ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Finishes on the Podium in 3rd Place and UPGARAGE NSX GT3 Wins in the GT300 class
Okayama International CircuitApril 15 (Sat) - 16 (Sun) — The first round of the 2023 SUPER GT series was held at Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Pref.) and five NSX-GT cars of the 2023 spec and two NSX-GT3 cars participated in each of the GT500 and GT300 class.
As the 2023 regulation bans any development of cars, the latest NSX-GT models cannibalized the fundamental components from the previous season except for the engine that was optimized for the carbon neutral fuel (CNF) instead of the conventional high-octane gasoline.
#8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT car had reportedly suffered an unidentified torque-steering phenomenon and had its monocoque replaced with new one, for which the regulation is to impose a 5-second stop penalty in the race.
Race weekend at Okayama International Circuit was unfortunately struck by the rough weather derived by an atmospheric depression passing by as it grew on the way. On Saturday, free practice sessions were carried out in the full-wet condition, however, the weather recovered in the afternoon and it made Q1 session for the GT500 class extremely difficult because the track surface quickly dried out on every other lap accumulated. Results of Q1 were; #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) marked the 2nd best time followed immediately by #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) in 3rd and #8 ARTA (Tomoki Nojiri) in 8th, these three NSX-GTs proceeded to Q2.
In the Q2 session, the tarmac has got even drier making the tire choice very tricky, where the rookie of NSX corps, Kakunoshin Ohta showed brilliant attack bringing #64 Modulo NSX to the 3rd grid. #8 ARTA NSX (Toshiki Oyu) marked 7th fastest despite the tire temperature not up to the desirable level, and #100 STANLEY NSX (Naoki Yamamoto) came in 8th.
The race on Sunday showed chaotic consequences. The sky that had been clear till then suddenly turned dark right before the formation lap and came the rain when green lights on. #100 STANLEY NSX (Makino) left from 8th grid threaded its way through some messy proceedings in the opening laps, and climbed up to 3rd on Lap-3. #64 Modulo NSX (Izawa) on the contrary, failing to put heat in the rubber, could not pick up the pace and surrendered its positions one after another. #8 ARTA NSX (Oyu) left from 7th grid cleared the 5-sec. stop penalty on Lap-5 and dropped back, hugely.
When the race run ten laps or so, the wether got rough and it rained even harder. Many cars came in for rain tires, but on Lap-23 as the race was restarted, clouds gradually went off and the sun begun beating down on the track.
In such a confused situation, #100 STANLEY NSX (Makino) once leading the race albeit briefly dropped down several places, and instead, #8 ARTA NSX (Oyu) has doggedly crept up its position. The weather was changeable as ever, plus many accidents inducing Full Course Yellow (FCY) and Safety Car (SC) at each time around as well as a couple of Red Flags, turning the later half of the race into a total jumble. #8 ARTA NSX (Oyu) was pitted on Lap-41 that eventually became the best possible timing, and Nojiri taking over the stint steadily gained position every time when a tangle occurred. He finally climbed up to 3rd when the race was red-flagged for the day on Lap-62 and led #8 ARTA NSX to the season’s first podium finish. #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Nobuharu Matsushita) finished 7th and #64 Modulo NSX (Izawa / Ohta) in 10th, both within the point-scoring placing.
In addition, #18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi / Syun Koide) achieved the GT300 class win.
The race was tossed about by the rough weather in which #8 ARTA could get 3rd finish by Nojiri and Oyu all despite of the penalty due to chassis change. It’s a good start to make the final season of NSX-GT concluded in a glorious way. Changing the monocoque to a new one doesn’t mean performance upgrade, never. The problem we had was a sort of situation, let’s say, the higher the vehicle speed gets the more corrective steering action is required, something like that. The decision we made was more or less on safety reason, and we’re ready to get penalty for that. All other NSX-GT cars showed strong pace in such a turbulent condition and it made us very positive towards the season ahead. We thank you in advance for your continuous support.
