【SUPER GT Round 7 / Motegi】

Yokohama shoed cars sweep GT300 podium.
Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R leads championship.

SUPER GT Round 7

Date	2020/11/07-08
Venue	Twinring Motegi
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	63Laps (1Lap = 4,801m)

• |
• >>Report |
• >>Result |
• >>2020 Index (Calendar) |

The seventh and penultimate round of the 2020 Super GT series was held at Twin Ring Motegi on the weekend, beginning November 7th. As stipulated by rule, each car’s weight handicap was reduced by half for this round, which should have made the championship leaders’ life easier this time.

In Q1 for the GT300 class, eleven Yokohama Tire users managed to move into Q2, confirming their continued improvement in recent rounds. In particular, Rintaro Kubo at the wheel of Takanoko-no-yu RC F GT3 set the second-fastest time in Q2, only 0.2 seconds shy of the pole sitter’s time.

However, after the session was over, a 15-second stop penalty during the race was given to Kubo and his co-driver, Atsushi Miyake, for replacing the car which crashed in the official practice session with another one. Therefore, they were heavily handicapped for the race, even before it began, despite a promising qualifying performance.

Kimiya Sato, paired with Takamitsu Matsui, driving Hoppy Porsche, secured the fourth grid in Q2. And Takuya Ohtaki in Runup Rivaux GT-R came in fifth in Q2, in his only second appearance in Super GT. Ohtaki and his veteran teammate, Takayuki Aoki, must have vowed to redeem the last minute heartbreaking retirement in the previous Motegi round.

The championship hopeful, Joao Paulo de Oliveira in Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R took the seventh grid, wishing to gain positions in the race together with Kiyoto Fujinami.

As for the GT500 class, Ritomo Miyata, in the driving seat of WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, was the second-fastest in Q1, so the expectations for claiming the pole position were high. In Q2, however, Yuji Kunimoto had to settle for the fifth.

Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT, driven by Hideki Mutoh and Ukyo Sasahara, looked promising when the car set the second-fastest time in the official practice session. But unfortunately, the operating temperature range of the tires Sasahara used in Q1 didn’t suit the conditions, and he ended the session in 11th.

Mitsunori Takaboshi and Jann Mardenborogh in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R also missed out on showing their true real ability, as Takaboshi’s best time in Q1 wasn’t good enough to make their way into Q2.

The Motegi round had been held as the season finale for years. So, it has been always remembered as a cold-weather race meeting, but the weather was mild on the race day, even as a day in early November.

Starting from the fifth grid, Kunimoto at the wheel of WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra gained a position during the opening lap, but his pace became somewhat lackluster, especially after the middle stage of his stint. On Lap 17, he fell back to sixth when he hit the traffic, which meant the car behind could close on the Kunimoto’s heels. Then he further went down to ninth in a crowded pack.

The gap between Kunimoto and the car ahead of him became nearly zero when the Safety Car came out on Lap 23, but the timing of driver change to Miyata on Lap 28, after the SC period ended, was far from ideal. While Miyata was running in eighth at a time, his pace significantly dropped in the closing stage. In the end, he finished the race in 11th, which meant they just missed out on a championship point.

Mutoh in Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT struggled with “picking-up,” which means the tire marbles on the track stick to the tire tread, and he couldn’t improve his position he started, 11th, for a while. But the team’s strategic decision to extend Mutoh’s stint to Lap 30 paid off. When he changed to Sasahara, they gave him the tires with new construction, which Yokohama originally planned to introduce in the final round at Fuji.

Sasahara drove his out lap surprisingly fast and resumed racing without losing too many places. On top of this, the new tires worked great, so he could move up to fourth and finish the race in that position, after reducing the gap with the car in the third to only 2 seconds.

Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R had a mechanical problem on Lap 8, and the team had to repair it in the pit, resulting in losing several laps. It was a shame for them to fall into such trouble because Takaboshi and Mardenborogh could drive at a consistent pace after rejoining the race.

In the GT300 class, Runup Rivaux GT-R’s performance in the early stage was noteworthy. Ohtaki came up to third on Lap 3, and he gained one more place on Lap 16. But the timing of driver change, whether before or after the SC period, became the decisive factor, just as it did in the previous round, because the SC was deployed around the time when the early stoppers started to visit their pits. As Ohtaki handed the car to Aoki on Lap 27, after the SC period ended, they lost some ground to others.

In stark contrast, the crews of Realize NATC GT-R and GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG found their big opportunities there. Running in fourth and fifth respectively, both of them made their pit stops just before the SC car coming out as if they had already known it, as Tatsuya Kataoka changed to Nobuteru Taniguchi on Lap 19, and Fujinami to Oliveira two laps later. And, because the GoodSmile backed AMG changed only two left-hand-side tires at the stop, Taniguchi was ahead of Oliveira when they rejoined the race.

When all cars completed their mandatory stops, Taniguchi and Oliveira were fighting for the lead, and now it was the Brazilian’s showtime. He came abreast of Taniguchi’s AMG on the pit straight on Lap 32 and get ahead of it at Turn 3. Then, although the three-second gap he built was reduced to just a second in the end, Oliveira took their second win of the season. And the result pushed them up to the top of the championship ranking.

Taniguchi and Kataoka in GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG came in second, followed by Runup Rivaux GT-R in third. The GT-R dropped to ninth at one time due to the SC period, which was unlucky for them, but Aoki’s recovery after that was remarkable. He was in the pack contesting for fifth, and it merged with another group fighting for third. In these crowded battles, the veteran’s racecraft shone, and he moved up to fourth on Lap 55. Then, two laps later, he gained another place, involving a slight collision against his direct rival, and took the third place. Thus, they made up the frustrating retirement in the previous round in style with a podium finish