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Jamie Klein

Autopolis SUPER GT: TOM'S Toyota takes thrilling win from 12th

Tsuboi and Miyata carved their way through from 12th on the grid to score their second win of 2023 aboard the #36 Toyota GR Supra and take a seven-point lead in the championship with only the season finale left to run.

In a thrilling and unpredictable 450km race, Miyata caught the long-time leading ARTA Honda of Hiroki Otsu in the closing stint of the race, with the pair engaging in a fierce duel for the top spot.

Otsu had taken over from team-mate Nirei Fukuzumi in the #16 ARTA NSX-GT on lap 59 of 97, while Miyata - who replaced Tsuboi at the wheel of the #36 car at the first round of pitstops - made his final stop on lap 65.

But Miyata fought through from a net fifth place to grab second within a matter of laps, dispatching the points-leading NDDP Racing Nissan of Mitsunori Takaboshi in the process, before closing down Otsu's five-second lead.

By lap 80, Miyata had caught up to the back of Otsu, and after several laps of on-the-limit dicing through the traffic, Miyata made the decisive move up the inside at the Turn 11 hairpin on lap 87.

Miyata went on to take the chequered flag by five seconds, as Otsu held off the NDDP Nissan that Takaboshi took over for the final stint from Katsumasa Chiyo.

#36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Photo by: Masahide Kamio)

The result means that the top three cars in the race are the only cars that can still win the championship in the season finale at Motegi. Fukuzumi and Otsu will head to the finale as rank outsiders in third, 16 points behind Tsuboi and Miyata with 21 on offer.

The Cerumo Toyota of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura was fourth after Ishiura made a late pass on the Impul Nissan of Kazuki Hiramine.

The Impul car shared by Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette made up ground from 13th on the grid with an undercut strategy, but fifth place marks the end of their title defence.

Honda squad Real Racing had looked to be in the frame for a podium finish late on, but Koudai Tsukakoshi faded late on to finish sixth in the NSX-GT started by Nobuharu Matsushita.

Next up were two more Toyota squads, the #37 TOM'S car of Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi and the Rookie Racing machine of Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita.

Naoki Yamamoto's stand-in at Team Kunimitsu, Iori Kimura, brought home the NSX-GT he shared with Tadasuke Makino in ninth.

NISMO opted for an unconventional three-stop strategy for the Z shared by Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda, but it failed to pay dividends and the duo had to be content with 10th.

The #8 ARTA Honda was a non-finisher after Tomoki Nojiri went off into the barriers in his stint, while the SARD Toyota was ruled out by mechanical issues.

Saitama Toyopet closes in on GT300 title

A nailbiting GT300 contest was won by Saitama Toyopet Toyota GR Supra pairing Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai, as Yoshida held off the Inging Toyota GR86 GT of Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira by just 0.6s.

#52 Saitama Toyopet GB GR Supra GT leads #2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Photo by: Masahide Kamio)

Tsutsumi appeared to have the edge in the closing stages on fresher tyres, Inging opting for a more conventional strategy of two tyre changes while Saitama Toyopet made it through the distance changing tyres only once.

Yoshida and Kawaai's second straight win puts them on the cusp of the championship, as they lead by 20 points - Tsutsumi and Taira would need to score the maximum 21 points at Motegi and hope their rivals fail to score to overhaul them.

Behind the leading two cars, the new apr Lexus LC500h scored its first podium finish in the hands of Kazuto Kotaka and Yuki Nemoto, who gamely held off the works Subaru BRZ of Takuto Iguchi in the closing stages.

Nemoto ensured a podium lockout for Toyota models and Bridgestone tyres in the process, while the Subaru crew of Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi made it an-all JAF GT300 top four.

Best of the FIA GT3 finishers was the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Teppei Natori and Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who made only one tyre change en route to an impressive recovery from 17th to fifth.

That result wasn't enough however to keep Natori and de Oliveira in title contention, with Team Studie BMW man Seiji Ara likewise dropping out of the running after finishing eighth in the M4 GT3 he shared with Bruno Spengler.

The UpGarage Honda team that was second in the points heading to Autopolis was taken out of the race by the K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3, as Morio Nitta locked up and clouted the rear of Shun Koide's NSX GT3 at Turn 1.

Koide and Takashi Kobayashi were able to continue but finished down in 17th place. 