The race was tossed about by the rough weather in which #8 ARTA could get 3rd finish by Nojiri and Oyu all despite of the penalty due to chassis change. It’s a good start to make the final season of NSX-GT concluded in a glorious way. Changing the monocoque to a new one doesn’t mean performance upgrade, never. The problem we had was a sort of situation, let’s say, the higher the vehicle speed gets the more corrective steering action is required, something like that. The decision we made was more or less on safety reason, and we’re ready to get penalty for that. All other NSX-GT cars showed strong pace in such a turbulent condition and it made us very positive towards the season ahead. We thank you in advance for your continuous support.
We’d known beforehand that we’d have 5-sec. stop penalty, and it made us go little bit easy on racing. “If we did good, we could get some points,” that’s what I thought. Besides, I was telling in my mind, “We may have chance if things went well for us,” because the weather would get wild today. All in all, the strategy and decisions made by the team in the race full of mishaps turned out to be good ones. It’s the first race that I partnered with Oyu, but our teamwork was excellent indeed and we’d done no mistake. This combination is strong, for sure. I’m already looking forward to the championship title.
We’d known beforehand that we’d have 5-sec. stop penalty, and it made us go little bit easy on racing. “If we did good, we could get some points,” that’s what I thought. Besides, I was telling in my mind, “We may have chance if things went well for us,” because the weather would get wild today. All in all, the strategy and decisions made by the team in the race full of mishaps turned out to be good ones. It’s the first race that I partnered with Oyu, but our teamwork was excellent indeed and we’d done no mistake. This combination is strong, for sure. I’m already looking forward to the championship title.
It’s a 100-point, full mark race, for me, yes! I felt tires were a bit hard at the start, and on top of it, there’s the penalty that we’d have to deal with. So, I thought to myself, it’s a long way to go, and I’d go free of mistake. As the condition getting bad to worse, I think I did a pretty good job, in both making the circumstantial judgements and managing tires correctly. I did all what I could do, gained some positions and handed the car over to Nojiri-san. It was an extremely good race for the penalty we’re given in the first place.
It’s a 100-point, full mark race, for me, yes! I felt tires were a bit hard at the start, and on top of it, there’s the penalty that we’d have to deal with. So, I thought to myself, it’s a long way to go, and I’d go free of mistake. As the condition getting bad to worse, I think I did a pretty good job, in both making the circumstantial judgements and managing tires correctly. I did all what I could do, gained some positions and handed the car over to Nojiri-san. It was an extremely good race for the penalty we’re given in the first place.
In the qualifying session yesterday, the Red Flag timing was worst for us so that we couldn’t go to Q2. I thought we’re not going to make it with such a low grid position. But, as we learnt from the weather forecast telling some rainfalls involved on Sunday, we talked with the team on the strategy, and tried to be best prepared for whatever happened in the race. I think such an approach worked extremely well. When we noticed the first drop of rain, we immediately came in for wet tires, and it was the right decision to make. Better still, we could make driver switch just as the track begun drying and it helped us to get the top. It happens to be the 100th race for me, and we could celebrate this timely win with the team, which I think is a gift from heaven.
In the qualifying session yesterday, the Red Flag timing was worst for us so that we couldn’t go to Q2. I thought we’re not going to make it with such a low grid position. But, as we learnt from the weather forecast telling some rainfalls involved on Sunday, we talked with the team on the strategy, and tried to be best prepared for whatever happened in the race. I think such an approach worked extremely well. When we noticed the first drop of rain, we immediately came in for wet tires, and it was the right decision to make. Better still, we could make driver switch just as the track begun drying and it helped us to get the top. It happens to be the 100th race for me, and we could celebrate this timely win with the team, which I think is a gift from heaven.
Honestly speaking, I’ve never imagined we’d ever win for this time. It’s my debut season in the GT300 class, and I could win the very first race. Excellent start that I can’t ask for more. Last year, I’d won the FIA-F4 title, and I’d like to do the same in this class yet again this year. I have some positive feelings in this season, without any ground to believe so. I try my best not to have these feelings end up in overconfidence, and will do whatever I can do to produce decent results.
