【SUPER GT Round 5 / Sugo】

Kondo Racing Performs In Both Classes At Sugo
Team’s GT300 Car Finishes Third With 81kg Weight

SUPER GT Round 5

Date	2021/09/11-12
Venue	Sportsland SUGO
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	83Laps (1Lap = 3,586m)

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The 2021 Super GT series entered its second half of the 8-race calendar when the fifth meeting was held at Sportsland Sugo. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, the Sugo round and the annual official testing day at the track had to be canceled last year. Therefore, every Super GT team visited here after a two-year absence, which meant a general lack of the latest data and a very unpredictable race as a possible result.

The early autumn climate of the Tohoku area often makes the visitors confused in picking the right outfit, as it is starkly different from the other areas of the Japanese mainland. Still, it was pretty moderate during this race weekend. Although there were patches of blue sky on Friday, it turned overcast on Saturday, and the air/track temperatures were around 24/27 degrees centigrade when the qualifying session began.

In the GT300 class, five Yokohama Tire users each from Group A and B survived the fight for Q2, with Seiji Ara in Studie Plus BMW, who set the fastest time in Group B, being the most remarkable. Then in Q2, Teppei Natori driving UpGarage NSX GT3 snatched the second grid in his last qualifying attempt in the final minutes. Thus, the birthday boy Natori, who shares the NSX with Takashi Kobayashi, looked promising for the race. And Takashi Kogure, who was co-driven by Yuya Motojima in JLOC Lamborghini GT3, got the fourth grid.

When all grids were settled, six cars out of the top ten qualifiers relied on the Yokohama Tire’s products. It was surprising that the previous round’s winner and the current championship leader, Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra GT with Atsushi Miyake at the wheel, came in ninth, regardless of carrying the maximum Success Weight, 100kg. Similarly, Kiyoto Fujinami in Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R, which was ranked second in the championship, also secured the tenth grid with an 81kg Success Weight.

In the GT500 class, Yuji Kunimoto in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra and Mitsunori Takaboshi in the driving seat of Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R tried their best in Q1 but still failed to clear the bar, ending the session in 13th and 15th, respectively. Consequently, their co-drivers, Ritomo Miyata and Daiki Sasaki didn’t have any opportunities to shine in the qualifying session. However, both Yokohama-shoed cars proved to be fast enough at their long-run pace in the official practice, so good results in the race seemed to be quite possible for them.

The weather got better, and even clear blue sky came on Sunday. So naturally, the temperatures were much higher than those of the day before, and the air/track temperatures reached 29/46 degrees centigrade when the race was about to get underway. WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra started the race with Kunimoto behind the wheel, and Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R did so with Sasaki in the driving seat. Both of them kept the positions where they started for a while.

The race saw a few GT500 cars dropping out due to respective problems from the early stage. This meant Kunimoto and Sasaki gained positions automatically, and Kunimoto was running in the points when he moved up to tenth. He changed to Miyata on Lap 30, but, unfortunately, the car suddenly caught fire on Lap 45, and there was no choice for Miyata but to retire.

Sasaki drove a long stint and came into the pit box on Lap 36, as the last one to do so, to hand the car to Takaboshi. And before that, he briefly became the interim race leader. Takaboshi also got positions one after another during his stint, thanks to a few more retirements of other cars, and managed to make a successful move on Lap 73 on his own. Eventually, Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R finished the race in sixth and earned some points for two consecutive races.

In the GT300 class, Kobayashi in UpGarage NSX GT3 started the race from the second grid position as the leading Yokohama Tire user. He stepped back to third soon but continued without any trouble until he was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a mechanical problem. Although they rejoined the race later, they were already out of contention for a podium finish.

Realize NATC GT-R stood out in the second half of the race. Starting from 10th on the grid, , Fujinami moved up to eighth on the track before changing to Joao Paulo de Oliveira on Lap 31. Then, WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra’s fire caused the Safety Car to come out, which gave the cars that had already made their pit stop a certain advantage in their track position. As a result, Oliveira suddenly found himself running in sixth when all GT300 cars had done the stop.

Given the heavy Success Weight the car was carrying, it was already surprising that it came up to sixth and stayed there. Moreover, helped by some of his opponents’ dropouts, Oliveira grabbed third place on Lap 63 and remained in that position until the checkered flag fell. This was the team’s second podium finish of the season.

The Granseed Lamborghini GT3, driven by Kosuke Matsuura and Natsu Sakaguchi, finished fourth from starting the race in 6th. Ryo Michigami and Shogo Mitsuyama in Yogibo NSX GT also gained six positions from the 12th grid and ended the race in sixth. These results gave them the first championship points of the season.

On the other hand, Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra GT in the hands of Miyake and Yuui Tsutsumi was running in seventh at a time but dropped to ninth at the end because the Supra was rear-ended by another car on the final lap. While the result meant they lost the position of championship leader, they were still in third in the standings.