Starting from 12th position on the grid, the au TOM'S GR Supra comes from behind to take its second win of the season!

The AUTOPOLIS GT 450km RACE, Round 7 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS (one lap 4.674 km x 97 laps) in Oita Prefecture on October 15. (Sun.). In the GT500 class, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata) started from 12th position on the grid to come from behind and score its second win of the season and climb to the top of the season standing with one round remaining in the series (on Nov. 4th and 5th). In the GT300 class, the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Seita Nonaka) scored its second consecutive win of the season and will go into the final round as the leader in the series ranking.

The 7th round of the SUPER GT series held at AUTOPOLIS turned out to be a fierce battle that pitted the full determination of the drivers, the teams and the auto makers against each other. In the GT500 race, the pole-starting No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi/Hiroki Otsu) held the lead in the early going with a strong and steady pace and built up a lead that at one point grew to 18 seconds.

However, while many of the leading teams chose to make the first of their refueling pit stops early, two cars, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsumori Takaboshi) that started from 9th position on the grid and the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata) that started from 12th position, chose to wait until just before the 30th lap of the race to make their first pit stop, which enabled them to emerge in top positions later in the race. And when car No. 3 moved into 2nd position in the lead group on the 67th lap of the race and car No. 36 moved up to 3rd position on the 70th lap, the two cars continued to battle each other as they closed in on the leading car No. 16.

Entering the final stages of the race, car No. 36 passed No. 3 to move into 2nd position and then went on to close in on the leading No. 16 and finally pass it on the second hairpin turn of the 87th lap of the race. From there, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra ran unchallenged to the goal after having passed a total of 11 cars in the race to claim its second win of the season, following the one in Round 2 at Fuji Speedway. The 2nd and 3rd places went to the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT and the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z, which meant that one car from each of the three makers mounted the winners’ podium.

These results mean that the No. 36 driver pair of Tsuboi/Miyata will go into the final round of the series as the ranking leaders to compete for the 2023 GT500 class Drivers’ title against the No. 3 pair of Chiyo/Takaboshi and the No. 16 pair of Fukuzumi/Otsu.

In the GT300 class, the pole-starting No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira/Hiroki Katoh) ran away in the lead, but with Kawaai in the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Seita Nonaka) continuing to close in from behind. The competition between these two cars came down to their differing pit stop strategies. Contrary to the more orthodox strategy of car No. 2, the No. 52 team chose to not change its tires during their first pit stop, which enabled it to take the lead in the final stages of the race. At the end, the race turned into a breathtaking dead-heat battle between the leading Yoshida in car No. 52 and the chasing Tsutsumi in car No. 2, which eventually saw car No. 52 hold onto its lead by the slimmest of margins to take its second consecutive win. This result means that the GT300 class title race in the final round of the series will also be a match race between the No. 52 pair of Yoshida/Kawaai and the No. 2 pair of Tsutsumi/Taira.

* Spectators: 13,500 for the Oct. 15 race; 6,500 for the Oct. 14 qualifying.

Winner Comments

No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra [GT500]

Sho Tsuboi: “In yesterday’s qualifying we finished in a disappointing 12th position, so I was determined to see us make up to that today. As for our race strategy, it was planned to make sure we would be the first to cross the goal line. And I think we succeeded with that strategy. I think the show that Miyata-san put on in overtaking the leader was really cool. (After a collision with another car) our front end was damaged some, but it didn’t affect our performance much. It may have been bold for use to go for a podium finish starting from 12th position on the grid, but to then get the win was something too good to believe.”

Ritomo Miyata: “When I went out on the track in the latter half of the race, I think we were in about 5th position, and I didn’t think there was much chance of a win for us. But we knew that if we could finish in front of car No. 3, we would then lead them in the series standings, so it would be OK if car No. 16 beat us. But after we passed No. 3, I knew we just had to go for the win. I had decided that I was going to try to pass No. 16, but if I showed my intent to soon it would then be on guard, and my strategy of passing it all at once turned out to be successful.”

No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT [GT300]

Hiroki Yoshida: “At the end, car No. 2 was fast and I remember the recent case (of our losing momentum just before the goal), so I was nervous in the final going. But everyone on the team was supporting us in a variety of ways, and I believe that is why we were able keep the lead until the end. Since AUTOPOLIS is near my hometown of Kumamoto, I think I was able to fulfill my role as Circuit Ambassador by getting this win here for the second year in a row.” Kohta Kawaai: “We have never had this experience before (of going into the final round of the season with such a big lead in the standing), but we haven’t won the title yet. The race world is one where you never know what is going to happen, so I want to see us make sure we can get every series point we can (in the final round), even if it is just one or two. So, in the final race I will only be thinking about winning like we did today.” *Seita Nonaka didn’t drive in this race.