Astemo NSX-GT finishes second on home track Suzuka Circuit

Suzuka Circuit

May 28 (Sat)-29 (Sun) — The 3rd round of the 2022 Super-GT series was held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Pref.), and five NSX-GT models and two NSX-GT3 cars participated in the GT500 and GT300 class respectively.

While Suzuka is regarded as the home track for the HONDA camp, they have not won in the GT500 class at the venue since 2018. Though, NSX-GT cars have shown its speed by achieving three straight pole positions in the past three races.

Saturday morning at Suzuka Circuit, the Q1 session took place under a clear weather, #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi), #16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara), #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi), #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) and #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) went for the first time attack.

Two of NSX-GT cars ranked higher and therefore bearing heavy Success Weight (SW), i.e., #100 (36kg) and #8 (22kg), were inevitably forced a tough fight, in the meantime, #16 NSX-GT (Sasahara) and #17 (Tsukakoshi) carrying 1kg and 6kg SW respectively made it through to Q2 in which the #16 car driven by Toshiki Oyu got 4th grid and 5th by Nobuharu Matsushita (#17).

The race day at Suzuka Circuit was again blessed with a fine weather, however, the condition has got even tougher as the temperature increasingly hiked up in the midday. The race was started without a jumble and soon a 5-car top group begun to runaway.

The #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) running at the tale of the 5-car train made a move on the straight of the 2nd lap, went alongside of #16 NSX-GT (Sasahara) and got ahead at Turn-1 to take 4th. Moreover, the #17 car then waged it up to 3rd overtaking #19 GR Supra, the pole sitter of the race that had been struggling from the start. The #16 NSX-GT running 5th followed suit after a brief FCY period by passing the #19 GR Supra to get up to 4th.

On the 10th lap, an accident brought about the safety car, and the race was resumed from the 15th lap. At the end of 18th lap, the #16 NSX-GT (Sasahara) made a stop and the #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) did the same on the 20th lap, both changed tires and drivers, Oyu and Tsukakoshi respectively, too. At this very moment, #17 car could get back to the track just in front of #37 GR Supra, thus making a position up, so-called the under-cut was successfully done.

In the later half of the race, the time was when the entire cars have finished driver switch, the #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) was running 2nd with more than a second ahead of #37 GR Supra. The #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) running 6th made the second stop for a new set of tires at the end of 33rd lap, which made its position further down in the field. Worse than that, an emergency stop for new tires was needed on 37th lap, and during the subsequent FCY period right after the stop, the #16 car hit a slow running GT300 car from behind and immediately finished its race due to the damage incurred by the accident. The #8 NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) inherited the 6th place and started to chase the #19 GR Supra in front.

The #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) kept 2nd position with 1-second gap to the #37 GR Supra behind, and run through the 52-lap race in that order. The 2nd place gained from 5th grid is definitely an achievement worthy of pride. The #8 NSX-GT (Nojiri) was unfortunate to be robbed of his 6th place at the last corner in the last lap. The #100 NSX-GT (Yamamoto) finished 9th which was the last of three point scoring HONDA teams in the R-3 of the 2022 Super GT series.

Masahiro Saiki

HRC SGT Large Project Leader

Yet another eventful race. Both ambient and road surface temperatures were high, but we’ve developed cars performing constantly throughout the year, so there’s no trouble relating this intense heat. In such severe circumstances, #17 car carrying relatively light Success Weight (SW) showed attentive performance both in qualifying sessions and the race. #8 and #100 cars using Bridgestone tires scored points in three races straight, and now ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th on the point table. On the other hand, two cars using Dunlop tires still have some difficulties in the race albeit quick in qualifying sessions. We’ll do some modifications for the next event at Fuji reflecting the results we had today.

Koudai Tsukakoshi ¹⁷

Astemo REAL RACING

Car balance was okey from the very beginning for this time. Q2 had been way too far for us, but we could get there today. It means a hurdle was cleared. In the race, Nobu (Matsushita) did very good job to make positions and we could make another during the stop as I took over the stint. After that, I was predicting how the balance of the car would change as the race went on, then #37 car closed up on me, and I had to fight against him. The car behind me had almost the same pace, so I drove very carefully not to be caught up. When safety car came in and the gap from the top got shrunk, I thought, “Do I have chance?” But, no. His performance was much higher, for this time.

Nobuharu Matsushita ¹⁷

Astemo REAL RACING

Our car felt fine and I thought it had the potential to get either 2nd or 3rd grid, but we ended up 5th by a narrow margin. I thought I should play safe but I also knew start was only the chance, so went nap. Of course, if I overdid and hit somebody, it’s simply a waste. I attacked as hard as the car balance allowed it. I think I did a good race; beside, we could get a place by under-cutting the pit stop. It was just what drivers wished for all the time, and I’d like to say "Thank you!" to my team.

GT500 Race Result

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time/Gap
1	3	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	1:55'50.895
2	17	Astemo NSX-GT	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	+4.549
3	37	KeePer TOM'S GR Supra	Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata	+4.832
4	39	DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra	Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama	+4.880
5	19	WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra	Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi	+8.357
6	24	Realize corporation ADVAN Z	Daiki Sasaki Kohei Hirate	+10.429
7	8	ARTA NSX-GT	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	+10.472

9	100	STANLEY NSX-GT	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	+14.304
11	64	Modulo NSX-GT	Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu	+17.764
13	16	Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT	Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu	+15 Laps

GT300 Race Result

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time/Gap
1	7	Studie BMW M4	Seiji Ara Tsubasa Kondo	1:57'34.344
2	5	MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO	Yusuke Tomibayashi Reiji Hiraki	+9.612
3	56	REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R	Kiyoto Fujinami Joao Paulo de Oliveira	+9.883
4	52	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai	+15.104
5	88	Weibo Primez LAMBORGHINI GT3	Takashi Kogure Yuya Motojima	+22.516
6	34	BUSOU raffinee GT-R	Masataka Yanagida Yuji Ide	+1 Lap

10	55	ARTA NSX GT3	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	+1 Lap
	18	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	+41 Laps

GT500 Standing

Pos.	Num.	Driver	Machine	Pts
1	3	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	26
2	14	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra	26
3	100	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	STANLEY NSX-GT	20
4	17	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	Astemo NSX-GT	18
5	8	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	ARTA NSX-GT	15
6	23	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	MOTUL AUTECH Z	15

14	16	Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu	Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT	0.5

GT300 Standing

Pos.	Num.	Driver	Machine	Pts
1	56	Kiyoto Fujinami Joao Paulo de Oliveira	REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R	33
2	7	Seiji Ara Tsubasa Kondo	Studie BMW M4	21
3	10	Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa	TANAX GAINER GT-R	15
4	18	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	15
5	5	Yusuke Tomibayashi Reiji Hiraki	MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO	15
6	34	Masataka Yanagida Yuji Ide	BUSOU raffinee GT-R	12.5

22	55	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	ARTA NSX GT3	1