2024 SUPER GT Round 6 Report

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After a six-week break, Round 6 of the 2024 Super GT series was held at SportsLand Sugo in Miyagi Prefecture. But this, in reality, was the fifth race meeting of the series because Round 5, planned in early September at Suzuka Circuit, was postponed to a December date, due to a typhoon.

During the weekend at Sugo, the event also faced adverse weather conditions. Consequently, the event’s schedule was heavily disrupted, and the qualifying session on Saturday, September 21st, had to be canceled. However, the Yokohama Tire users, 17 cars in the GT500 and GT300 classes, showed strong performances.

On Friday, September 20th, the teams were busy with installation for the weekend. The weather at SportsLand Sugo was already getting worse, and the forecast said there was a high probability of heavy rain on Saturday afternoon. Therefore, at the briefing with the drivers and the team managers, the race director told them that the qualifying session might be canceled depending on the weather conditions. He also stated that, in that case, the starting grids might be decided by the competitors’ lap times in the official practice on Saturday morning.

Knowing that, every competitor tried to set their fastest possible lap time in the practice session on Saturday morning. Probably because of this, the car in the GT500 class’s top slot kept changing, and it was hard to tell who was the fastest for a while.

As you may recall, WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) claimed the pole position by a convincing margin at Sugo two years ago. In a bid to repeat the feat, Sakaguchi sat behind the wheel of the car and made a quasi-qualifying attempt in the session. He tried to find the right time when the amount of water on the track surface was reduced due to more than forty cars lapping around it, and he managed to set the third fastest time. His judgment was proved right, as the rain intensified soon after that, which meant that the track surface became too wet for any driver to improve their lap time.

Realize Corporation ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) clocked the seventh fastest time by the hands of Matsuda. Apr GR86 GT (Hiroaki Nagai/Rikuto Kobayashi) was the fastest Yokohama user in the GT300 class and ranked tenth overall.

As discussed in the briefing on Friday, the qualifying session in the afternoon was canceled, so each car’s best lap time in the practice determined the starting grids on Sunday.

The weather didn’t improve on Sunday, and the rain became heavier until noon. As a result, both supporting races had to be terminated after the red flag, and the starting time of the Super GT race was delayed for an hour.

However, it was forecasted that the weather would improve, and the rain almost stopped when the warm-up session began. Moreover, warm sunlight broke through a cloud when the cars were taking their grids. Although it didn’t last long, and the sunlight was blocked by thick clouds again, the improving track conditions meant different choices on the starting tires between the teams.

UpGarage NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) and GoodSmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) picked the slick tires. Their choice made some sense, considering they were starting from the lower positions of the grids, but, as it turned out, they lost ground in the race’s early stage because there were still some puddles on the track during the first laps.

All other cars selected the wet tires, yet the choices of the compounds were divided depending on each team’s race strategy. Led by the Safety Car, the 84-lap race began, and the proper racing started on Lap 5.

WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra started the race with Kunimoto at the wheel, and he gained a position at Turn 1 immediately after the start of racing. But he soon faced an uphill battle because the team selected the tire compound based on their estimation that much less water would remain on the track than actually happened. After being passed by a few rivals, whose tires were properly warmed, Kunimoto wasn’t able to resist the other cars’ attacks and ended up running in 14th by Lap 21.

Nevertheless, the GT500 cars usually have chances to gain positions here in Sugo since overtaking slower GT300 cars on the relatively narrow track can be a tricky business, which may create an opportunity for the rivals behind. Therefore, WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra gradually moved forward through the field, together with Realize Corporation ADVAN Z, which struggled for the same reason after starting from the seventh grid with Matsuda in the driving seat.

On Lap 23, an accident involving two GT300 cars occurred, and the Safety Car came out. The racing resumed on Lap 32 when the driver change window had already been open. So, several cars headed to the pit lane immediately, but the two Yokohama-shoed GT500 cars stayed out.

On Lap 43, Kunimoto in WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra came into the pit to change to Sakaguchi, using Full Course Yellow, which eventually turned into the Safety Car period. The car was running in 12th when it went back to the track. However, because some of the rivals opted to stay out, and others still needed to stop, he regained a position every time one of such opponents went to the pit box.

Consequently, Sakaguchi came up to eighth on Lap 62 and remained in the position until the checkered flag fell. Considering the fact that they started from the third grid and that they aimed at a race win or a podium finish, the result was disappointing. Still, the eighth place was their season’s best result so far, and it was the third point finish in five races.

Realize Corporation ADVAN Z finished the race in 13th. The team extended the first stint, and Matsuda changed to Natori on Lap 51. By that time, the track conditions already improved, so Natori tried to recover with the slick tires without much success.

Regarding the GT300 class, Apr GR86 GT crashed into the tire barriers in the warm-up session just before the race. Thanks to a fantastic repair job by the team’s mechanics, the car could take the starting grid, but it wasn’t able to show its true pace in the race. Instead, Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) came up to tenth in the class after starting from the 12th grid.

About halfway through the race, a GT300 car spun and halted on the course side around the exit of Rainbow Corner, and the race control declared FCY to remove the vehicle. Many drivers steered their cars to the pit entry to make the most of this opportunity, but the FCY lasted only for a few minutes and was switched to the Safety Car period, during which the pit entry was closed.

Therefore, only the cars that could make their pit stop in this short period of time benefited from this FCY. Metalive S Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi) was one of those, and Matsuura, who was trusted its second stint, found him running in seventh when the Safety Car period was lifted.

Matsuura drove at a brilliant pace for the remaining 39 laps with slick tires and finished the race in seventh. The team’s other car, Venteny Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima), came in tenth and earned a championship point despite starting from the 18th grid. In the point standings, the latter crew ranks fourth and is the leader among the GT300 Yokohama users.