【SUPER GT Round 6 / Suzuka】

Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS gets earnestly wished maiden victory.
GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG finally gets on podium again.

SUPER GT Round 6

Date	2020/10/24-25
Venue	Suzuka Circuit
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	52Laps (1Lap = 5,807m)

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Allowing the fans to come in since the last round, the 2020 Super GT Series has started to regain its festive atmosphere to a certain extent, although there was still a limit on the number of people who come to watch the races.

The sixth round was held at Suzuka Circuit. As the weight handicaps will be reduced by half in the next and penultimate round, and then there will be no handicaps to be carried in the season finale, each car had to race in their heaviest form of the season in this Suzuka round.

For Q1 of the GT300 qualifying session, competitors were divided into two groups. Manabu Orido in Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT ended Q1 in second in Group A, and Takuya Ohtaki at the wheel of Runup Rivaux GT-R was second in Group B. Thus, led by the veteran and the Super GT debutant, seven Yokohama Tire users earned their slots in Q2.

In Q2, Takashi Kobayashi, paired with Kosuke Matsuura, put his UpGarage NSX GT3 on the fourth grid, which was the highest among the Yokohama Tire users. Shintaro Kawabata and Tsubasa Kondo driving Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS came in sixth, and Takayuki Aoki in Runup Rivaux GT-R was in ninth. Orido’s co-driver, Hiroaki Nagai, had to settle for lowly 15th, but the hope of their long-absent point finish was still there.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra with Ritomo Miyata at the wheel led the Q1 for GT500 class. His co-driver, Yuji Kunimoto, couldn’t remain at the top of the timesheet in Q2, but he secured the same third grid as the previous round, which was quite promising for the race.

Hideki Mutoh in Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT bettered the car’s position from eighth in Q1, achieved by Ukyo Sasahara, to sixth in Q2. On the other hand, Jann Mardenborogh driving Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R ended Q1 in 13th, which meant his partner, Mitsunori Takaboshi, didn’t have an opportunity to drive in Q2.

There was no concern about rain for the race weekend for the first time in a while. Under a pleasant and clear autumn sky with almost no clouds, the race got underway.

At the start, Kunimoto in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra kept the position where he started, while Mutoh in the driving seat of Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT fell back to seventh. However, they struggled a little from the early stage, and the car behind them put heavy pressure on them. On top of this, both of them had to make unscheduled pit stops, Mutoh on Lap 16 and Kunimoto on Lap 20, due to a similar problem on their right front tire.

As the stop on Lap 16 was too early to change to Sasahara, the Red Bull backed NSX-GT had to come into the pit again. It was impossible to recover the time lost by an extra pit stop, and they ended the race in 13th. On the other hand, Miyata, who drove WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra in its second stint, pushed hard and came back to just behind Takaboshi in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R. When the checkered flag fell, Takaboshi was running in eighth and Miyata in ninth.

In the GT300 class, Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT, which had performed well in the qualifying, especially in Q1, had hard luck, as it was hit from behind by another car at the Chicane on the opening lap. The suspension damage was severe, so they struggled just to keep the car running straight ahead, but Nagai and Orido managed to finish the race in 20th somehow. Starting from the fourth grid, UpGarage NSX GT3 looked promising during the first few laps, but they had to withdraw only after three laps because of a mechanical problem.

As a result, Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS with Kondo at the wheel became the leading Yokohama-shoed car. He moved up to fourth on Lap 10 and changed to Kawabata on Lap 19, a little earlier than most of their rivals. And this was the key to their success.

Just two laps after the Audi’s pit stop, there was an accident at S-Curve, and the Safety Car was deployed. This meant they made the stop at the most advantageous timing, so Kawabata found himself leading the race when all GT300 cars had done their pit stop on Lap 30. In other words, the teams, which did the driver change after the SC period, had a considerable disadvantage and lost out on a chance to fight for a win.

While Kawabata was pulling away from the field, Nobuteru Taniguchi in GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG showed remarkable performance, which attracted massive attention. Despite starting from the lowly 14th grid, Tatsuya Kataoka gradually moved up through the field, and he was running in ninth when he came into the pit on Lap 18. Then, as mentioned above, the effect of the SC period pushed them up to fifth.

Taniguchi didn’t stop there. On Lap 36, he overtook Natsu Sakaguchi at the wheel of Much Syaken GTNet MC86 Much-Go, which didn’t change any tires at the pit stop to minimize the time spent in the box. Now running in third, the AMG driver even fought for the second, but he lost it out by only 0.6 seconds. Still, Taniguchi and Kataoka got on the podium for the first time in a while.

Ahead of the battle for the second, Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS could easily keep the lead and won the race. It was the maiden victory for the Kawabata / Kondo pair in the Super GT series. Sakaguchi and his co-driver, Yuya Hiraki, driving the Much Syaken MC86, finished in fourth. Starting from the 18th grid, T-Dash Lamborghini GT3 leaped to sixth when it finished the race by the hands of Tsubasa Takahashi and Shinnosuke Yamada. All in all, the GT300 Yokohama Tire users showed their presence in the final result of this Suzuka round.