2023.08.27

Rd. 5 Race GT300: UPGARAGE NSX GT3 recovers from Q2 trouble for an awesome come-from-behind second win of the season

The SUZUKA GT 450km RACE, Round 5 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place on August 27 (Sun.) at Suzuka circuit (1 lap 5,807m) in Mie Prefecture. With the air temperature at a hot 33 degrees Celsius for this 450km race, it was the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) starting from pole position that kept the lead effectively throughout the race to win in the GT500 class. In the GT300 class, the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) won its second race of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

　Despite being the final week of August, Suzuka Circuit faced mid-summer heat on race day with the air temperature at 32℃ and track surface temperature at 50℃.

　Starting from Pole Position the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) pulled away strongly in the lead from the first lap to build a lead of about 3 sec. from the second lap. In 2nd place came the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) and slightly behind in 3rd and 4th positions respectively came the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi).

　Being a 450km race, the Rd. 5 race regulation called for two required pit stops with refueling. With the limit for first pit stops set at after the 5th lap, the No. 50 ANEST IWATA Racing RC F GT3 (Igor Omura Fraga/Yuga Furutani/Miki Koyama) running in 5th position waited no longer than that to make its first pit stop, as did others including the No. 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Takamitsu Matsui) and the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara/Bruno Spengler).

　On the other hand, the leading car No. 61chose to remain running on the track, and when No. 96 began to gradually lose pace, it was cars No. 4 and No. 87 that moved up into the top three. After that, No. 61 made its first pit stop on the 16th lap, followed by No. 4 on the 18th lap, which allowed car No. 87 and the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) to move up, thus giving two Huracán GT3 cars a 1-2 lead, until they also made their first pit stops on the 24th and 25th laps.

　By the time most of the cars had finished their first pit stop, the race had entered its middle stages. It was here that the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira/Hiroki Katoh) that had made its first pit stop on the 5th lap took the lead. It was followed by the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka/Yuki Nemoto). However, these cars that had made early pit stops where now being overtaken one after another by the cars with relatively fresh tires, like No. 61, and also No. 88.

 

 

 

 

 

　Meanwhile, after pushing up through the pack rapidly, car No. 61 made its pit stop at the end of the 41st lap. Drivers were changed from Yamauchi to Takuto Iguchi and the car returned to the race behind car No. 2. Following them came the No. 31 (Yuki Nemoto).

　The five lead cars that had waited until the final stages to make their second pit stop, including No. 88 and No. 4, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Teppei Natori), car No. 87 and Syun Koide in the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3, were now watching to decide on the timing of their pit stops. It was on the 45th lap that the right rear tire of car No. 56 came off just before the 130R curve, causing it to run off the track and crash.

　This caused the second FCY call of the race. The cars that were able to slip into the pitlane before it closed were cars No. 87 and No. 18. Car No. 18 had been struck by electrical trouble the previous day that made it unable to run in Q2, which meant that it had to start the race in 16th position on the grid. But Takashi Kobayashi had said, if they had been able to run, he was convinced that they could have been in the top four, and true to those words, No. 18 had rapidly worked its way up through the field once the race started. Based on the tire life, it would have been best to use pit timing that divided the race into three equal stints, but manager Ishida didn’t hesitate to call Koide back to the pit while he was on his way to drive two consecutive stints without another tire change in the second-half of the race stints.

　With this, it looked as if the final stages of the race would come down to a battle between No. 18 and No. 87. But in final stage there was an accident by a GT500 class car that brought another FCY call, after which car No. 61 began chasing the two leaders after passing car No. 88. Even after being passed, however, No. 88 also continued to close in on the three leaders. But the rookie Koide in car No. 18 managed to block all the moves by the veteran Matsuura in car No. 87 all the way to the goal and victory.

　This result gave the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Shun Koide) its second win of the season, following one at Okayama in Rd. 1. In the Driver ranking as well, the No. 18 drivers drew even in points with Seiji Ara of the No. 7 Studie BMW M4, but based on their number of wins, the No. 18 drivers now lead the standings.

　Second place in the race went to the No. 87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi). Fiishing in 3rd place was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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