2022 SUPER GT Round 5 Report

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A Super GT race event at Suzuka goes well with the summer mood. And the hotter, the better!

Round five of the 2022 Super GT series took place at Suzuka Circuit under scorching weather conditions throughout the weekend, even though September was already approaching, according to the calendar.

As was the case in the previous Fuji round, this was a 450km race with two mandatory refueling pit stops. Therefore, the teams employed unusual strategies, bringing out a thrilling race well beyond expectations.

In the GT300 class qualifying session on August 27th, Saturday, the Yokohama Tire users performed very well, resulting in the ten of them clearing the bar for Q2. The temperature conditions, the air/track temps at 31/39 degrees centigrade, seemed to be suitable for their tires.

Especially Kimiya Sato, behind the wheel of Hachi-Ichi GR Supra GT in Group B, set the overall fastest time. The eventual pole sitter beat Sato’s partner, Atsushi Miyake, in Q2, but the gap between the two was only 0.05 seconds. So, starting from the front row, last year’s summer Suzuka round winner looked promising for the race.

Takashi Kogure in Weibo Primez Lamborghini GT3 secured the third grid. And the championship leader, Kiyoto Fujinami, led his Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R to the fourth grid, even though the car carried a 100 kg Success Weight, the maximum weight under the rules. Tatsuya Kataoka followed them in fifth with GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG, so the Yokohama Tire users’ lockout of higher positions in the race looked quite possible.

In the GT500 class, both Yokohama-shoed cars survived the fight for Q2. Sena Sakaguchi at the wheel of WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra was the second fastest in Q1, and Daiki Sasaki in Realize Corporation ADVAN Z was sixth. And while the hopes for the fourth successive pole position didn’t come true, Yuji Kunimoto got the fourth grid for the WedsSports-backed Supra in Q2. Kohei Hirate driving the ADVAN-equipped Z, snatched the sixth grid, which was also a decent starting position.

On Sunday, August 28th, the air/track temperatures just before the race started were 28/39 degrees, similar to those of the qualifying day. However, in a way, it was a different kind of hotness because the humidity dropped a little, and the sunlight heated up the asphalt as the clouds were gone.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra started the race with Kuimoto in the driving seat, and Realize Corporation ADVAN Z with Sasaki. They kept the positions where they started but lost one each soon. Nevertheless, they could keep up with the cars in front of them, so if any opportunity came, they would have been able to make the most of it.

However, the Kondo Racing’s Z suddenly had a mechanical malfunction and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 17. Fortunately, the team could sort out the problem and send the car back on the track quickly, but they dropped to the bottom of the field because of the time lost during the stop.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra came into the pit on Lap 28 just as planned, and Kunimoto changed to Sakaguchi. Although the stop resulted in losing a few positions, Sakaguchi gradually improved his position as the leading cars made their stops. However, when he emerged to fourth, the Safety Car was deployed due to an accident.

For the WedsSport-backed crew, it was a big blow because they were yet to do their final stop, and bunching up the field behind the Safety Car meant they would lose more track positions by making the stop after that. Sekiguchi did a double stint until the end and pushed hard to regain the lost positions, only to finish the race in a disappointing seventh.

Realize Corporation ADVAN Z steadily recovered from the early delay and earned a valuable championship point by finishing in tenth.

The star of the GT300 class in the early stage was Miyake driving Hachi-Ichi GR Supra GT. He led the field from Lap 9 and pulled away from the rest of it until he changed to Sato on Lap 23. The Hachi-Ichi Supra’s pit stop handed the lead position to Ryohei Sakaguchi behind the wheel of Arnage MC86. He extended his stint as long as possible, thanks to the car’s incredible fuel milage.

When Sakaguchi steered to the pit lane on Lap 32, Kataoka in GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG emerged to the top of the field. Unlike the early leaders, the AMG driver had done the first stop on Lap 16, which was quite early, and he was on a double stint at the time. The strategy allowed him to drive fast after the stop because opting for a different pit stop sequence from others meant he had less traffic on his way.

Kataoka finally handed over the baton to Nobuteru Taniguchi on Lap 42. Then an accident happened on the track two laps later. Sato in Hachi-Ichi GR Supra GT, one of the early leaders, suddenly lost control of his car and crashed at 130R Corner, which caused the Safety Car to come out. As mentioned above, the cars yet to make the mandatory stops had to lose positions because of this. And when Takeshi Hirosue in Arnage MC86, the last car to do the second stop, headed to his pit on Lap 60, Taniguchi took over the lead with a sufficient gap to second. He safely drove through the remaining 12 laps and took the first win for the GoodSmile-backed team in five years since the 2017 season’s opening round at Okayama.

The trio of Manabu Orido, Hibiki Taira, and Yuta Kamimura, driving Apr GR86 GT, finished the race in third. Kamimura stood in on short notice for Hiroaki Nagai, originally the car’s first driver but was absent for the weekend because of ill health. Due to a gearbox problem, they had to settle for lowly 21st in the qualifying but put great effort into recovering it in the race. And with seven laps to go, Taira, who drove in the last stint, gained a position and grabbed their first podium finish with the new car.

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