Kondo Nissan Steals Sugo Win with Last-Lap Pass

The Kondo Racing Nissan team scored its first top-class SUPER GT win in nine years as Teppei Natori passed Sacha Fenestraz on the final lap of Sunday’s Sportsland Sugo race, which was red-flagged for an hour after a multi-car accident.

Natori overtook Fenestraz’s SARD Toyota GR Supra around the outside at Horseback corner after several laps of running nose to tail to secure his first GT500 win in the Yokohama-shod No. 24 Nissan Z NISMO he shares with Tsugio Matsuda.

It marks Kondo’s first GT500 win since 2016, as well as Matsuda’s first since the opening round of the 2023 season, the veteran picking up his 25th in total, as well as a first for Yokohama in the top class for just over two years.

Fenestraz had to be content with second in the car started by Yuhi Sekiguchi, 0.649 seconds behind at the finish, while completing the podium was the Real Racing Honda Civic Type R-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Shun Koide.

The race was red-flagged with 50 laps completed after a major crash on the start/finish straight involving the Nakajima Racing Honda, as well as two GT300 cars, the Shade Racing Toyota and the D’station Racing Aston Martin.

Unseen contact between Tomonobu Fujii’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and Oliver Rasmussen’s apr Lexus LC500h was the trigger for the incident, although Rasmussen was initially able to continue unscathed before returning to the pits.

A loose wheel from the Aston then struck the Shade Toyota of Katsuyuku Hiranaka, with Riki Okusa in the Nakajima Honda getting caught up as he tried to avoid Hiranaka, only to end up making heavy contact with the barriers at the pit entry.

All three drivers involved were unharmed.

After a delay of nearly an hour, the race resumed behind the safety car as a timed race as it became clear the original 83-lap limit would not be reached, with Fenestraz losing the 12-second advantage he held over Tsukakoshi’s Honda prior to the stoppage.

The race went back to green on lap 55 of an eventual 70 with only 22 minutes left on the clock, with Fenestraz initially escaping to the tune of two seconds before Natori, who had taken the restart in third, made a critical pass for second on lap 60.

Natori made short work of Fenestraz’s lead, and made multiple attempts to pass at Turn 1, even running off-track at lap 65 while attacking the SARD driver, albeit critically maintaining second place ahead of Tsukakoshi.

Recovering from that error, Natori finally made the winning move with seconds left on the clock by going all the way around the outside of Fenestraz’s Toyota at the downhill Horseback right-hander, which gave him the inside line for SP In.

Just behind Tsukakoshi, Ren Sato brought home the pole-winning No. 16 ARTA Honda in fourth place, with Sato’s co-driver Hiroki Otsu having lost the advantage as early as the sixth lap as many teams struggled for grip on the newly-resurfaced track.

Giuliano Alesi made a late surge after the red flag to finish fifth in the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota he shares with Ukyo Sasahara, ahead of the Team Kunimitsu Honda of Tadasuke Makino that had started 15th and last in the hands of Naoki Yamamoto.

The Suzuka-winning No. 23 NISMO Nissan of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi was seventh on the road but was dealt a 40-second time penalty for a full-course yellow infraction, dropping the pair out of the points.

That promoted Rookie Racing Toyota pair Kazuya Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi to eighth ahead of the No. 8 ARTA Honda, which slumped from fifth to ninth on the road after the red flag with Nobuharu Matsushita at the wheel.

Despite starting fourth, the points-leading No. 1 TOM’S Toyota ended up with two points for ninth after a difficult opening stint that saw Kenta Yamashita lose ground.

It means Yamashita and Sho Tsuboi take an eight-point lead into the final two races of the season over Rookie duo Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi.

LM Corsa Rebounds from Suzuka DSQ for GT300 Win

In the GT300 class, LM Corsa scored its first win since 2021 with the Lexus LC500 shared by Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno.

Having effectively led at the stoppage, Kohno held on at the finish by just 0.660 seconds from Joao Paulo de Oliveira’s Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, avenging the team being disqualified from second at the previous round at Suzuka.

Second for the Kondo Nissan propels Kohei Hirate, who shared the car with de Oliveira, to second in the standings with two races to go, just four-and-a-half points behind LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG pair Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami.

Harry King and Tsubasa Kondo secured Seven x Seven Racing’s first SUPER GT podium in their Porsche 911 GT3 R, officially a lap behind the two leading cars.

Goodsmile Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo challenged the LM Corsa Lexus early on but ended up fourth in a boost to Tatsuya Kataoka and Nobuteru Taniguchi’s title bid, although only after the car was almost caught up in the incident that triggered the red flags — a delay that allowed the Seven x Seven Porsche to gain position.

Gainer meanwhile secured its best finish so far with its self-built Nissan Z in fifth.

CarGuy MKS Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 started on pole, but Zak O’Sullivan suffered from significant tire graining in the first stint, dropping numerous positions, with Rikuto Kobayashi finally bringing the car home for eighth place.

Despite Suganami spinning while battling the PONOS Ferrari, the championship-leading LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG salvaged five points for 11th on a day that both of its nearest rivals pre-race, the D’station Aston and the Inging Toyota GR86 GT, retired.

The Inging Toyota was a victim of Suganami’s spin as both the Gainer Nissan and the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra slowed in avoidance, which resulted in Hibiki Taira ploughing into the back of the latter car and sustaining terminal damage.

Kataoka and Taniguchi move up to third in the standings, 8.5 points off the lead, with D’station pair Fujii and Charlie Fagg slipping to fourth overall.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300