2023.06.04

Rd. 3 Race GT500: Race ended early due to an accident. WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra judged to be the provisional winner

The SUZUKA GT 450km RACE, Round 3 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on June 4th (Sun.) at Suzuka Circuit (one lap 5,807 m × 77 laps) in Mie Prefecture. A serious accident in the later stages of the race caused the race to be terminated as of end of the 58th lap. This led to the declaration of the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra（Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi）as winners (provisional decision as of June 4th). In the GT300 class race, the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara/Masataka Yanagida) took its first win since Round 3 at Suzuka in last year’s series.

 

 

 

　Taking the lead at the start of the race was the pole-sitting No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi), which was followed by the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto) in 2nd position and the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) in 3rd, which meant that the leaders went through the first lap in their qualifying order. As for the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Kohei Hirate) that had to start the race from the last position on the grid, it came through the first lap in 14th position after passing the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa). On the Chicane of the 7th lap, the No. 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Bertrand Baguette) passed No. 100 from the out-side to move up into 3rd position.

　All this time, car No. 36 continued to run strongly in the lead, but then there was an accident in the 8th lap of the race when a rear tire came off one of the GT300 cars and it came to a stop in the NISSIN brake hairpin turn. This brought a Full Course Yellow (FCY) call, under which all cars had to reduce speed and no passing was allowed. Then, on the next lap, the Safety Car was brough out and all the cars had to form up in a line by class on the main straight. With this, car No. 36 lost all the lead it had built up.

　When the race was restarted on the 13th lap, car No. 36 once again began to pull away from the field, but after making its first routine pit stop on the 29th lap and changing drivers, it returned to the race to find itself behind car No. 19, which had completed its first pit stop on the 26th lap and car No. 1, which had completed its first pit work on the 19th lap. What’s more, No. 36 was also overtaken by car No. 23 on its first lap out of the pit. With this, when all of the cars had completed their pit work, car No. 36 found itself in 4th position.

　These developments now put car No. 19 in the lead. Following it in 2nd and 3rd positions were two Nissan Z machines, No. 1 and No. 23.

 

 

 

 

 

　After this point in the race the gap between No. 19 and No. 1 gradually lessened, but when it looked as if a battle would begin between the two cars for the lead, car No. 1 opted to make its second pit stop on the 42nd lap and change drivers from Baguette to Kazuki Hiramine.

　The leading car No. 19 and car No. 23 made their second pit stops on the 46th lap. This put car No. 36 back in the lead at the front of the race. Then it was car No. 36 that returned to the pit on the 48th lap for its second pit stop. After this stop, No. 36 was able to return to the track on the 49th lap ahead of cars No. 19, No. 1 and No. 23. Before its tires were warmed up sufficiently, however, it was caught and passed by car No. 19 soon after at the first corner and gave up the lead again. But when its tires were warm and their grip sufficient, No. 36 began to chase Sena Sakaguchi in car No. 19 as hard as possible. From there, No. 36 began to close the gap that was a full 6 sec. at one point to just 2 sec. by the time they reached 75% of the prescribed race distance (77 laps) on the 57th lap.

　However, when the lead group had finished the 58th lap and was entering the 59th lap, the car No. 23 that was then running in 4th position tried the pass two GT300 that were running side-by-side, which resulted in a collision. This caused car No. 23 to lose balance and crash into the tire barrier. This accident brought out the Safety Car, after which a Red Flag was shown to bring the race to a halt temporarily.

　The driver of Car No. 23, Tsugio Matsuda was rescued from the wreck, fortunately with no major injuries, but had to be sent to the hospital for a thorough examination. Also, the accident had caused damage to track facilities like the tire barrier and the guardrail. To repair the damage would take time, and without repairs the safety of the race could not be guaranteed. So, the decision was made to terminate the race at this point.

　As a provisional measure, it was decided to determine the race order by the running order of the cars at the end of the 58th lap, which meant that the GT500 class winner would be the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi), which had not made its second pit stop yet at that point and was thus in the lead. However, ten teams joined to file a complaint against this provisional measure, and after an evaluation, the Steward of the Meeting agreed to the validity of the complaint. With this, a new GT500 class provisional measure was taken which imposed a 60-sec. penalty on car No. 3 for not completing the two required pit stops, and as a result of this penalty, car No. 3 was moved back to 4th place.
　This resulted in a new order that gave the GT500 class victory to the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi). Coming in 2nd place was the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata), and 3rd place went to the No. 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette). Among the Honda NSX-GT cars, the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) now finished in 5th place.
　As for car No. 3’s NDDP RACING team, its objection about the change in the provisional measure filed with the race’s screening committee was rejected. In response to the rejection of this objection, the NDDP RACING team announced that it would file for an appeal. For this reason, the results of the GT500 class race will be placed on hold until the result of this appeal is decided and a final provisional measure is agreed on.

 

 

 

 

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