2023 SUPER GT Round 4 Report

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After a two month break since the previous Suzuka meeting, the fourth round of the 2023 Super GT Series took place at Fuji Speedway on the first weekend of August.

The race at Suzuka was cut short toward the end due to a big crash and resulting red flag. And the race leader at the time of termination was given a time penalty, which handed the winner’s trophy to WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, who was running in second at the time. It was the long-awaited victory for the team ever since the seventh round in Thailand in 2016. Also, it was the first-ever GT500 win at a Japanese circuit. As a result, the car had to carry a 40kg Success Weight this weekend, but they have always been good at Fuji.

In the Suzuka round, it was shocking that another Yokohama-shoed GT500 car, Realize Corporation ADVAN Z, was disqualified after the qualifying session because a technical infringement was found in the post-qualifying scrutineering. But the speed was there, as the car set the fastest time in the session and showed a great catching-up in the race from the back end of the grids. So, this time, they were even more eager to obtain the result they wanted.

The qualifying day was a typical hot day in the middle of summer. The air/track temperatures had already reached 28/40 degrees centigrade at nine in the morning when the free practice session began.

The red flag interrupted the session halfway because a GT300 car halted on the track. And the period exclusive for the GT500 class cars was also red-flagged, as a car stopped on the course side due to a mechanical problem, and the session didn’t restart after that. Consequently, most GT500 teams still needed to complete their qualifying simulations, which meant no one could have any prediction on others’ qualifying competitiveness. Nevertheless, Realize Corporation ADVAN Z ended the session in fifth with the best time of 1’29″363, which was promising.

The air temperature rose to 30 degrees at the end of the practice session. And the scorching sun heated the tarmac during the Full Course Yellow simulation and the Circuit Safari, one of the Super GT’s popular fan attractions, so the track temperature hit 47 degrees at 3:20 p.m. when the qualifying session began.

As usual, the GT300 competitors were divided into two groups for Q1. There were ten Yokohama Tire users in Group A, including Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R, which had a 90kg Success Weight this time as the championship leader. After one of their rivals became the early leader, everyone tried hard to improve their best time without any success. Eventually, Natsu Sakaguchi, driving Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3, ended Q1 in second, 0.3 seconds behind the leader, and he was the fastest Yokohama user. And Yuga Furutani, behind the wheel of Anest Iwata Racing RC F GT3, came in third. With Dobot Audi R8 LM, JLOC Lamborghini GT3, and Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R also getting through, five Yokohama-shoed cars from Group A made their way to Q2.

Six out of 13 cars in Group B, including Hoppy Schatz GR Supra GT and UpGarage NSX GT3, were Yokohama Tire users. At the wheel of GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG, Tatsuya Kataoka showed a remarkable performance in this group, as he became the pacesetter with 1’37″657, which he set in his first qualifying attempt. Furthermore, he improved it to 1’36″896 on the next lap and stayed at the top slot of the timesheet until the end. From Group B, three cars relying on Yokohama Tire went on to Q2: the GoodSmile-backed AMG, Runup Rivaux GT-R, and Hoppy Schatz GR Supra GT.

GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG shone in Q2 again, and Nobuteru Taniguchi secured the pole position with a time of 1’36″395. It was the first pole position in six years, since 2017, for the team and Taniguchi himself.

In the GT500 class, Realize Corporation ADVAN Z performed tremendously in the qualifying. Kohei Hirate’s best time in Q1 was the second fastest and only 0.07 seconds shy of the pacesetter. And thanks partly to slightly lower air and track temperatures in Q2, Daiki Sasaki managed to improve Hirate’s time by 0.17 seconds and set 1’27″763, which was good enough to secure the pole position, as no one could beat it. It was a great recovery from the frustrating disqualification in the previous meeting at Suzuka, and the car’s sheer speed bore fruit this time around.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, with Yuji Kunimoto in the driving seat in Q1, failed to clear the bar for Q2, struggling with the heavy burden of the more than 40kg Success Weight it carried. As a result, they had to settle for the ninth grid.

