【SUPER GT Round 7 / Motegi】

Yokohama-Shoed Cars’ GT500 Front Row Lockout,
WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra Takes Second In Its Backyard.

SUPER GT Round 7

Date	2021/11/6-7
Venue	Twinring Motegi
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	63Laps (1Lap = 4,801m)

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Twin Ring Motegi played host to the seventh and penultimate round of the 2021 Super GT series. One significant feature of this event was the reduction of Success Weight. The amount of the weight each competitor had to carry was cut by half from that in the previous race. Therefore, if a GT500 car had 20 points, it would have a 20kg weight instead of 40kg as was the case, and if a GT300 car had the same points, it would have a 30kg weight, instead of 60.

The autumn wore on at Twin Ring Motegi, more so than in the last Autopolis round, but the temperatures didn’t drop over the race weekend. When the qualifying session began on Saturday, November 6th, the air/track temperatures were at 18/29 degrees centigrade, which was incredibly high for that time of the year. Still, it was within Yokohama Tire’s anticipation, and the fact that nine Yokohama users in the GT300 class managed to advance to Q2 proved it.

In Q2, there were five Yokohama-shoed cars in the top ten. The best of them was Teppei Natori at the wheel of UpGarage NSX GT3, who set the new course record and won the pole position. And it was pretty notable that Joao Paulo de Oliveira secured the seventh grid in Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R because the car carried a 57kg weight even after the reduction by half.

Yokohama users were even more dominant in the GT500 class. Mitsunori Takaboshi, behind the wheel of Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R, led the Q1 session, and Yuji Kunimoto in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra came in sixth. Then Ritomo Miyata in the Supra won the pole position in Q2, followed by Daiki Sasaki in the GT-R. So, they completed a front-row lockout by the Yokohama-shoed cars.

On Sunday, November 7th, the Motegi area was favored by good weather, as was the day before. The track temperature also rose to 29 degrees just before the race’s start. Kunimoto driving WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra started from the pole position, and his rivals immediately put him under heavy pressure. But the WedsSport backed Supra driver fended them off by a skill of defensive driving. On the other hand, Sasaki in Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R struggled with the slow warm-up of his tires, so he dropped to fifth before completing the opening lap.

Although there were two Full Course Yellow (FCY) periods in the early stage, Kunimoto remained in the lead. However, he lost his tire temperatures during the second FCY, which resulted in losing the gap he built until then. Finally, he had to give way to the car behind him on Lap 20. Four laps later, he made a pit stop to change to Miyata, but he further lost a position to one of the early stoppers.

However, Miyata’s never-give-up attitude bore fruit on the final lap. The race-leading car at the point ran out of fuel and had to slow down, and Miyata managed to pass it just before they crossed the finish line. As a result, Kunimoto / Miyata pair claimed second place again after the same feat in the fourth round in July.

Unfortunately, Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R had to settle for finishing in seventh, mainly because the car had suffered from the tire pick-up, particularly in the closing stage when Takaboshi drove it.

In the GT300 class, UpGarage NSX GT3 started the race from the pole position but had to retire early, on Lap 6, due to a mechanical problem.

Consequently, Yuya Motojima, at the wheel of JLOC Lamborghini GT3, became the leading Yokohama Tire user, running in third. With Shintaro Kawabata in Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS following closely, these two drivers fought hard for third for the first half of the race.

On Lap 27, Motojima changed to Takashi Kogure, and Kawabata handed his car to Takuro Shinohara on the next lap. Since both cars replaced only two rear tires at the stop to save time, they managed to rejoin the race ahead of the Subaru BRZ, running in second before their pit stops. With the momentum, Shinohara overtook a Honda NSX, which was the effective race leader then. When the mandatory stops were done, Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS was on the top of the leader board, as might be expected.

Surprisingly, Oliveira in the driving seat of Realize NATC GT-R was in third by getting ahead of Kogure’s Lamborghini. Kiyoto Fujinami drove the GT-R in the race’s first half and was in seventh when he was about to make a stop. Then, he suggested the team not to change the tires at the stop, and they did just that, while it was unprecedented for a GT-R to cover the whole race distance with only one set of tires. And that was the reason why they could jump up.

After that, there was no position change for them, so Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS and Kawabata won the race for the first time more than a year since the second round of 2020 at Suzuka. And it was Sinohara’s first victory in Super GT. Finishing the race in third, Fujinami and Oliveira remained in second in the point standings but closed the gap with the championship leader to just six points. The result significantly increased the chance of Realize NATC GT-R’s back-to-back title.