difference between car No. 23 and car No. 36 was only 0.738 seconds.

　However, on the 48th lap, an FCY call was made again due to a GT300 car running off track, and during that interval, heavy rain began to fall again. That led car No. 23 to return quickly to the pit when FCY ended on the 50th lap and change to wet tires. This caused the team to drop back to 6th position once again. But if the rain continued, it would now be to the team’s advantage.

　Shortly after that, an accident involving two GT300 cars occurred at the ATTWOOD curve, resulting in a second SC intervention. Furthermore, due to the rain and lightning strikes nearby during the SC run, the race was suspended with a Red Flag at the beginning of lap 55.

　The race resumed at 3:35 p.m. with the SC leading the restart. As the rain intensified, the cars that had been forced to run on slick tires returned to the pits all at once to change tires. This gave car No. 23 the lead again without any effort. Car No. 36, which should have been the challenger here, lost its left front tire due to an error in the pit work. It came to a stop on the outside of the second corner. With this, car No. 3 returned to 2nd position, and moving into 3rd position came the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu), which had started the race from 7th position on the grid but dropped to the rear after a 5-sec. penalty stop due to a chassis change.

　Then, on the 61st lap, two GT300 cars went off the track and came to a stop at trackside. The Red Flag was displayed again, and the race was suspended. At 4:20 p.m., the race resumed with the SC leading the way, but after 62 laps the third Red Flag of the day was raised on lap 63, and the decision was made to end the race at this point.

　　Although it had been a battle of ups and downs, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) had come from pole position to win the first race of the season. The No. 3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) finished in 2nd place, giving the Nissan Z GT500 a 1-2 finish. The No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu) ended up in 3rd place. Last year's Okayama winner, the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita), finished disappointedly in 4th place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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