The forecast said the weather in the race weekend would be getting worse, and it would be rainy on Sunday from the morning hours. And the prediction turned out to be accurate. It started to rain before noon and became torrential when the Pit Walk was going on, with many fans joining it. Therefore, the track surfaces once turned wet, but the rain stopped just before the start of the warm-up session.

With nearly 50 GT race cars driving around the track for 20 minutes, the water on the tarmac was almost drained, so they headed to their grids with slick tires when the starting procedures began. However, the rain returned, and the 100-lap race started with the Safety Car leading the field and all cars with wet tires on.

The racing started on Lap 3 when the Safety Car came in. Hirate, driving Realize Corporation ADVAN Z, led the field but stepped back to second on the next lap. He had to give way to another car and fell back to third on Lap 10. Meanwhile, the rain eased, and the track conditions were getting better. Kondo Racing was the first to react to the change and called Hirate in to give him the slick tires at the end of Lap 11. After refueling and a tire change, the car returned to the track.

The team’s decision triggered other ones’ pit stops. So Realize Corporation ADVAN Z could have undercut the others by stopping earlier than anyone else. However, they actually struggled to warm up the slick tire properly on the still-damp track surfaces and had to endure hardship for a while in the first half of the race.

On Lap 35, when one-third of the race distance had been completed, Hachi-Ichi GR Supra GT, one of the Yokohama Tire users in the GT300 class, stopped at the exit of TGR Corner. And smoke and flame broke out from the car, which caused the Safety Car to come out. The driver, Kimiya Sato, escaped from the car by himself but was taken to a hospital just for examination, as he inhaled a lot of smoke.

The racing resumed on Lap 41. Realize Corporation ADVAN Z was running in tenth but was involved in close battles with the cars around in a crowded pack, which the Safety Car period created. There were opportunities to overtake them quite a few times for the Z, but the driver had difficulty making a decisive move after all. The car moved up to fifth on Lap 55 because of other cars’ pit stops and made its second stop on the next lap. Then, it rejoined the race in ninth and began catching up from there.

When the GT500 race leader entered its 66th lap, another GT300 car, Hoppy Schatz GR Supra GT, caught fire, and the force of the fire was much stronger than the case of Hachi-Ichi GR Supra GT. Therefore, the race control showed the red flag to stop the race, and the competing cars lined up on the pit straight to wait for the firefighting and the track clearing.

The driver of the car, Seita Nonaka, was safe and walked away from the spot, as a TV camera caught it. Because the fire spread to the tire barriers, and the weather was getting worse as well, it took about 50 minutes to be ready to restart the race. As the heavy rain started falling before the restart, the teams were allowed to change to the wet tires on the track before the restart behind the Safety Car at 4:30 p.m.

The watery clouds moved away, and even some breaks between clouds were seen. The change of weather meant that the track surfaces were drying for the remaining 30 laps or so. While one of its rivals spun on the slippery and crowded track, Sasaki in Realize Corporation ADVAN Z drove consistently and finished the 100-lap race in tenth. The race ended just before the prescribed maximum race duration had lapsed.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra started the race from the ninth grid with Kunimoto behind the wheel. After the effective start of racing on Lap 3, he struggled to quickly warm up his wet tires and couldn’t keep up with the cars ahead of him. While there were some battles with the cars around, especially after changing to the slick tires, losing a significant time in the early stage meant they had to settle for finishing in lowly 12th.

In the GT300 class, GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG led most of the laps after starting from the pole position and controlled the race until the closing stage. However, the team’s veteran Taniguchi went off the track in his stint after the restart from the red flag interruption. It occurred soon after his tire change to the slicks, and there were still some wet patches on the track. And Taniguchi’s mishap allowed Dobot Audi R8 LM to make a podium finish.

Dobot Audi R8 LM was going strong in the qualifying and secured the fifth grid. Although the car once lost a few positions, Robert Merhi Muntan recovered it at an excellent pace, particularly on the wet track. As a result, the car’s crew ended up in third place, two places better than where they started.

Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R followed the Audi just four seconds behind and came in fourth. Considering the car had a heavy Success Weight, their point finish in the higher ranks deserved praise. For the next round, they will race with the maximum amount of Success Weight, 100kg.