SUPER GT: Paddock Notes Round 8 Mobility Resort Motegi

The Japanese SUPER GT championship will see its thrilling conclusion at the Mobility Resort Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture this weekend. A total of seven GT500 and a stunning total of ten GT300 teams still have a mathematical chance for the title. We’re live at the track.

– Even though the formerly as Twin Ring Motegi known circuit belongs to Honda, Sunday’s final 300 km race could end up being a Toyota show. After all, the marque dominated the Okayama season opener – the only other race that is held without any success ballast every season. The reigning champions Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita in the #1 au TOM’S GR Supra go into the finale as championship leaders and thus the biggest favorites – two victories and two more second place finishes speak for themselves. However, following an early retirement to save the engine following a tough Autopolis weekend, the gap to their fellow Toyota mates Kazuya Oshima / Nirei Fukuzumi in the #14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra has shrunken to only 6 points. They’re followed by Honda’s only horse in the race, the #100 Stanley Civic Type R-GT of Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino, who are trailing the leaders by only 8.5 points. A comeback victory on home turf would require some exceptional good luck for the Honda pair, but crazier things have happened in SUPER GT before. Yamamoto seems eager for a come-from-behind miracle on his personal home turf, as the track is located only an hour away from his home town Utsunomiya.

– It certainly would be a happy end for Honda’s somewhat ill-fated Civic Type R-GT, which celebrated its debut only last year, but will be send into early retirement following Sunday’s race. The experiment of a 4-door GT500 model didn’t quite work out the way Honda has hoped for, with the car celebrating its only second win last time at Autopolis, avoiding a potential winless season in a surprisingly dominant fashion by locking out the podium positions. The Civic Type R-GT will be succeeded by Honda’s new sports coupé, the revival of the Prelude, which the fans will get to see in action for the first time with a demonstration run this weekend. The car got delivered this Friday to the paddock – and immediately drew quite the reaction from the other Honda teams, as none of them had the chance to get into contact with it yet.The car is getting developed in-house at Honda’s factory in Sakura, the same place where the marque’s F1 engine is being built. Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto were elected to perform the Prelude’s shakedown at Sportsland SUGO, which should come as no surprise, since Team Kunimitsu’s maintenance got moved to being handled in Sakura as well. The fact that none of the other Honda teams and drivers had any touching point with the Prelude before caused for a lot of confusion however, as a few of the drivers expressed their surprise on social media when Honda officially announced the machine two days prior to its shakedown. The rest of the Honda camp will get access over the course of the winter, but the advantage should lie with Team Kunimitsu.

– The Civic Type R-GT isn’t the only retirement inside the Honda camp this weekend. A couple of months ago, Takuya Izawa (#64 Modulo Civic Type R-GT) announced an end to his 19-year GT500 career following 29 podium finishes, including seven victories and four pole positions. To commemorate, Nakajima Racing has printed a special t-shirt for Izawa’s farewell party.

– Despite announcing his retirement from active GT500 competition a couple of months ago as well, Hiroaki Ishiura (#38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra) doesn’t actually seem that sad that his 20-year SUPER GT career is coming to an end. Perhaps that’s because it actually isn’t. Rumors around the paddock suggest that Ishiura might extend his career by switching to GT300 next season, the class in which he started his career in, in a certain as well as big way that could surprise everyone and would involve Toyota’s new and for the marque very important GT3 machine.

– Definitely saying „sayonara“ after Sunday will be two-time GT500 champion Tsugio Matsuda (Realize Corporation Advan Z). The all-time record holder with 25 wins in SUPER GT’s premiere class announced only recently that Motegi will be his final career race, which started all the way back in the year 2000 as driver of the McLaren F1 GTR. Afterwards, Matsuda switched to Honda before moving into the Nissan camp. The 46-year-old is the only driver who competed with all four former GT500 tyre manufacturers Bridgestone, Yokohama, Michelin and Dunlop. Only a win with the latter is missing on his otherwise legendary resumé. At a press conference on Friday, Matsuda explained that following his 200 career starts, he felt the fatigue and pressure that comes from competing on the highest level of GT racing in all Asia. When he celebrated his 25th career win at Sportsland SUGO, which also marked his 201st career start, he felt that it would be a good opportunity to end his career. But similar to his 10-year-long teammate Ronnie Quintarelli, who retired from SUPER GT at the end of last year, Matsuda still feels the need for speed – just outside of SUPER GT. Matsuda wants to continue in Super Taikyu and also showed interest, if given the opportunity, to challenge the 24 Hours of Spa as well as the Nürburgring 24 Hours in the near future. Kondo Racing will hold a special celebration for Matsuda during the pit walk.

