Astemo NSX-GT Finishes on the Podium in 2nd Place

Suzuka Circuit

August 27 (Sat) - 28 (Sun): The 5th round of the 2022 Super GT series was held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Pref.) in which five NSX-GT 2022 models and two NSX-GT3s participated in the GT500 and GT300 classes respectively. This round, as same as the previous one, is to be fought in 450km-race distance, a

Astemo NSX-GT Finishes on the Podium in 2nd Place

The weather on Saturday got cloudy, and qualifying sessions were carried out under a cooler condition with both ambient and road surface temperatures being unexpectedly low for this time of year. As the result, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) marked the best time among the NSX-GT squad followed by #16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu) seizing 2nd and 3rd grid each. #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) standing 5th on the point ranking, the best of all NSX-GTs, will start the race from 8th grid.

On Sunday, the race was started at 2:30 p.m. when clouds were broken off and summer sunbeam begun scorching the tarmac. The initial stages of the race passed uneventfully, and #23 MOTUL AUTECH Z was pulling off as expected, but followed doggedly by NSX-GT element in trail formation with #17 (Matsushita) ahead of #16 (Sasahara).

The race leader, #23 Z, was pitted as early as on lap 17, but #16 NSX-GT (Sasahara) stayed out 10 laps more, and so did #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) further 2 laps more. When the two NSX-GTs (#16 and #17) rejoined the track after refueling and driver switch, #16 NSX-GT now at the hand of Oyu got ahead of the consort car and climbed up to virtual 2nd. #17 NSX-GT driven by Tsukakoshi, on the other hand, surrendered its position to #38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra and dropped virtual 4th.

#16 NSX-GT (Oyu) maintaining a fair pace caught up with #23 Z, the virtual 1st, and on lap 31, overtook it to become the new race leader. #23 Z could not pick up its pace thereafter and gradually receded. #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) was followed by #38 GR Supra, and #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) begun to trail the top two, which soon made up a three-car train aiming at the top each one and another. #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) running at the tail of the train chosen to make its second stop on lap 48 in order to avoid delaying behind two cars in front. This brought about an unexpected good fortune for #17 NSX-GT. An accident happened right after its stop induced Safety Car, which stirred up the optimum timing of the pit-stop strategy. The stroke of luck made #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) jump up on the virtual top when the second stop rush was over.

The race was restarted on lap 55; #38 GR Supra running apparent 2nd came in on the same lap as SC was dispatched, and #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) running apparent 1st did on lap 59 each for the second stop, thus dropped its position when returning back in action.

Good luck comes by cuffing, they say. #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) leading the race in high spirits would soon be notified by the team that, at its second stop, some failure in the refueling system had prevented them to fill sufficient amount of fuel to finish the race. Tsukakoshi was given a cruel instruction to slow down heavily thereafter to save the fuel. As the result, #17 NSX-GT was caught up by #12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z, passed at the hairpin on lap 75, 2-laps to the finish, and ended up to finish the race 2nd.

#100 NSX-GT (Yamamoto) despite its tenacious run up to 5th place went off at 130R corner on lap 77. #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) finished 6th and got its righteous share of points. #17 NSX-GT is now the top ranker in the Honda camp, standing 4th overall, 10.5-points behind the point leader, and vigorously set about the next race at Sportsland Sugo.

Masahiro Saiki

HRC SGT Large Project Leader

Things went on as same as the qualifying results implied until the later half of the race, however, introduction of SC drastically changed the situation. As for #16 car, it was a pure misfortune, and for #17 it worked as an advantage. But a failure occurred in refueling forced #17 car to go on eco-driving and to finish the race in 2nd. Although we could not win, we’re able to confirm the performance, both in qualifying and race, of the NSX-GT 2022 models that have been developed focusing on the race at Suzuka. As we anticipated beforehand, series title would be decided by the outcome of a last few races in this year again. We’ll do our best in all three races left aiming at series champion, and we thank in advance for the tremendous support from fans.

Koudai Tsukakoshi ¹⁷

Astemo REAL RACING

We did good job in qualifying, both of us. In the race too, we could keep good pace. In my stint, I eventually made the pit-stop in the best possible way, and I think I was favored with good luck. It’s a pity to have a trouble of refueling and we couldn’t fill the tank properly, and I had to go on fuel-saving mode for the rest of the race. We could barely finish 2nd but it’s frustrating because we could’ve won it. Next round at Sportsland Sugo, and Autopolice after next too, is the type of track where success weight is not very much a disadvantage, so, if I look at the series as a long run, today’s result was not too bad, for sure.

Nobuharu Matsushita ¹⁷

Astemo REAL RACING

The car performed very well. Although we missed the pole position, we did good attacks and proved that “NSX-GT is quick in Suzuka,” I think. As for the race, I strongly regret we couldn’t win the race we should have won. It’s true we failed to win but the result is quite encouraging for the finishing rounds of the series. We’ll incur more success weight and have fuel restrictor squeezed even further for the next race. I know it’s gonna be very hard to win but we still have speed to fight it through. We’ll try harder, persist in focusing on the point, and finish races in the highest possible place.

GT500 Race Result

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time/Gap
1	12	CALSONIC IMPUL Z	Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette	2:35'39.339
2	17	Astemo NSX-GT	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	+6.630
3	39	DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra	Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama	+7.747
4	3	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	+8.257
5	23	MOTUL AUTECH Z	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	+13.747
6	16	Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT	Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu	+33.508

11	100	STANLEY NSX-GT	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	+1 Lap
12	64	Modulo NSX-GT	Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu	+1 Lap
13	8	ARTA NSX-GT	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	+1 Lap

GT300 Race Result

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time/Gap
1	4	GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG	Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka	2:37'08.113
2	10	TANAX GAINER GT-R	Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa Yusuke Shiotsu	+3.407
3	30	apr GR86 GT	Manabu Orido Hibiki Taira Yuta Kamimura	+19.822
4	52	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai	+23.221
5	6	Team LeMans Audi R8 LMS	Yoshiaki Katayama Roberto Merhi Muntan	+26.681
6	65	LEON PYRAMID AMG	Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara	+26.991

14	18	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	+1 Lap
24	55	ARTA NSX GT3	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	+9 Laps

GT500 Standing

Pos.	Num.	Driver	Machine	Pts
1	12	Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette	CALSONIC IMPUL Z	44.5
2	37	Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata	KeePer TOM'S GR Supra	34
3	3	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	34
4	17	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	Astemo NSX-GT	34
5	14	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra	30
6	39	Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama	DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra	27

8	100	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	STANLEY NSX-GT	23
10	8	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	ARTA NSX-GT	21
14	16	Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu	Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT	5.5

GT300 Standing

Pos.	Num.	Driver	Machine	Pts
1	56	Kiyoto Fujinami Joao Paulo de Oliveira	REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R	38
2	10	Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa	TANAX GAINER GT-R	31
3	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT	29.5
4	18	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	26
5	4	Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka	GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG	24
6	7	Seiji Ara Tsubasa Kondo	Studie BMW M4	21

30	55	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	ARTA NSX GT3	1