Shade Toyota Forced to Skip Autopolis After Sugo Crash

Shade Racing has announced it will skip next month’s penultimate round of the SUPER GT season at Autopolis after the damage its Toyota GR86 GT sustained in a crash in the previous race at Sportsland Sugo.

The team published a statement on Tuesday confirming that its solo GT300 entry will not appear in the Autopolis race on Oct. 19, after the crash involving Katsuyuki Hiranaka just over a week ago left the No. 20 Toyota with significant damage.

Shade will also sit out the upcoming GT Entrants’ Test at Motegi on Oct. 6-7.

“Due to the accident that occurred during Round 6 at Sugo, the No. 20 Shade Racing GR86 GT sustained heavy damage,” the statement read.

“Currently, we are proceeding with car repairs and reviewing our team structure for the future, but it was determined that restoring the car to perfect condition [in the required time] would be difficult, leading us to his decision.”

The Sugo crash, which led to the race being red-flagged, was triggered by contact between the D’station Aston Martin of Tomonobu Fujii and the apr Lexus of Oliver Rasmussen exiting the final corner that caused Fujii to crash.

Subsequently, the Shade car of Hiranaka was struck by a wheel that broke loose from the Aston, which then led to Hiranaka colliding with the barriers at the pit entrance together with the Nakajima Racing Honda GT500 car of Riki Okusa.

All drivers were cleared of injury in the accident.

Autopolis will mark the third race Shade has been forced to miss in what has been a nightmare season for the Hayashi Telempu-owned team, after two separate vehicle fires forced it to miss the third round at Sepang and the fifth round at Suzuka.

Drivers Hiranaka and Eijiro Shimizu have only achieved a best finish of 16th in the races they have been able to contest, with no points on the board.

Shade’s statement added the team is “evaluating every option” regarding its SUPER GT future, with no specific mention of any ambition to return for the final round of the season at Motegi on Nov. 2.