2024 SUPER GT Round 3 Report

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The third round of the 2024 Super GT series took place at Suzuka Circuit. The 5,807m-long race track is the longest among the major Japanese circuits that Super GT regularly visits. Because of its challenging layout, which many world-renowned racing drivers praise highly, and the characteristics of its track surfaces, it is also said to be one of the severest circuits in terms of strain on tires.

This round was held as the season’s second 3-hour time race. As you may remember, WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Sena Sakaguchi) scored a dramatic upset win last year.

On Friday, May 31st, when the teams were busy installing and setting up for the weekend, the sky was overcast, and the air temperature stayed relatively low. But the weather became fine on the qualifying day, Saturday, June 1st; the temperature rose to 24 degrees centigrade at 9:45, when the one-hour and 45-minute official practice session began. The sunlight was strong, but the track temperature was only 34 degrees which was lower than supposed, probably because of a light shower overnight.

In the GT500 class, Teppei Natori, who shared Realize Corporation ADVAN Z with Tugio Matsuda, clocked 1’46”532 during the exclusive section for the GT500 cars and was ranked eighth. As for the GT300, JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Yuya Motojima) was the fastest Yokohama Tire user but settled for lowly 12th. In contrast with the top-three lockout in the previous Fuji round, the GT300 Yokohama users seemed to get off to a struggling start.

The trend continued into the qualifying. Realize Corporation ADVAN Z ended the session in ninth, as Natori was the eighth fastest in Q1, and Matsuda was the ninth. Sakaguchi’s time in Q2 in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra was only 76 hundredth of a second shy of Matsuda’s time, but the Supra’s final position in the qualifying was 12th because of the combined time rules.

Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari (Yoshiaki Katayama / Roberto Merhi Muntan) secured the fifth grid in the GT300 class. After ending the practice in 15th, they made some setup adjustments toward qualifying, and Katayama and Merhi Muntan responded with their efforts on the track, which resulted in fifth place in the session.

The forecast said that, on Sunday, June 2nd, there would be some rain at Suzuka Circuit around noon. And the prediction was accurate, as heavy rain came about noon when the warm-up session before the race was getting underway. The rain quickly wetted the whole track, so the teams were forced to cope with the sudden condition change because they had only been running their cars under the dry conditions until then on the weekend. This meant that most cars had to make multiple pit stops during the session for the tire change or the setup adjustment, which made the pit lane so busy.

Fortunately, the 20-minute warm-up ended without significant incident, and the race-starting procedures followed. At almost the same time, sunlight peeked out from between the clouds, and then it settled back into the clear sky swiftly, to a surprising extent. Therefore, the water that wetted the tarmac evaporated quickly under the blue sky, and the conditions turned dry when the cars began to take their starting grids. Consequently, the teams were busy again changing the tires or reverting to the initial dry setup!

The formation lap went underway at 13:30, and all cars departed with the slick tires. The 3-hour race began quietly, and there were no hot battles in the early stage, probably because they thought it was still a long way to go.

Realize Corporation ADVAN Z started the race with Matsuda behind the wheel and came up to eighth by making a successful overtaking on Lap 7. With the four cars just ahead of him fighting closely with each other, all within a one-second gap, he could keep up with the group but couldn’t afford to make the slightest mistake as the car he had passed closed in from behind. Still, he eventually remained in eighth until Lap 29, when he headed to the pit lane to change to Natori.

Natori’s pace was good in the first half of his stint, and he floated to the interim sixth at one time as other cars made their pit stop. However, he started to struggle to maintain the pace toward the end of his stint. While he held the same position until Lap 49, he lost a few places and returned to the pit for their second stop at the end of Lap 60.

Matsuda got in the car again and went to the track for the final stint with the fresh set of tires. After rejoining the race in the interim ninth, he set the car’s fastest lap of the race, 1’49″958, on Lap 63, which was ranked in the top five in the class.

He kept pushing for the remaining laps but, unfortunately, couldn’t catch the car ahead of him and improve the position. Thus, Realize Corporation ADVAN Z finished the 3-hour race in ninth and earned their season’s first championship points.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra finished the race in 12th, one lap behind the eventual winner. Kunimoto drove the car during the first two stints before handing it to Sakaguchi for the third and last stint.

In the GT300 class, Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari started from the fifth grid and gained a position immediately. The starting driver of the car, Katayama, drove at an excellent pace until Lap 30, when he came in and changed to Merhi Muntan. While they had to give a position to a direct opponent, who opted not to replace a tire at the stop, the Spaniard closed the gap with it in the final stint, utilizing his fresher tires. Then, he finally overtook it at Hairpin Corner on Lap 69, moving up to third.

Merhi Muntan tried to improve his position further during the remaining 30 minutes, but it wasn’t possible because the gap with the top two had opened up while he was fighting for third place. Still, they were glad to get on the podium for the first time this year after finishing the season opener in tenth and the previous round in 13th.