GT500 results:

Pos. No. Car Drivers Laps Gap Tyre
1 36 au TOM'S GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Sho Tsuboi
Ritomo Miyata
97 -- BS
2 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT
Honda NSX-GT
Nirei Fukuzumi
Hiroki Otsu
97 5.474 BS
3 3 Niterra MOTUL Z
Nissan Z GT500
Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
97 5.854 MI
4 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura
97 17.272 BS
5 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z
Nissan Z GT500
Kazuki Hiramine
Bertrand Baguette
97 18.349 BS
6 17 Astemo NSX-GT
Honda NSX-GT
Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
97 30.958 BS
7 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Ukyo Sasahara
Giuliano Alesi
97 31.201 BS
8 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Kazuya Oshima
Kenta Yamashita
97 39.206 BS
9 100 STANLEY NSX-GT
Honda NSX-GT
Tadasuke Makino
Iori Kimura
97 1'24.414 BS
10 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z
Nissan Z GT500
Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
97 1'25.131 MI
11 64 Modulo NSX-GT
Honda NSX-GT
Takuya Izawa
Kakunoshin Ohta
97 1'39.210 DL
12 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z
Nissan Z GT500
Daiki Sasaki
Kohei Hirate
95 2 Laps YH
13 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
95 2 Laps YH
Ret 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra
TOYOTA GR Supra GT500
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
68 29 Laps BS
Ret 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT
Honda NSX-GT
Tomoki Nojiri
Toshiki Oyu
41 56 Laps BS

GT300 results:

Pos. No. Car Drivers Laps Gap Tyre
1 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT
TOYOTA GR Supra
Hiroki Yoshida
Kohta Kawaai
91   BS
2 2 muta Racing GR86 GT
TOYOTA GR86
Yuui Tsutsumi
Hibiki Taira

91 0.612 BS
3 31 apr LC500h GT
LEXUS LC500h
Kazuto Kotaka
Yuki Nemoto
90 1 Lap BS
4 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT
SUBARU BRZ GT300
Takuto Iguchi
Hideki Yamauchi
90 1 Lap DL
5 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R
NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3
Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Teppei Natori
90 1 Lap YH
6 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG
Mercedes AMG GT3
Nobuteru Taniguchi
Tatsuya Kataoka
90 1 Lap YH
7 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3
LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3
Takashi Kogure
Yuya Motojima
90 1 Lap YH
8 7 Studie BMW M4
BMW M4 GT3
Seiji Ara
Bruno Spengler
89 2 Laps MI
9 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R
NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3
Ryuichiro Tomita
Keishi Ishikawa

89 2 Laps DL
10 10 PONOS GAINER GT-R
NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3
Hironobu Yasuda
Riki Okusa
89 2 Laps DL
11 50 ANEST IWATA Racing RC F GT3
LEXUS RC F GT3
Igor Fraga
Yuga Furutani

89 2 Laps YH
12 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG
Mercedes AMG GT3
Naoya Gamou
Takuro Shinohara
89 2 Laps BS
13 20 SHADE RACING GR86 GT
TOYOTA GR86
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
Eijiro Shimizu
89 2 Laps DL
14 360 RUNUP RIVAUX GT-R
NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3
Takayuki Aoki
Takuya Otaki
89 2 Laps YH
15 6 DOBOT Audi R8 LMS
Audi R8 LMS
Yoshiaki Katayama
Roberto Merhi
89 2 Laps YH
16 30 apr GR86 GT
TOYOTA GR86
Hiroaki Nagai
Manabu Orido
Yuta Kamimura
89 2 Laps YH
17 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3
Honda NSX GT3
Takashi Kobayashi
Syun Koide
88 3 Laps YH
18 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO
TOYOTA 86 MC
Yusuke Tomibayashi
Takamitsu Matsui
88 3 Laps YH
19 87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini GT3
LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3
Kosuke Matsuura
Natsu Sakaguchi
88 3 Laps YH
20 60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT
TOYOTA GR Supra
Hiroki Yoshimoto
Shunsuke Kohno
88 3 Laps DL
21 22 R'Qs AMG GT3
Mercedes AMG GT3
Hisashi Wada
Masaki Jyonai
Masaki Kano
87 4 Laps YH
22 48 Shokumou K's Frontier GT-R
NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3
Taiyo Ida
Yuki Tanaka
Takumi Sanada
87 4 Laps YH
23 9 PACIFIC VSPO NAC AMG
Mercedes AMG GT3
Ryohei Sakaguchi
Jiatong Liang
Shintaro Kawabata
85 6 Laps YH
Ret 27 Yogibo NSX GT3
Honda NSX GT3
Yugo Iwasawa
Reimei Ito
24 67 Laps YH
Ret 96 K-tunes RC F GT3
LEXUS RC F GT3
Morio Nitta
Shinichi Takagi
21 70 Laps DL

 

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