– While Nissan has no horse left in the GT500 title race, the Yokohama-based marque saw its first pole position of the season thanks to the heroic efforts of Daiki Sasaki in the rain at Autopolis. It was the first pole for the #3 Niterra Motul Z squad, which last stood on pole at the 2023 curtain dropper. Despite this sign of speed, some rumors strongly hint at the #3 potentially falling victim to budget cutbacks in light of Nissan’s financial struggles. It’s unclear what would happen to both Sasaki and Atsushi Miyake. While Matsuda’s retirement opens up one cockpit, keeping both drivers on the roster would require another pilot losing their seat.

– SUPER FORMULA title contender Kakunoshin Ohta is at Motegi this weekend. Rumors suggest that the Honda ace could return to SUPER GT next season. Asked about this, Ohta neither denied nor confirmed the rumors. While the plan is to continue in SUPER FORMULA alongside his endurance race programme in IMSA in the USA, there are, unlike this year, no clashes between the latter and SUPER GT next year. Honda seems keen to have Ohta back in GT500, but it would most likely have to come at the cost of another driver losing their seat, as the successor of the retiring Izawa is with Igor Fraga already all but confirmed at this point.

– While a total of ten teams still have a mathematical chance at this year’s GT300 championship, realistically speaking it will most likely end up being a fight between the top three contenders, which are only 4.5 points apart from each other. After barely losing out on last year’s title, Naoya Gamou / Takuro Shinohara (#65 Leon Pyramid AMG) are out for revenge, leading the points following their sole victory of the season at the Okyama season opener as well two more third place podium finishes at the Fuji Sprint weekend in the summer.

– Their biggest rival? Kohei Hirate, who could become the first solo championship since Andre Couto in 2015, due to his teammate Joao Paulo de Oliveira missing two rounds owed to two clashes because of his double programme in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series. If Hirate manages to come out on top, he would be one of the few drivers who have won titles in both GT500 as well as GT300. Given the calendar of the Brazilian series, which at the point of this article hasn’t been announced yet, Oliveira is said to targeting a similar double progamme next year as well.

– Despite joining the GT300 grid only in the very last minute, the newly-formed CarGuy MKS Racing squad is in a strong position to take a historic first championship win in their debut season. It would be the second GT300 title for Misato Haga, the only female team director in the series, who already led MOLA to their GT300 title back in 2007. What complicates this year’s GT300 battle are the dropped results, since not all teams were able to make the trip to the overseas round in Sepang, Malaysia due to the limited garage capacity. The 4.5 point deficit turns into only 1.5 points when dropping the #65 Leon Pyramid AMG’s worst result. However, when looking at past results, Motegi’s stop-and-go character seems better suited for Leon Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 than the Ferrari 296 GT3.

– If CarGuy MKS Racing were to win the champoíonship, Rikuto Kobayashi could move up to GT500 as the reigning champion, as last year’s Super Formula Lights runner-up is set to switch to the premiere class next year. His teammate Zak O’Sullivan is eager to continue in GT300, but whether he would stay with the jointventure of Misato Haga and Takeshi ‚Mr. CarGuy‘ Kimura will depend on Toyota’s decision, as the Briton is under contract with the Japanese car maker.

– The GT300 Ferrari squads – CarGuy MKS Racing, PONOS Racing and Velorex – are poised to get the Evo kit for the Ferrari 296 GT3, which is set to roll out in 2026.

– It’s unclear if JLOC wants to switch to the new Temerario GT3. The successor of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 is set to make its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring next year. After winning the class title last season, both of JLOC machines got hit heavily by the Balance of Performance (BoP), when a smaller air restrictor quite literally sucked the air ouf the car’s performance this season – a fact that was heaviy lamented by JLOC boss Isao Noritake when talking with SportCar 365. And with new models historically having to deal with a somewhat challenging BoP to avoid a newcomer dominating the competiton, there’s a big question mark behind a potential immediate switch.

– Both the #11 Gainer Tanax Z as well as the #20 Shade Racing GR86 GT are back in action this weekend. While the former sustained heavy damage in qualifying at Autopolis, Shade Racing was faced with yet another potential season-ending situation, when they got caught in a massive 3-car crash at Sportsland SUGO. This was the second time (the Sepang flyaway round not counting) that Shade Racing had to skip a round following a fire incident at the GTE test at Suzuka earlier this year. Another fire broke at August’s Suzuka round during warm-up, sidelining the team for the race. A a good result on Sunday would most certainly be balm for the soul following this year’s nightmare season.

– Heavy rain in the afternoon cut Friday’s setup day short for many teams, as many were seen to close their garages early or move their regular pit stop practice drills inside the garages itself. Some teams used sandbags to keep the water from leaking into their garage. Fortunately, the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend predicts dry conditions with air temperatures around 20°C.

– The GTA has scheduled its regular press conference for early Sunday morning. While it’s unclear what topics will be on chairman Masaaki Bandoh’s agenda, he could potentially announce the winner of the 2027 one-make tyre selection, as SUPER GT is moving away from its open tyre competition.

Copyright Photos: Racingblog.de