Honestly speaking, I’ve never imagined we’d ever win for this time. It’s my debut season in the GT300 class, and I could win the very first race. Excellent start that I can’t ask for more. Last year, I’d won the FIA-F4 title, and I’d like to do the same in this class yet again this year. I have some positive feelings in this season, without any ground to believe so. I try my best not to have these feelings end up in overconfidence, and will do whatever I can do to produce decent results.
GT500 Race Result
| Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | MOTUL AUTECH Z | Tsugio MATSUDA Ronnie QUINTARELLI |
2:44'47.342 |
| 2 | 3 | Niterra MOTUL Z | Katsumasa CHIYO Mitsunori TAKABOSHI |
+1.496 |
| 3 | 8 | ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT | Tomoki NOJIRI Toshiki OYU |
+4.788 |
| 4 | 14 | ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra | Kazuya OSHIMA Kenta YAMASHITA |
+7.077 |
| 5 | 38 | ZENT CERUMO GR Supra | Yuji TACHIKAWA Hiroaki ISHIURA |
+14.372 |
| 6 | 1 | MARELLI IMPUL Z | Kazuki HIRAMINE Bertrand BAGUETTE |
+18.942 |
| 7 | 17 | Astemo NSX-GT | Koudai TSUKAKOSHI Nobuharu MATSUSHITA |
+22.578 |
| 10 | 64 | Modulo NSX-GT | Takuya IZAWA Kakunoshin OHTA |
+35.881 |
| 11 | 16 | ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT | Nirei FUKUZUMI Hiroki OTSU |
+11.614 |
| 12 | 100 | STANLEY NSX-GT | Naoki YAMAMOTO Tadasuke MAKINO |
+1 Lap |
GT300 Race Result
| Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | UPGARAGE NSX GT3 | Takashi KOBAYASHI Syun KOIDE |
2:45'26.030 |
| 2 | 65 | LEON PYRAMID AMG | Naoya GAMOU Takuro SHINOHARA |
+3.592 |
| 3 | 244 | HACHI-ICHI GR Supra GT | Kimiya SATO Atsushi MIYAKE |
+15.613 |
| 4 | 27 | Yogibo NSX GT3 | Yugo IWASAWA Reimei ITO |
+17.778 |
| 5 | 52 | SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT | Hiroki YOSHIDA Kohta KAWAAI |
+23.343 |
| 6 | 7 | Studie BMW M4 | Seiji ARA Bruno SPENGLER |
+26.255 |
GT500 Standing
| Pos. | Num. | Driver | Machine | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | Tsugio MATSUDA Ronnie QUINTARELLI |
MOTUL AUTECH Z | 21 |
| 2 | 3 | Katsumasa CHIYO Mitsunori TAKABOSHI |
Niterra MOTUL Z | 15 |
| 3 | 8 | Tomoki NOJIRI Toshiki OYU |
ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT | 11 |
| 4 | 14 | Kazuya OSHIMA Kenta YAMASHITA |
ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra | 8 |
| 5 | 38 | Yuji TACHIKAWA Hiroaki ISHIURA |
ZENT CERUMO GR Supra | 6 |
| 6 | 1 | Kazuki HIRAMINE Bertrand BAGUETTE |
MARELLI IMPUL Z | 5 |
| 7 | 17 | Koudai TSUKAKOSHI Nobuharu MATSUSHITA |
Astemo NSX-GT | 4 |
| 10 | 64 | Takuya IZAWA Kakunoshin OHTA |
Modulo NSX-GT | 1 |
GT300 Standing
|
Pos. |
Num. |
Driver |
Machine |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
18 |
Takashi KOBAYASHI |
UPGARAGE NSX GT3 |
20 |
|
2 |
65 |
Naoya GAMOU |
LEON PYRAMID AMG |
16 |
|
3 |
244 |
Kimiya SATO |
HACHI-ICHI GR Supra GT |
11 |
|
4 |
27 |
Yugo IWASAWA |
Yogibo NSX GT3 |
8 |
|
5 |
52 |
Hiroki YOSHIDA |
SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT |
6 |
|
6 |
7 |
Seiji ARA |
Studie BMW M4 |
5 |
