Race
SUPER GT 2024
Round 1

Debut of the New Machine: STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT Takes 3rd place on the Podium

jp Okayama International Circuit

April 13 (Sat) - 14 (Sun) --- The first round of the 2024 SUPER GT series was held at Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Pref.) and five CIVIC TYPE R-GT 2024 models and an NSX-GT3 car participated in each of the GT500 and GT300 class.

Debut of the New Machine: STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT Takes 3rd place on the Podium

Honda RACING has switched the base car of the GT500 class entry for this season from NSX Type S to CIVIC Type R, and thus the newly developed CIVIC TYPE R-GT has been launched into the opening round. Driver combinations of the Honda camp, except for #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT assigned to Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino, have gone into a major shuffle as follows: #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT to Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita, #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT to Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta, #64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT to Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa, #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT to Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato.

The new CIVIC TYPE R-GT inherited the primary components of the car such as engine, chassis, suspension system, etc., from the predecessor model (NSX-GT), however, the big difference in the body shape required the setting to be drastically changed in order to maximize the performance of the car. For this purpose, a series of vigorous tweaking works has been done during the pre-season joint tests.

On 13 (Sat), official qualifying sessions were carried out under the fine sky with faint clouds where both ambient and road surface temperatures hiked up as the day went on. From this season on, some of the sporting regulations were changed, for example, the number of tires usable in a normal race week is reduced to four sets per entrant, and the starting grids for the race are decided by the "Q1-2" aggregated times.

As the result of Q1 and Q2 sessions, #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Yamamoto/Makino) gained the 3rd grid, the highest among the Honda brigade, whereas #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Nojiri/Matsushita) ended up in the bottom grid to start the race due to the complete course off (all four wheels went out of the track) that inevitably incurs the nullification of time usually recorded as "DNS". #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tsukakoshi/Ohta) and #64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Izawa/Okusa) sat on the 10th and 13th grids respectively.

The weather stays fine on 14 (Sun), and at 1:30 p.m., the 300km/82-lap race was duly started. #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Makino) launching from the 3rd grid maintained its position and looked set to run a prospective race, however, a minor shunt occurred in the midfield of GT500 class forced #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Ohta) an immature retirement in the opening lap. #17 car unable to avoid a stranded car incurred some damage at the front of the body and had to stop immediately due to coolant leakage.

The safety car dispatched for the incident withdrew on Lap-7, and the race was resumed from Lap-8. #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Makino) closed on to #38 car in front, but could not practically make the move. Later, on Lap-17, #100 car was lobbed of its position by #38 car who shrewdly caught the opportunity at Atwood corner, and dropped down to 4th.

On Lap-29 when one-third of the race distance was run, #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Makino) made its stop just as #38 car did the same a fraction of a second earlier. #100 car now in the hands of Yamamoto quickly left the pit thanks to the lightning-fast skills of the pit crew, rejoining the course ahead of #38 and resumed the 3rd position.

#100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Yamamoto) gradually pulled away from #38 car and begun gaining on #39 car running ahead in 2nd. The gap between the two cars came to the tail-to-nose situation over and over again, however, the position swap has never been materialized ever after.

In the end, #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Yamamoto) settled in 3rd, 1.251 sec. behind #39 finishing 2nd, and brought the CIVIC TYPE R-GT car the first podium finish at its debut race. #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Nojiri/Matsushita) finished 8th all despite the unfortunate pit lane start. #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Otsu/Sato) and #64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Izawa/Okusa) came in 9th and 10th respectively, each one of them received its fair share of points.


Masahiro Saiki
Masahiro Saiki
We’ve anticipated tougher game today. But, #100 car held onto the upper hand gained in the qualifying run and achieved the podium finish. It’s a big relief for us all. We’re still on the half way to the desired level of perfection. So we set our first target as to let all five cars finish the race. Unfortunately, #17 car failed to do that due to a regrettable mishap, however, other four cars completed the race bringing some points and contributed the team to obtain useful active running data. We’re sure such data would be of good help for fighting the next race. We had worked at full stroke for the performance update up until the last minute when the time limit of homologation (registration of vehicle type approval) allows, so we’re still in the trial-and-error phase to say honestly. We’d really like to get out of such phase as soon as possible, and prepare to play the game at forefront even in the qualifying runs.

