Race
SUPER GT 2023
Round 3

Race Ends after 60 Laps Due to a Crash, with STANLEY NSX-GT in 5th Place.

jp Suzuka Circuit

June 3 (Sat) - 4 (Sun) — The third round of the 2023 SUPER GT series was held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Pref.) and five NSX-GT cars of the 2023 spec and two NSX-GT3 cars participated in each of the GT500 and GT300 class.

Race Ends after 60 Laps Due to a Crash, with STANLEY NSX-GT in 5th Place.

Whereas the SUPER GT race is usually held in 300km distance, this round at Suzuka, as same as the previous round at Fuji, run on a 450km long-distance format that is one-and-a-half times longer than the standard in which at least two refueling stops are mandated.

The weather at Suzuka in the race week was more or less affected by Typhoon Mawar particularly till Friday, a sending-in day of the event, however, on June 3 (Sat) when cars began running around the track, the rain had stopped and the sky got clearer albeit the wind remained strong.

Qualifying sessions in the afternoon saw three NSX-GTs made its way to Q2, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) marking the 3rd fastest time, #16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) 6th and #17 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) 7th settled in each corresponding starting grid for the race.

The race day on June 4 (Sun) was blessed with fine weather, and at 1:30 p.m. the race was started under the sky overcast with thin clouds. The entire field departed relatively cleanly but #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) left from 3rd grid soon came under the threat of #1 car and then surrendered its position at the exit of chicane on Lap-7 dropping 4th. #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) came in for new tires and refueling after running 28-laps and switched the driver from Makino to Yamamoto.

#100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) made its second stop on Lap-47 and raised the pace thereafter with the newly shod soft tires as planned originally. On Lap-52, when the two-third of the 77-lap race was over, there were six cars in front of #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) including #3 Niterra MOTUL Z that had not yet completed the mandated second stop and #24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z. Two laps later, on Lap-54, as #24 Z made its stop, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) was elevated nominal 6th, i.e. virtual 5th.

Yamamoto had #100 STANLEY NSX-GT run much faster than #19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra and #36 au TOM’S GR Supra fighting the virtual top position each other, and began quickly closing in on #23 MOTUL AUTECH Z and #1 MARELLI IMPUL Z running immediately ahead of him.

The progress of the race entirely changed on Lap-58 when #23 Z touched a GT300 car and heavily crashed at the exit of 130R. Safety Car was deployed and then the red flag was presented in order to clear the aftermath, however, the race was stopped for good because the damages incurred on the track facility had no way to be repaired in time. At this point, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT was running 5th, #16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT 7th and #17 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT 9th on the track.

After the race was prematurely closed, a total of ten teams raised a protest against the initial result indicating #3 Z as the GT500-class winner despite that the car had stopped only once whereas the regulation requires at least twice in the race. The protest was accepted as “rightful” by the jury of the event and thus #3 car was given a 60-second time penalty that was deemed equivalent to the “pit-in and refueling time,” and as stated in the provisional results, #19 GR Supra moved up to the winner while #3 Z was reduced 4th.

Then, #3 Z raised yet another protest against the provisional results only to be rejected by the jury which prompted #3 Z to appeal to a higher court. Therefore, the final results of the 3rd round of the 2023 SUPER GT series will be deferred until the decision from the court of appeal is made.


Masahiro Saiki
Masahiro Saiki
#100 car carrying a not-very-light success weight could run almost as fast as top two cars in the 3rd stint and was fighting for the virtual 3rd place when the accident occurred and the race was red-flagged and eventually cut short to end. While I was relieved to know that Tsugio Matsuda (#23) was all right, I can’t help thinking that a podium finish would be possible if the race was continued till to the end. All in all, #100 car for this time showed the potential that a NSX-GT supposed to have when it’s on top-form. On the other hand, we have to admit that we still had some problems with the race pace of both #8 and #17 car that’s got sluggish a little bit. We’ll come back to Suzuka again in this season (Rd.5), so we’ll try to find out optimum setting through analytical preparations including tire choice and whatever measures necessary.

