CIVIC TYPE R-GT (#100) fought hard through the difficult race to earn 5th place
Sportsland SUGOSeptember 21 (Sat) - 22 (Sun) — The sixth round of the 2024 SUPER GT series named as “SUGO GT 300km Race” was held at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Pref.) and and five CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars and a NSX-GT3 car participated in each of the GT500 and GT300 class. The fifth round of the series scheduled on August 31 - September 1 at Suzuka Circuit was postponed to December 7-8 due to the Typhoon Shanshan untimely hit the Suzuka region.
After a one and a half months interval since the previous race, Sportsland SUGO was forced to stage the event in the torrential weather. The already heavy rain on Friday has got heavier on Saturday, and the prospect was even worse towards the qualifying sessions held in the afternoon. The race official, taking the worst case into account, preliminarily announced that the starting grid would be decided by the best lap time of each runner recorded in the official morning practice session in case the qualifying session was cancelled. This meant the practice session carried out in the wet condition assumed the rough-and-tumble time attacks right from the very beginning.
The CIVIC TYPE R-GT squadron easily clipped lap times in the early part of the session, however, as the rain grew heavier, there occurred numerous course-offs or spin-outs one after another. It became extremely difficult to find the right moment to make the attack, which made CIVIC TYPE R-GT runners similarly fail to improve lap time in the later half of the session. As was anticipated beforehand, the official qualifying session was cancelled due to the intolerable weather condition, and as it had already been announced, the starting grid for the race was decided in accordance with the time order of the official practice session.
The grid order shown as follows: #64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa) 6th, #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta) 10th, #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) 11th, #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) 12th, and #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) 13th.
September 22 (Sun) was another rainy day from the early morning. The 84-lap race scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. was not surprisingly delayed, and the formation lap was started at 2:22 when the rain settled down. The track surface was heavy wet no better than before, and all the GT500 runners chose rain tires to start the race.
The race began with the safety car leading the pack, and the soaking battle for 81-laps in real terms opened rather oppressively. #17 car (Tsukakoshi) launching from 9th grid gradually raised its pace on the drying track, climbed up to 4th on Lap-9, the highest of the Honda camp, and then on Lap-19, further up to 2nd place, which dropped back to 4th later when the safety car was deployed. The track surface was drying even more at this phase of the race, and the teams began elaborating the optimum timing of driver/tire change for each runner.
On Lap-41, top group runners were all heading for the pit lane as soon as they saw a car stranded on the track. #17 car (Ohta) returned the course maintaining its position, however, it hit a preparing tire left on the congested pit road to replace, and this led to the drive through penalty.
After #17 car (Ohta) dropping down way behind, the highest position among the CIVIC TYPE R-GT runners was inherited by #100 car (Yamamoto) that was carrying the second heavier success weight next to #36 au TOM’S GR Supra, and therefore, could not pick up quick laps and had to start from the grid as low as 11th. When the safety car was deployed at the FCY (Full Course Yellow) period, an opportunity arose for #100 car to make stop on Lap-42, and the driver was changed from Makino to Yamamoto who was going to run the rest of the race on dry tires.
#100 car (Yamamoto) having retrieved some virtual positions by the timely stop further moved up to 5th availing the retreat of #17 car (Ohta), and began chasing #36 car (Yamashita). It could shrink the gap but not enough to catch up the car in front, and went on to finish the 84-lap race in 5th. #17 car (Ohta) finished 7th, #16 car (Sato) in 10th, a total of three CIVICs got its share of series points. #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Yamamoto/Makino) accumulating its point up to 43 sits so far in 3rd overall, 6-points behind the point leading #36 GR Supra for which the pursuit will continue in the next round at Autopolis.
In the free practice session, the timing of the quick lap and the track surface condition didn’t match well, which kept our cars from going fast, and we had to accept lower grid. So, I was thinking the race would be very tough for us to fight through. On the other hand, Sportsland SUGO is notorious for its accident-prone characteristics that we’d be able to make up positions if the timing would go our way. Indeed, #100 and #17 cars made each stop at the best possible timing and returned way up in the field. Unfortunately, #17 car dropped down due to a penalty, however, #100 car finishing next to #36 car, the current point leader, and maintained the point gap at 6. We’ll keep on chasing the series title all the way through to the end. Thank you very much for your support in advance.
In the free practice session, the timing of the quick lap and the track surface condition didn’t match well, which kept our cars from going fast, and we had to accept lower grid. So, I was thinking the race would be very tough for us to fight through. On the other hand, Sportsland SUGO is notorious for its accident-prone characteristics that we’d be able to make up positions if the timing would go our way. Indeed, #100 and #17 cars made each stop at the best possible timing and returned way up in the field. Unfortunately, #17 car dropped down due to a penalty, however, #100 car finishing next to #36 car, the current point leader, and maintained the point gap at 6. We’ll keep on chasing the series title all the way through to the end. Thank you very much for your support in advance.