Naoki Yamamoto
Naoki Yamamoto 100
STANLEY TEAM KUNIMITSU
Nice to get the podium finish in the debut race of CIVIC TYPE R-GT. We had hard times in the test, but today, we could get 3rd grid in the qualifying runs. The race pace was good when there’s no car near around. I’m thankful to the team force and its engineering power. Makino dropped a position in his stint but came back to the pit without much delay from the car in front, when our mechanics did a perfect job in their pit work that I could get ahead of #38 car. The team did win the 3rd place, I must say. I think I had an upper hand if viewed from the tire condition. But, probably because of the regulation that made us run on higher ride height, I felt the downforce went off every time I closed in on the car in front, and it clogged me to overtake. It was so frustrating for the driver in a go-go mood.

Tadasuke Makino
Tadasuke Makino 100
STANLEY TEAM KUNIMITSU
I had to skip the official tests at Okayama and Fuji, and it’s been long time since I drove a Super GT car for the last time. Anyway, it’s nice to have finished the CIVIC TYPE R-GT’s first race on the podium. It’s a tough stint, mine of course, and then Naoki (Yamamoto)-san’s too, that we’re always pressing the car in front hard, but not really went for it because you felt some decisive factor was lacking. But I’m sure we can do much better in many places pretty soon. It’s so nice that the first ever podium finish of CIVIC TYPE R-GT was achieved by our team. We’ll try harder to make the first win next time.

GT500 Race Result

Pos. Num. Machine Driver Time/Gap
1 36 au TOM'S GR Supra Sho Tsuboi
Kenta Yamashita
2:02'48.219
2 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
+11.011
3 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
+12.262
4 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra Hiroaki Ishiura
Toshiki Oyu
+21.100
5 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z Katsumasa Chiyo
Ronnie Quintarelli
+24.541
6 3 Niterra MOTUL Z Mitsunori Takaboshi
Atsushi Miyake
+25.424
8 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 Tomoki Nojiri
Nobuharu Matsushita
+41.315
9 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 Hiroki Otsu
Ren Sato
+43.007
10 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT Takuya Izawa
Riki Okusa
+1Lap
- 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT Koudai Tsukakoshi
Kakunoshin Ohta
-

GT300 Race Result

Pos. Num. Machine Driver Time/Gap
1 2 muta Racing GR86 GT Yuui Tsutsumi
Hibiki Taira
2:03'34.432
2 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG Naoya Gamou
Takuro Shinohara
+4.895
3 7 Studie BMW M4 Seiji Ara
Niklas Krütten
+20.628
4 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT Hiroki Yoshida
Seita Nonaka
+24.898
5 31 apr LC500h GT Kazuto Kotaka
Jin Nakamura
+1 Lap
6 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 Morio Nitta
Shinichi Takagi
+1 Lap
16 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 Takashi Kobayashi
Syun Koide
+2 Laps

GT500 Ranking

Pos. Num. Driver Machine Pts
1 36 Sho Tsuboi
Kenta Yamashita
au TOM'S GR Supra 23
2 39 Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra 17
3 100 Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT 12
4 38 Hiroaki Ishiura
Toshiki Oyu
KeePer CERUMO GR Supra 8
5 23 Katsumasa Chiyo
Ronnie Quintarelli
MOTUL AUTECH Z 6
6 3 Mitsunori Takaboshi
Atsushi Miyake
Niterra MOTUL Z 5
8 8 Tomoki Nojiri
Nobuharu Matsushita
ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 3
9 16 Hiroki Otsu
Ren Sato
ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 2
10 64 Takuya Izawa
Riki Okusa
Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT 1

GT300 Ranking

Pos. Num. Driver Machine Pts
1 2 Yuui Tsutsumi
Hibiki Taira
muta Racing GR86 GT 22
2 65 Naoya Gamou
Takuro Shinohara
LEON PYRAMID AMG 18
3 7 Seiji Ara
Niklas Krütten
Studie BMW M4 11
4 52 Hiroki Yoshida
Seita Nonaka
Green Brave GR Supra GT 8
5 31 Kazuto Kotaka
Jin Nakamura
apr LC500h GT 6
6 96 Morio Nitta
Shinichi Takagi
K-tunes RC F GT3 5

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