Nojiri, Matsushita Seal First Win for Honda Civic

Honda’s new Civic Type R-GT took its first SUPER GT victory as ARTA pair Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita converted pole position at Fuji Speedway on Sunday.

The No. 8 Civic shared by Nojiri and Matsushita led a one-two for the Sakura-based marque in only the car’s fourth race, 3.2 seconds ahead of the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu car of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.

It was a relatively straightforward race for both of the top two cars, which finished in their grid positions, with Nojiri building a gap of a little under five seconds over Makino over the course of the opening stint before pitting on lap 34 of 77.

Taking over the wheel of the No. 8 car, Matsushita had to contend with a challenge from Yamamoto in the Kunimitsu car, who closed to within a second at one stage before fading again in the closing stages.

Nojiri’s victory was his 10th in GT500, while Matsushita scored his third in total and his first as part of the Team Mugen-run ARTA squad.

Completing the podium was the best of the Toyota GR Supras, the No. 38 Cerumo machine shared by Hiroaki Ishiura and Toshiki Oyu.

In the opening stint it looked like the Rookie Racing Toyota would be the main threat for the podium as Nirei Fukuzumi made strong progress from eighth on the grid, passing both Ishiura and the Nakajima Honda of Takuya Izawa prior to the stops.

But the Cerumo car was able to get the advantage with an earlier pitstop, and once he had taken over from Ishiura, Oyu repassed Fukuzumi’s teammate Kazuya Oshima and bring home third place, albeit 12 seconds down on the winning ARTA Honda.

The Dunlop-shod Nakajima Honda lost out in the battle for fifth place, with Riki Okusa falling victim to Kazuki Hiramine’s Impul Nissan Z in the closing stages.

TOM’S Toyota pair Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita recovered from a lowly 14th place on the grid to finish seventh despite carrying a stage two fuel flow restrictor.

Yamashita passed the Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Kakunoshin Ohta on the very final lap to bag four points and maintain a cushion of four points over Yamamoto and Makino, who vault up to second in the standings.

The two NISMO-run Nissan Zs endured a difficult race, with both ending up out of the points down in 12th and 13th places.

Mitsunori Takaboshi and Atsushi Miyake, who finished 12th in the No. 3 Nissan, sit third in the standings at the halfway point, 11 points behind Tsuboi and Yamashita.

LEON Mercedes Takes Dominant GT300 Victory

In the GT300 class, Mercedes-AMG squad LEON Racing sauntered to a serene victory, Naoya Gamou and Takuro Shinohara scoring their first victory as a pair and ending a losing streak for the team dating back to the middle of the 2020 season.

Shinohara took the start at the wheel of the No. 65 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and quickly pulled out an advantage ahead of the second-placed No. 87 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Natsu Sakaguchi.

The Mercedes was already some eight seconds clear of the field when Shinohara pitted on lap 28 just as a full-course yellow was called for the stricken Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota GR Supra stopping on track.

With none of the other leaders able to pit before the FCY was called, the LEON car gained a huge 51-second advantage that Gamou was able to manage to the finish.

Coming out on top in the battle for second was another Mercedes-AMG crew, Goodsmile Racing pair Tatsuya Kataoka and Nobuteru Taniguchi, as Taniguchi held off the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Joao Paulo de Oliveira in the closing stages.

D’station Racing came home fourth with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo that Tomonobu Fujii shares with Charlie Fagg, ahead of the two JLOC cars, the No. 88 machine leading home the No. 87 car that ran second early on.

The championship-leading No. 2 Inging Toyota GR86 GT was able to recover from 18th on the grid to bag eighth place after a late pitstop in which they took four new tires.

As such, Inging drivers Hibiki Taira and Yuui Tsutsumi now hold a reduced two-point lead over Gamou and Shinohara in the standings, with JLOC Lamborghini pair Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima slipping to third, 14 points behind.

Gainer’s privately-constructed Z GT300 scored its first point in only its third race as Keishi Ishikawa and Ryuichiro Tomita came home 10th.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300