STANLEY NSX-GT takes pole-to-win

Mobility Resort Motegi

November 5 (Sat) - 6 (Sun): The 8th round of the 2022 Super GT series was held at Mobility Resort Motegi (Tochigi Pref.) in which five NSX-GT 2022 models and two NSX-GT3s participated in the GT500 and GT300 classes respectively.

The race weekend at Mobility Resort Motegi was blessed with bright autumn weather, and qualifying sessions on Saturday were held under a comfortable condition with the ambient temperature at 17℃. Although the point leader of the NSX-GT brigade, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) sunk in 10th, other four NSX-GTs made their way to Q2, and #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) also keeping the chance to win series title captured the pole position. #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi), #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) and #16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu) secured 6th, 7th and 8th grid in that order.

Another fine weather on Sunday at 1 p.m., the race was duly started. #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) made a steady launch from the pole position, hole shot into Turn-1, and set on to runaway. Further back in the field, #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nojiri) started from 6th grid was forced into spin by the car tailed behind and dropped down, while #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Izawa) followed in 5th, #16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Sasahara) 7th, and #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Matsushita) started from 10th grid climbed up to 8th. The race leader, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) pulled the pack further away every lap it made and seemingly established a one-man race, however, an accident happened on lap-6 induced a FCY (Full-Course Yellow) and then Safety Car, which inevitably nullified the lead that #100 car (Makino) had gained all at once. On the other hand, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Matsushita) luckily escaped this confusion jumping up to 4th, and the race was restarted all over again.

Action was resumed on lap-21, and #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) maintaining clear lead came in for driver change on lap-23, went on to secure the virtual top position now at the hand of Yamamoto. In the meantime, #17 Astemo NSX-GT also switching to Tsukakoshi maintained its 4th virtual position and got back in action.

In the later half of the race, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) masterly controlled the race with #12 Calsonic IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine) closing up on occasionally to which Yamamoto, nursing his tires, always had enough margin to fend off and kept on running. Contrary to this, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) had to curb its pace due to the loss of tire grip with the lowering temperature and eventually gave up its 4th place to #3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi) and settled in 5th.

In the end, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) seized the 63-lap race with #12 Z following 1.212 sec. behind achieving its first win in this season. As for the series point ranking, #100 SANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto/Makino) adding up to the total of 62-points got ahead of #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi/Matsushita) that finished 5th at the hand of Tsukakoshi to become 3rd overall, the top ranker among the NSX-GT brigade, followed by #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi/Matsushita) 4th overall.

In the GT300 class, ARTA NSX GT3 (Hideki Muto/Iori Kimura) rounded off its season with a delightful pole-to-win.

Masahiro Saiki

HRC SGT Large Project Leader

NSX-GT was developed based on Type-S that had received a minor facelift early in this year. A steady, reliable point-getter throughout the season. In the race today, free from the success weight, aiming at the pole position and did it all the way to winning the final one and so on. It has come up to our expectations, I think. Unfortunately, the series title had not come our way, however, we’ve not been away too far. It’s encouraging us in preparing the next season for us to conquer. Considering the result for this time around, I can say that #100 car had spent these two days absolutely perfectly. Demonstration of a flawless race tactic, getting the gap under its thumb to maintain the top position. #17 car also had the chance to take the title but couldn’t raise its pace as much as #100 car did. We’ll have to find out the reason for that. On this occasion, I’d like to express our sincere gratitude for the ever lasting support from fans. Thank you very much indeed, and see you next year.

Naoki Yamamoto ¹⁰⁰

TEAM KUNIMITSU

Today, we put the No.1 priority to win. My partner, Makino, drove superbly and got a good lead in the first stint. If things went this way, our pit work would go much easier and I’d walk over the later half of the race with the ample margin, I thought to myself. But, (the margin was cancelled by SC and the race was reset thereafter) I had to take care the cars behind me. Fortunately, my tires warmed up quickly. It’s been a long-held problem for us but didn’t occur for this time anyway. As I run controlling the gap, it’s known that there might be the case of scant refueling, and the team radioed me, “Running out of gas by some chance.” So I changed my driving to the “Lift & Coast (freewheeling) ” mode and tried to save fuel as much as possible while watching the gap from the car behind. Although missed the series title, we could show the merit of our strength, I mean both TEAM KUNIMITSU and HRC.

Tadasuke Makino ¹⁰⁰

TEAM KUNIMITSU

We’re in our best form right from the start, and then FCY. (As we already had a good margin,) I thought FCY was not so bad. Whereupon, there came out Safety Car and the gap gone immediately. Nevertheless, I could drive rather comfortably after the restart. It was the most pleasant stint I’ve ever done since I came to SUPER GT. Looking back now, I’m totally amazed how time has flied in this season. Especially thinking that I had hard time in the middle of the year, recovered from the slump, and finally could come back strongly to round off the season in the best way even if we didn’t win the title. I think it will lead to the progress we make next year.

GT500 Race Results

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time
1	100	STANLEY NSX-GT	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	2:04'58.929
2	12	CALSONIC IMPUL Z	Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette	+1.212
3	14	ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra GT500	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	+1.888
4	3	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	+2.795
5	17	Astemo NSX-GT	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	+16.005
6	37	KeePer TOM'S GR Supra	Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata	+26.476

8	8	ARTA NSX-GT	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	+40.295
11	16	Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT	Ukyo Sasahara Toshiki Oyu	+1'11.201
12	64	Modulo NSX-GT	Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu	+1'12.783

GT300 Race Results

Pos.	Num.	Machine	Driver	Time
1	55	ARTA NSX GT3	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	2:05'07.068
2	87	Bamboo Airways LAMBORGHINI GT3	Kosuke Matsuura Natsu Sakaguchi	+4.048
3	52	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai	+8.204
4	18	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	+11.223
5	88	Weibo Primez LAMBORGHINI GT3	Takashi Kogure Yuya Motojima	+21.511
6	96	K-tunes RC F GT3	Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi	+24.451

GT500 Standing

Pos.	Num.	Driver	Machine	Pts
1	12	Kazuki Hiramine Bertrand Baguette	CALSONIC IMPUL Z	70.5
2	3	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z	66
3	100	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	STANLEY NSX-GT	62
4	17	Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita	Astemo NSX-GT	60
5	14	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra	49
6	37	Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata	KeePer TOM'S GR Supra	43

12	8	Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi	ARTA NSX-GT	24
14	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	52
2	61	Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi	SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT	49.5
3	10	Riki Okusa	TANAX GAINER GT-R	49
4	52	Kohta Kawaai	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	48
5	52	Hiroki Yoshida	SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT	47
6	10	Ryuichiro Tomita	TANAX GAINER GT-R	45

8	18	Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ohta	UPGARAGE NSX GT3	34
12	55	Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura	ARTA NSX GT3	26