The Road to Honda’s First Win With The Civic Type R-GT

In the next race at Fuji Speedway, the successor to the NSX-GT took its first pole. And now, on the series’ return to Fuji, the first win has been well and truly checked off the ‘to-do’ list.

ARTA’s #8 pair Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita had the honour of being the drivers to get that first win for the Civic, converting pole position and leading home a memorable Honda 1-2 ahead of Team Kunimitsu duo Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.

The victory vindicates Honda’s choice to replace the ultra-successful NSX-GT with the Civic Type R-GT, the first-ever GT500 car to be based on a four-door road going model, and also comes as a well-earned reward for months of hard effort at HRC’s Sakura headquarters.

Speaking post-race, Honda’s SUPER GT project leader Masahiro Saiki described getting the new machine’s first win as a “relief”, as the Civic turned in its best race performance of the season so far. In Round 2 at Fuji, the pole-winning Real Racing Honda slipped to third in the race, while in the following race at Suzuka, the #16 ARTA Honda that started second was unable to challenge for a victory, ending up with the bottom step of the podium.

“In the first three races, we were able to perform well in qualifying, but in the races themselves we had trouble with the pace and we lost positions,” added Saiki. “This time we were able to keep first and second all the way to the chequered flag.

“It wasn’t the most eventful race, but the fact we were able to distance ourselves from the pack, plus the fact that the #100 [Kunimitsu] car had good pace despite the success ballast, also makes us think that we’ve gone in the right direction with development.”

Even as early as pre-season testing, it looked like Fuji had the potential to be a strong track for the Civic, as Matsushita topped the times at the circuit ahead of the Okayama opener.

The new car’s improved straight line speed in comparison to the NSX-GT, combined with its prowess in low speed corners such as those found in Fuji’s third sector, meant the track seemed ideally suited to the Civic. In addition, the Civic seemed to cope well with the intense heat at Fuji, with air temperature well into the 30Cs and track temperature in the 50Cs.

On top of that, the #8 ARTA car arrived at Fuji light on success ballast, carrying just 6kg, as a result of mechanical trouble in the previous two races - although the Kunimitsu car finishing second with its 40kg handicap served to underline the Civic’s competitiveness.

Honda's head of car development Tomohiro Onishi believes in hindsight that the Civic may have been ready to win its first race as soon as the second race at Fuji, but acknowledged that the Real Racing squad’s defeat to Nissan proved to be a valuable lesson.

“The second round, which was also at Fuji, was dominated by the two Nissan/NISMO cars, whereas this time they had success weight but they scored no points,” said Onishi. “So that makes me think that looking back to Round 2, if we had chosen the tyres even just slightly better, we were already at the level to fight for wins.

“But we were able to use this as a reference for the tyre selection and the details of the setup, and as a result we were able to get a 1-2, so I feel like we’ve made good progress.”

For Matsushita, whose win marked his first since he joined ARTA at the start of the year from Real Racing, ARTA’s strong performance at Fuji didn’t come as a surprise. But, looking back on the year so far, he admits that he wasn’t always so confident that the Civic Type R-GT would come out of the blocks so strongly.

What changed his opinion was the #8 car proving to be capable of battling for pole position in the season opener at Okayama, at least until Matsushita made a mistake on his hot lap in Q1 that effectively relegated he and Nojiri to a pit lane start.

“I wasn’t at the Sepang test [in January], but the Civic was about a second slower than Nissan and Toyota,” recalled Matsushita. “At that point I was expecting that it would be a tough season. But even by the first official test at Okayama, it felt like the car had improved a lot. I knew that Honda was trying to maximise the downforce with the new parts before the homologation [the aerodynamics in GT500 are frozen from the start of Round 1].

“Round 1 at Okayama was kind of a surprise for me, I was purple in sectors one and two [in qualifying], so we were close to fighting for pole position. And at that time everyone was with no success weight, so it’s a level fight and we were pretty competitive.

“I started to become more positive then. Our race pace was still not great, but car #100’s pace was better and they got the podium, which meant we knew we could do that too. And at Fuji in Round 2 we were again competitive in qualifying, so this time we knew we had a chance to at least be on the podium considering our low success ballast.”

Victory for Nojiri and Matsushita at Fuji has launched the #8 car into title contention, bringing the duo to within 15 points of the championship lead with four races to go. And Matsushita is bullish about his chances of fighting for back-to-back wins next time out at Suzuka.

“Suzuka shouldn’t be bad,” said Matsushita. ”In qualifying last time I was P2 again [in Q1]. The #8 car won’t be the heaviest, although we will have a fuel restrictor, but I think we can fight. That’s my expectation. I think we have a chance to win there as well, for sure.”

With Yamamoto and Makino now a strong second in the championship and just four points away from the leaders, there’s every reason for optimism within the Honda camp that the Civic Type R-GT could go on to fight for the title in its debut season.