【SUPER GT Round 8 / Fuji】

Realize NATC GT-R runner-up in GT300.
Fujinami and Oliveira wins class championship.

SUPER GT Round 8

Date	2020/11/28-29
Venue	Fuji Speedway
Weather	Cloudy
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	65Laps (1Lap = 4,563m)

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To conclude the 2020 Super GT series, which has been very unusual in many aspects, the final round was held at Fuji Speedway. It was a 300km race on the last weekend of November, instead of a 250km race at Motegi on an early November date, which has been the usual season finale.

Although it was chilly in the morning and the evening, there wasn’t winter cold yet during the daytime on November 28th, Saturday. In Q1 of the GT300 qualifying session, 10 Yokohama Tire users, five each from Group A and B, survived the fight for Q2.

Kiyoto Fujinami, the championship leader with two wins, in Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R, ended Q1 in fourth in Group A and became the leading Yokohama-shoed driver. Masataka Yanagida driving Syntium Apple Lotus was also the fourth in Group B and the fastest among the group’s Yokohama drivers.

Another championship contender, Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel of GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG, ended the Group A session in the 12th, taking the 24th grid. The back-of-the-grid starting position meant their hope for regaining the title became very slim.

The two leading Yokohama users kept their momentum in Q2 as well. Joao Paulo de Oliveira, Fujinami’s co-driver, secured the seventh grid, followed by Hiroki Kato, sharing the Lotus with Yanagida, in the eighth. Fujinami showed confidence for the championship title after the session, saying, “The seventh is good enough. We have made sufficient preparations for this race, so I feel confident.”

In the GT500 class, the three Yokohama drivers, Yuji Kunimoto in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, Ukyo Sasahara in Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT, and Mitsunori Takaboshi in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R, all failed to make their ways into Q2, as they were 10th, 14th, and 15th in Q1, respectively.

It was cloudy on Sunday, November 29th. Everyone felt a nip of winter in the air as the clouds above Fuji Speedway blocked the sunlight. The temperatures dropped significantly, with the air temp at only nine degrees Celsius. The track temp was around 17 degrees, which was almost the same as that in Saturday’s qualifying session, but many hoped for a higher track temp, considering the tire’s operating ranges.

Realize NATC GT-R seemed unstoppable. Fujinami gained a position at the start, and he moved up to the fifth already on the second lap. At this time, he was ahead of their main championship rival, who was second in the point standings. The challenger made their pit stop on Lap 19, which was the earliest possible by the rules, and got ahead of Fujinami when it went back to the track because they didn’t change any tires at the stop.

In contrast, the team changed all four tires when Fujinami came into the pit and handed the car to Oliveira on Lap 24. The Brazilian found himself running in fourth and bided his time when his fresher tires would give him an edge.

In fact, finishing in fourth wouldn’t be enough to win the championship for Oliveira and Fujinami. The title’s minimum requirement was third place at the end, but Oliveira kept his cool and started to close in the car in third, which was running about 20 seconds ahead of him. As the top three cars were running on worn tires because they didn’t change them at the pit stop, he had a clear advantage when he caught them. Thus, the GT-R driver came up to third, which he needed to win the title, on Lap 52, and even gained one more position three laps later.

While the race win was beyond their reach, Fujinami and Oliveira driving Realize NATC GT-R won the GT300 championship by finishing in second. It was the first title by a Yokohama Tire user since 2017.

Starting from the 12th grid, Kazuki Hoshino and Keishi Ishikawa behind the wheel of Tanax Itochu Enex with Impul GT-R drove steadily and ended the race in sixth, scoring their fifth point finish of the season. GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG had a collision with another car in the early stage, which prevented them from showing their real performance. As a result, they had to settle for the eighth in the championship.

As for the GT500 class, the three Yokohama-equipped cars had to make two pit stops and ended the race way behind the leading cars. At the end of the day, Kunimoto and Ritomo Miyata in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra finished in tenth, earning one championship point, with Hideki Mutoh and Sasahara in Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT in 12th, and Takaboshi and Jann Mardenborogh at the wheel of Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R in 13th.