Naoki Yamamoto
Naoki Yamamoto 100
TEAM KUNIMITSU
Honestly speaking, the preset balance of the car had not reached the level I was expecting, however, we tried to adjust midway through the sessions and it’s got covered almost all the way, in the end, I think. The condition of tires we used in the race especially for 1st and 2nd stint were not at all perfect, but when it came to 3rd stint with a new set of tires, our pace got much better. As far as I could see, two cars in front of us at that time were having hard time to keep up with their pace, so I think we’d have very good chance to get ahead of them. I actually had the feeling that I’d be the quickest guy in the entire field in the closing laps of the race.

Tadasuke Makino
Tadasuke Makino 100
TEAM KUNIMITSU
I didn’t feel quite right in the initial stages of the free practice, and thought right before the qualifying attack it’s almost impossible to go into Q2. The thing is, I could managed to break through Q1, and Naoki-san, after some adjustment works, made a splendid attack and got the starting grid as high as 3rd in the end. Generally, we’re the quickest among the Honda runners, and finished highest among them all despite the considerable weight we carry right now, which is not bad at all. Our race pace was not bad either, however, the timing of the pitstops and some time losses in the process affected the final result, I think. For all that, we’ve done what we could with what we have right now, exerted the performance that was better than we’d expected beforehand both in qualifying sessions and the race. Although we’ll have to carry heavier weight, we keep on trying harder to be on the podium at Fuji for the next time around.

GT500 Race Result

Pos. Num. Machine Driver Time
1 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
1:59'51.274
2 36 au TOM'S GR Supra Sho Tsuboi
Ritomo Miyata
+2.094
3 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z Kazuki Hiramine
Bertrand Baguette
+25.303
4 3 Niterra MOTUL Z Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
+28.218
5 100 STANLEY NSX-GT Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
+29.555
6 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra Kazuya Oshima
Kenta Yamashita
+41.713
7 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Nirei Fukuzumi
Hiroki Otsu
+49.071
9 17 Astemo NSX-GT Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
+1'28.614
12 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Tomoki Nojiri
Toshiki Oyu
+1'42.345
14 64 Modulo NSX-GT Takuya Izawa
Kakunoshin Ohta
+1Lap

GT300 Race Result

Pos. Num. Machine Driver Time/Gap
1 7 Studie BMW M4 Seiji Ara
Masataka Yanagida
1:59'31.713
2 2 muta Racing GR86 GT Yuui Tsutsumi
Hibiki Taira
Hiroki Katoh
+0.607
3 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT Hiroki Yoshida
Kohta Kawaai
+1.383
4 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Teppei Natori
+15.341
5 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R Ryuichiro Tomita
Keishi Ishikawa
Yusuke Shiotsu
+19.222
6 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT Takuto Iguchi
Hideki Yamauchi
+24.327
20 27 Yogibo NSX GT3 Yugo Iwasawa
Reimei Ito
+1'47.288
27 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 Takashi Kobayashi
Syun Koide
+49Laps

GT500 Standing

Pos. Num. Driver Machine Pts
1 36 Sho Tsuboi
Ritomo Miyata
au TOM'S GR Supra 36
2 3 Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
Niterra MOTUL Z 29
3 23 Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
MOTUL AUTECH Z 25
4 19 Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra 22
5 100 Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
STANLEY NSX-GT 22
6 14 Kazuya Oshima
Kenta Yamashita
ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra 21
8 17 Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
Astemo NSX-GT 17
9 8 Tomoki Nojiri
Toshiki Oyu
ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT 11
13 16 Nirei Fukuzumi
Hiroki Otsu
ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT 5
15 64 Takuya Izawa
Kakunoshin Ohta
Modulo NSX-GT 1

GT300 Standing

Pos.

Num.

Driver

Machine

Pts

1

56

Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Teppei Natori

REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R

30

2

2

Yuui Tsutsumi
Hibiki Taira

muta Racing GR86 GT

30

3

52

Hiroki YOSHIDA
Kohta KAWAAI

SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT

28

4

7

Seiji Ara

Studie BMW M4

25

5

65

Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara

LEON PYRAMID AMG

24

6

7

Masataka Yanagida

Studie BMW M4

20

7

18

Takashi Kobayashi/Shun Koide

UPGARAGE NSX GT3

20

11

27

Yugo Iwasawa/Reimei Ito

Yogibo NSX GT3

8


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