Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT Earns First Podium of the Season
Sportsland SUGO
The 6th round of the 2022 SUPER GT series was held at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Pref.) on September 17 (Sat) - 18 (Sun), in which five NSX-GTs and two NSX-GT3s participated in the GT500 and GT300 class respectively. As from this round at Honda camp, the second engine unit was installed on the GT500 class cars.
Free practice session on Saturday morning was greeted by the sun appeared from behind the clouds that have grown ever thicker when qualifying session started. In the Q1 session, #16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Toshiki Oyu) marked the top time, 1’09”66, breaking the course record that had been maintained by Kodai Tsukakoshi (NSX-GT) .
Course conditions changed slightly worse for #16 NSX-GT in the Q2 session which made Ukyo Sasahara recessed to 7th, in the mean time, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) achieved the best time among NSX-GT regime, i.e., 4th overall, and #17 Astemo MSX-GT (Kodai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) claimed 5th, with #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) following behind in 8th and #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) in 9th.
On Sunday, at 2:00 p.m., the 84-lap race was started with dark clouds from Typhoon Nanmadol shrouding the sky heavier and heavier as time went by. While Safety Car was dispatched at the opening lap suggesting a chaotic progress, #100 NSX-GT (Makino) climbed up to 2nd and begun chasing #38 GR Supra.
The rain was coming down at around 10th lap and got in real earnest at 15th lap. As the track soaked out immediately, the majority of runners came in for rain tires, but #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) and #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) choose to stay out. This made #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) placing apparent race leader and #16 NSX-GT (Oyu) in apparent 2nd.
The rain kept on falling more or less thereafter, #17 NSX-GT (Matsushita) made pitstop at 17th lap and duly dropped his position. #16 NSX-GT (Oyu), on the other hand, stayed out with dry tires until 19th lap when Full Course Yellow (FCY) was declared, thus minimizing the time loss of changing to rain tires. This punctual luck enabled #16 NSX-GT coming up to 3rd, then in for driver change after 36th lap.
When Sasahara taking over #16 car returned the race, the rain had almost stopped and the tarmac begun drying. Sasahara drove a tenacious stint in the condition increasingly harsh on rain tires before coming in for dry tires on 49th lap, positioned up to 3rd then went on to run the rest of the race, and finished 3rd, the best among the NSX-GT brigade. #64 (Izawa/Otsu) finishing 7th and #100 (Yamamoto/Makino) 8th each scored the championship points.
We thought that the decisive moment would come in the later half of the season and planned to introduce the second engine in order to keep up with the momentum. Unfortunately, the off and on rainfalls and inevitable puddles on the track surface made our race very difficult, and the top-three NSX-GT cars ended up with no point. On the other hand, #16 car made the pit stop at the best timing and achieved podium finish, which we think is a big fruit. We could find some positive aspects in the second engine. We’ll make the best use of those findings and exert utmost efforts towards the next two rounds to fight all through to the end for the title.
My partner, Oyu, marked top time in Q1 and it encouraged me to aim at pole position in Q2. But I couldn’t get enough grip, maybe due to low temperature, and ended up with 7th grid. That’s shame. In the race, I begun my stint with wet tires after Oyu’s superb run, but the track was drying out and battered my tires pretty quickly. The team called me in just as I was about giving up, and I could push again with dry tires. I think our perseverant job deserved podium finish. All of us in the team made this happen.
The course record I made in Q1 was broken soon after, but I’m very happy I’d been at the top even for a short while. I started the race from 6th grid (7th officially but moved up a grid due to the penalty incurred to a driver in front) but my pace in the dry was not particularly good. The rain’s got heavy once in a while and it’s very hard staying out (on the track) sometimes. I thought about the pace on dry tires, and decided, “Yes, I’ve got to be staying out!” “There’s no other way around!” That’s really was the right thing to do, and I could hand the car over to Sasahara in the situation still remained favorable to us. So, I’m happy with this results all in all.
GT500 Race Result
| Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z | Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi |
1:58'41.824 |
| 2 | 23 | MOTUL AUTECH Z | Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli |
+9.114 |
| 3 | 16 | Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT | Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu |
+46.720 |
| 4 | 38 | ZENT CERUMO GR Supra | Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura |
+1'05.148 |
| 5 | 12 | CALSONIC IMPUL Z | Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette |
+1Lap |
| 6 | 39 | DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra | Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama |
+1Lap |
| 7 | 64 | Modulo NSX-GT | Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu |
+1Lap |
| 8 | 100 | STANLEY NSX-GT | Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino |
+1Lap |
| 12 | 17 | Astemo NSX-GT | Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita |
+2Laps |
| 13 | 8 | ARTA NSX-GT | Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi |
+2Laps |
GT300 Race Result
| Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | muta Racing GR86 GT | Hiroki Katoh Yuui Tsutsumi |
1:59'15.748 |
| 2 | 11 | GAINER TANAX GT-R | Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa |
+1Lap |
| 3 | 10 | TANAX GAINER GT-R | Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa |
+1Lap |
| 4 | 56 | REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R | Kiyoto Fujinami Joao Paulo de Oliveira |
+1Lap |
| 5 | 7 | Studie BMW M4 | Seiji Ara Augusto Farfus |
+1Lap |
| 6 | 65 | LEON PYRAMID AMG | Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara |
+1Lap |
| 7 | 55 | ARTA NSX GT3 | Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura |
+1Lap |
| 11 | 18 | UPGARAGE NSX GT3 | Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta |
+2Laps |
GT500 Standing
| Pos. | Num. | Driver | Machine | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi |
CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z | 54 |
| 2 | 12 | Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette |
CALSONIC IMPUL Z | 50.5 |
| 3 | 23 | Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli |
MOTUL AUTECH Z | 37 |
| 4 | 37 | Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata |
KeePer TOM'S GR Supra | 36 |
| 5 | 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita |
Astemo NSX-GT | 34 |
| 6 | 39 | Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama |
DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra | 32 |
| 8 | 100 | Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino |
STANLEY NSX-GT | 26 |
| 10 | 8 | Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi |
ARTA NSX-GT | 21 |
| 13 | 16 | Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu |
Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT | 16.5 |
| 15 | 64 | Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu |
Modulo NSX-GT | 4 |
GT300 Standing
| Pos. | Num. | Driver | Machine | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56 | Kiyoto Fujinami Joao Paulo de Oliveira |
REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R | 46 |
| 2 | 10 | Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa |
TANAX GAINER GT-R | 42 |
| 3 | 11 | Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa |
GAINER TANAX GT-R | 35 |
| 4 | 61 | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi |
SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT | 33.5 |
| 5 | 7 | Seiji Ara | Studie BMW M4 | 27 |
| 6 | 18 | Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta |
UPGARAGE NSX GT3 | 26 |
| 25 | 55 | Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura |
ARTA NSX GT3 | 5 |
