Weekly Racing Roundup (11.6.23)

Miyata Completes Japanese Title Double

Ritomo Miyata completed a sweep of the Super Formula and Super GT titles as he wrapped up the GT500 championship alongside his TOM’S Toyota co-driver Sho Tsuboi.

The drivers of the No. 36 Toyota GR Supra claimed their third win of the season at Motegi, and their second in a row, to end the campaign with a 26-point edge over the Nissan pairing of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi.

Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship protege Miyata, who beat Liam Lawson to the Super Formula title one week prior, is the fifth driver to win both championships in the same year and only the second since the current Super GT era started in 2005.

Naoki Yamamoto is the other, having achieved the feat in 2018 and 2020.

Chiyo led the opening stages of the 63-lap race and benefited from Tsuboi taking 23 laps to fight past Nobuharu Matsushita in the second-placed Real Racing Honda NS-X GT.

The leading Nissan pitted with a six-second advantage that doubled by the 35-lap mark, but Miyata closed the gap back down to around seven seconds after the driver changes.

During the closing stint, patchy rain that had been falling since the start became more consistent, creating a slippery track surface. The conditions contributed to a spin on slick tires for Takaboshi, who dramatically slid into the Turn 8 gravel with five laps to go.

That gifted Miyata the win, although he and Tsuboi would have been champions even if Takaboshi took victory. The Nissan dropped to 13th and failed to score, ensuring the TOM’S duo significantly increased the six-point gap they had when the race started.

The No. 23 Nissan Z GT500 of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli came through in second as Matsushita and Koudai Tsukakoshi completed the podium in their Honda.

GT300 honors went to Yuya Motojima and Takashi Kogure who delivered Lamborghini’s first Super GT class win since 2019 with the JLOC squad.

RESULTS: Motegi

Other Racing Action & News

***The ninth edition of the HSR Classic Daytona 24 took place last weekend, comprising several standalone races over 24 hours of continuous running. Three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Marcel Fassler made his event debut and won the Group A and Group F races alongside his co-driver Gerard Lopez, becoming the first to triumph in multiple groups since the inaugural edition in 2014.

***Fassler and Lopez’s Group F win came in a former JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R. The Group A victory was taken with a 1969 No. 60 Lola T70 Mk III, with both cars run by Iconic Racing. Red Bull Formula 1 CTO Adrian Newey and Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley finished third together in the Group A contest.

***EastSide Motorsport team principal Florian Schoen commented: “I am happy with the decision not to start the GT3 program until 2025, our goal has always been healthy growth and high-quality projects that can be implemented. This gives us time to prepare as best as possible for the next step and to meet our demands in GT3 too.”

***Mercedes-AMG is holding a young driver test at Valencia this week. GetSpeed Performance has confirmed that James Wallis, Aaron Walker and Conrad Laursen will drive its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos. Al Faisal Al Zubair, Steve Jans, Martin Konrad and GT America powered by AWS driver Anthony Bartone are also expected to be present over the four days of running.

***Mercedes-AMG has launched a track day version of its SRO-homologated GT2 car, which itself was derived from a track day model. The Mercedes-AMG GT2 Pro features a push-to-pass function that boosts the top power output by 43 hp to 750 hp when engaged.

***Christoph Sagemueller, head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, said: “Demand for pure track day cars has increased significantly, so therefore, we also respond to the expansion of the derivatization in the track day and club sport segment at the same time.”

***The joint operation between EastSide Motorsport and BCMC Motorsport will switch from Mercedes-AMG to Aston Martin for its ADAC GT4 Germany effort next year. The two organizations are planning to advance to Aston’s updated GT3 product in 2025.

On this weekend: Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe (Vallelunga)