2023.09.17

Rd. 6 Race GT500: The No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Takes its First Win of the Season! Competing with two cars from this season, ARTA get its second straight win

The SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 6 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at Sportsland SUGO (one lap: 3,586 m x 84 laps) in Miyagi Prefecture on September 17 (Sun.). In the GT500 class race, two Honda NSX-GT teams battled for their first win of the season, and the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu) emerged the winner for the first time this year. In the GT300 class race, car No. 18 came from behind to apparently take the win on the last lap but was later disqualified due to results of the post-race car inspection, thus giving the victory to the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) for the first time this season, despite having initially finished 2nd running slow due to machine trouble.

 

 

 

　The sky over SUGO was covered with clouds, and although light rain had fallen from the morning, it didn’t affect the track condition enough by the time the race started, so the race was started in dry conditions. All the cars thus started the race on dry-use tires.

　Starting from pole position in the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT, Tomoki Nojiri was the first to enter the first corner and from there began to build a lead over the pack, and by the end of the 10th lap of the race, he had a 6 sec. margin of lead over car No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Ronnie Quintarelli) running in 2nd position, and by the 25th lap that lead had grown to more than 9 sec. Maintaining that strong pace, car No. 8 returned to the pit on the 32nd lap and changed drivers from Nojiri to Toshiki Oyu.

　Meanwhile, the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Nobuharu Matsushita) that had started from 3rd position on the grid managed to hold that position through the early stages of the race until it made its pit stop. The fast pit work that the team complete in its pit stop after the 33rd lap of the race by very quick pit work enabled it to return to the race in front of car No. 8 to take the provisional lead. And it was car No. 23 that now ran in 3rd position.

　Oyu in car No. 8 pushed hard to try to catch the new leader, but only to be blocked by the back markers in front of him and unable to catch No. 17. And not only that but an unfortunate collision with a GT300 car on the 36th lap of the race allowed No. 17 to increase its lead.

　What’s more, there was an accident that saw the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) colliding with a GT300 car near the pit road entrance on the 38th lap. Car No. 100 spun out and crashed into the out-side guard rail. This accident brough on a Safety Car intervention from the 39th lap. And in order to rescue the driver and repair the damage to the track facilities, the Red Flag was displayed on the 40th lap to temporarily stop the race.

　At this point, the cars running in the lead and 2nd position were the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi) and the No. 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Bertrand Baguette) that had not yet made their pit stops. In other words, the provisional lead still belonged to car No. 17, and cars No. 8 and No. 23 provisionally stood in 2nd and 3rd position respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

　The race was restarted behind the Safety Car at 3:20 in the afternoon. After being rescued from the crash, Yamamoto was conscious but suffering from pain, so he was sent by a medical helicopter to the hospital for further treatment.

　With the cars running in order, the Safety Car left the track on the 44th lap and the actual racing resumed from the 45th lap. At this point, car No. 1 and the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi) that had made a pit stop once after suffering machine trouble in the early stages of the race and restarted from the very back of the pack, both returned to their pits.

　From here, three cars battled for the lead on the track, with car No. 17 in front followed closely by No. 8 and No. 23. On the first curve of the 56th lap, No. 8 pulled up on the in-side of No. 17 and succeeded in passing it. Furthermore, on this same lap the car No. 39 running provisionally in front final made its pit stop, which put No. 8 fully in the lead again. With this, the car No. 39 that had delayed its pit stop now returned to the race in 4th position far behind the leaders.

　By the 54th lap of the race, Oyu in car No. 8 had a 1.5 sec. lead over No. 17, and that lead grew to 2 sec. by the 55th lap and 3.4 sec. by the 60th lap.

　From the 61st lap, however, No. 17 began to close in on the leader. After bringing the gap between the two cars down to less than 3 sec., it came down to just over 2 sec. by the 62nd lap, and by the 64th lap it quickly came down to just 0.3 sec. From there, it was a nip and tuck battle over the next ten laps, until No. 17 took advantage of an attempt by No. 8 to pass a back marker on the out-side on the home straight of the 76th lap and succeeded in passing No. 8 on the in-side to finally take the lead. With this, it was now No. 17 that gradually began to open up a lead. Also, No. 8 was now facing a challenge from behind by car No. 23 and had to devote itself to holding off this pursuer rather than trying to chase No. 17.

　No. 17 went on that way to take the checkered flag at the goal and mounted the top spot on the winner’s podium. However, just as had happened to No. 23 after finishing 2nd in the previous round at Suzuka, now it was No. 17 that would have a violation found in the post-race car inspections for having its skid block shaved down below the regulation limit. For this No. 17 was disqualified.

　This gave the win to the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu), which was able to hold off car No. 23 by the slimmest of margins. After having won his first pole position the day before, Oyu now won his first SUPER GT victory here at SUGO. Also, for the ARTA team, this was their second victory in a row, following the one by its car No. 16 in the previous round at Suzuka, which proved the success of ARTA’s two-car entry from this season.

　Finishing 2nd was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), while 3rd went to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama), meaning that each of the makers had one car on the podium.

　With these results, the leaders of the Drivers ranking, Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi (No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z) kept their ranking by finishing 9th. However, since the 2nd-ranked Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata (No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra) finished 7th in this race, just two points now separated the top two pairs. Also, by finishing 2nd in Round 6, the driver pair of Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli (No. 23) moved up to 3rd place in the ranking.

 

 

 

 

Page Top