【SUPER GT Round 6 / Autopolis】

Super GT Returns Autopolis After Two-year Absence
GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG Shows Amazing Recovery

SUPER GT Round 6

Date	2021/10/23-24
Venue	Autopolis
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	65Laps (1Lap = 4,674m)

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The sixth round of the highly contested 2021 Super GT series took place at Autopolis in Kyushu. This could be the season’s most demanding race for the championship leaders because of the success weights – double of points each competitor had a kilogram in GT500 and a triple in GT300 – would be reduced to a half in the next round and removed at all in the final round. Therefore, the teams that had much fewer championship points than the leaders for some reasons might have made unexpected, good results happen here.

These years, the race events at Autopolis have often been affected by rain or fog. But the trend didn’t apply to this year’s Super GT race, and the conditions remained calm over the weekend.

When the qualifying session began on Saturday, October 23rd, the air/track temperatures were 14/26 degrees centigrade. In the GT300 class’s Q1, eight Yokohama Tire users, four each from Group A and B, survived the fights for Q2. They included both youngsters and veterans, as Teppei Natori in UpGrage NSX GT3 topped Group B, whereas Manabu Orido behind the wheel of Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT was the third-fastest in Group A.

However, Takashi Kobayashi was almost 1.5 seconds slower than his codriver, Natori, and ended the session in tenth because of the slight change in the car’s handling balance. Hiroaki Nagai, who shared the Prius with Orido, was classified in 14th. Still, he was the fastest among the gentleman drivers, which could be said a strong showing.

So the top Yokohama Tire users in Q2 were Takashi Kogure in seventh and Yuya Hiraki in ninth. Kogure drove JLOC Lamborghini GT3 together with Yuya Motojima. And Hiraki shared Mach Syaken GTNet MC86 Mach-go with his brother Reiji who passed through Q1 by setting the fourth-fastest time in Group A.

In the GT500 class, Daiki Sasaki in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R seemed to grab the last slot in Q1, but he was bumped out in the final minutes and ended the session in ninth by merely 0.8 seconds. Unfortunately, he had a slight problem with his car during the session. Yuji Kunimoto driving WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, had also to settle for 14th in Q1. As a result, their codrivers, Mitsunori Takaboshi and Ritomo Miyata didn’t have opportunities to perform in the Qualifying session.

On Sunday, October 24th, the sky was overcast until noon, but sunshine started to break through the clouds when the race was about to get underway. Nevertheless, the track surface temperature stayed around 19 degrees, while the air temperature was at 16 degrees, a little higher than the previous day.

Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R started the race with Sasaki in the driving seat, and so did WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra with Kunimoto at the wheel. Both of them lost some positions during the first laps but, from Lap 4 onward, they gained three places automatically. It was because three cars were given a 5-second penalty stop for replacing their engines with a new unit due to problems in the previous race. And the stop must be served at a timing specified by the official, which began from the fourth lap into the race.

The two Yokohama-shoed cars held these three cars and kept the position for a while. However, on Lap 10 and 18, there were two accidents in which the GT300 competitors were involved, and each of them required the Safety Car’s intervention. Particularly, the second SC period lasted for five laps, and the pit stop window for the driver change was open during the period, so the two cars opted to come in when the racing was resumed.

After the driver change, Takaboshi in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R was running in fifth and Miyata driving WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra in ninth at a time. But, as both of them had to make another tire change during their stint, there was no hope to improve their positions afterward. Eventually, the Supra ended the race in disappointing 13th and the GT-R in 14th.

There was a drama in the GT300 class even before the start. The 19th grid for GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG was empty. During the warm-up session just before that, the car had a malfunction in its gearbox, and the pit lane exit was already closed when the team finished the repair works. But they are well known for their never-give-up attitude. So they saw the positive side of it and made the pit lane start with new tires and Tatsuya Kataoka behind the wheel.

With the help of the two SC periods, Kataoka moved up through the field steadily. And, at the timing of the second restart on Lap 23, he handed the car to Nobuteru Taniguchi, and the team changed two rear tires only at the stop. Then, Taniguchi continued to overtake their opponents one after another and found himself running in eighth when all GT300 cars had done their pit stop. After that, he earned two more positions on the track to finish in sixth from the pit lane start, which was simply awesome.

Among other Yokohama Tire users, Takeshi Kimura and Kei Cozzolino driving Pacific NAC Carguy Ferrari came in ninth, followed by Takamitsu Matsui and Kimiya Sato in Hoppy Porsche in tenth.

Starting from the 18th grid, Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R with Kiyoto Fujinami and Joao Paulo de Oliveira at the wheel recovered to 11th at the end of the race. Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra GT, driven by Atsushi Miyake and Yuui Tsutsumi, also gained a lot of positions during the race, from the 25th grid to 17th at the finish. While both failed to add a championship point to their tallies, they remained in second and third, respectively, in the point standings. Therefore, although the gap with the championship leader expanded, one can expect their catch-up in the remaining two rounds.