Considering the weight we’re carrying, I knew it’s gonna be a tough race today. Our target was to gain points as much as possible. I’m not totally satisfied about the result, but I think we did pretty good job together with the team. There’s only one line on the track even after my stint but it’s began drying in the final phase. So, I tried my best not to make any mistake, never. I wanted to catch #36 car but it’s beyond my reach. I hope I can repeat a diehard race just like this again in the next race at Autopolis.
Considering the weight we’re carrying, I knew it’s gonna be a tough race today. Our target was to gain points as much as possible. I’m not totally satisfied about the result, but I think we did pretty good job together with the team. There’s only one line on the track even after my stint but it’s began drying in the final phase. So, I tried my best not to make any mistake, never. I wanted to catch #36 car but it’s beyond my reach. I hope I can repeat a diehard race just like this again in the next race at Autopolis.
Up until we came to SUGO, I was thinking about the weight and esteemed that 5th place would be okey for us today. We’ve achieved the expected result in that sense, however, I’m not satisfied because #36 car, our immediate rival, finished in front of us. That said, I knew we’d have no right to win if it’s rain. It means we did all what we had to do, right? Although the point gap from #36 car was widened, I think we have good chance to catch up in the next race that’s run on full weight. I really wanna do a good race in order to win the championship.
Up until we came to SUGO, I was thinking about the weight and esteemed that 5th place would be okey for us today. We’ve achieved the expected result in that sense, however, I’m not satisfied because #36 car, our immediate rival, finished in front of us. That said, I knew we’d have no right to win if it’s rain. It means we did all what we had to do, right? Although the point gap from #36 car was widened, I think we have good chance to catch up in the next race that’s run on full weight. I really wanna do a good race in order to win the championship.
GT500 Race Result
Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 37 | Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra | Ukyo Sasahara | 2:11'57.509 |
2 | 38 | KeePer CERUMO GR Supra | Hiroaki Ishiura | +19.957 |
3 | 12 | MARELLI IMPUL Z | Kazuki Hiramine | +25.944 |
4 | 36 | au TOM'S GR Supra | Sho Tsuboi | +41.633 |
5 | 100 | STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT | Naoki Yamamoto | +44.852 |
6 | 3 | Niterra MOTUL Z | Mitsunori Takaboshi | +54.901 |
7 | 17 | Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT | Koudai Tsukakoshi | +1'16.812 |
10 | 16 | ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 | Hiroki Otsu | +1Lap |
14 | 64 | Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT | Takuya Izawa | +1Lap |
15 | 8 | ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 | Tomoki Nojiri | +2Laps |
GT300 Race Result
Pos. | Num. | Machine | Driver | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 65 | LEON PYRAMID AMG | Naoya Gamou | 2:11'59.248 |
2 | 45 | PONOS FERRARI 296 | Kei Cozzolino | +4.032 |
3 | 777 | D'station Vantage GT3 | Tomonobu Fujii | +24.722 |
4 | 7 | Studie BMW M4 | Seiji Ara | +35.217 |
5 | 61 | SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT | Takuto Iguchi | +40.927 |
6 | 31 | apr LC500h GT | Kazuto Kotaka | +48.074 |
16 | 18 | UPGARAGE NSX GT3 | Takashi Kobayashi | +3Laps |
GT500 Ranking
Pos. | Num. | Driver | Machine | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 36 | Sho Tsuboi | au TOM'S GR Supra | 49 |
2 | 37 | Ukyo Sasahara | Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra | 48 |
3 | 100 | Naoki Yamamoto | STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT | 43 |
4 | 38 | Hiroaki Ishiura | KeePer CERUMO GR Supra | 40 |
5 | 3 | Mitsunori Takaboshi | Niterra MOTUL Z | 35 |
6 | 12 | Kazuki Hiramine | MARELLI IMPUL Z | 30 |
8 | 8 | Tomoki Nojiri | ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 | 26 |
9 | 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi | Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT | 26 |
12 | 16 | Hiroki Otsu | ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 | 16 |
13 | 64 | Takuya Izawa | Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT | 7 |
GT300 Ranking
Pos. | Num. | Driver | Machine | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 65 | Naoya Gamou | LEON PYRAMID AMG | 64 |
2 | 2 | Yuui Tsutsumi | muta Racing GR86 GT | 49 |
3 | 777 | Tomonobu Fujii | D'station Vantage GT3 | 42 |
4 | 88 | Takashi Kogure | VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 | 33 |
5 | 4 | Nobuteru Taniguchi | GOODSMILE HATSUNEMIKU AMG | 28 |
6 | 56 | Daiki Sasaki | REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R | 27 |
16 | 18 | Takashi Kobayashi | UPGARAGE NSX GT3 | 4 |
