Yamashita: December Suzuka Race Could Benefit Toyota

The postponement of SUPER GT’s Suzuka 350km until December could play into the hands of the championship-leading TOM’S Toyota crew, believes Kenta Yamashita.

SUPER GT was forced to call off the fifth round of the season, originally scheduled for Sept. 1, due to a typhoon that led to heavy rainfall across central and western Japan.

The race will now be held on Dec. 8 as the season finale, with November’s visit to Motegi becoming the penultimate round on the schedule.

A knock-on impact is that the Suzuka race will be held in much cooler conditions than it would be normally, and will feature no success ballast, with the Motegi race now set to feature half-success weight as per SUPER GT’s usual rules.

Along with his teammate in the No. 36 Toyota GR Supra, Sho Tsuboi, Yamashita holds a narrow four-point lead over Team Kunimitsu Honda pair Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino ahead of next week’s fifth round at Sportsland Sugo.

Yamashita believes that the changes made to this year’s GR Supra have made Suzuka a more favorable circuit for the car – as evidenced by the brand’s 1-2 at the circuit in June – and that this should put TOM’S in a good position for the title run-in.

Toyota also led a pre-season test at Suzuka in March held in conditions more similar to those expected in December.

“This year’s Supra is slightly better suited to Suzuka than before, so there’s no reason to think we won’t be competitive,” Yamashita told Sportscar365. “In fact, I would say having the finale at Suzuka is better for us than having it at Motegi. 

“On the other hand, Motegi is a circuit where the ballast impacts you more, and with this year’s Supra, the straight line speed has become our weakness.

“I feel like that could be a more difficult race for us now. But if we win at Suzuka, then I think we will still be ok.”

Additionally, Yamashita was positive about the October’s three-hour Autopolis race, now the sixth round, becoming a regular race with full success weight.

“We will be fighting everyone else with roughly the same weight, and it seems the No. 36 car is the strongest when it comes to performing well with success weight,” he said.

“It doesn’t change things dramatically having half or full weight, but I think it will be an advantage for us.”

Impul Nissan driver Bertrand Baguette said he was looking forward to “something different” with the schedule change, but admitted that Suzuka hosting the finale puts the championship-leading TOM’S Toyota in an even better position.

“It looks like Toyota has the upper hand in terms of high-downforce tracks, especially when it’s cold,” Baguette told Sportscar365.

“They won Round 3 at Suzuka, but they were ahead in the winter test as well, so I think they will be happy about this change.

“People have had time to improve the setup and their understanding of the car, but Toyota is the big favorite. It puts them in an even better position.”

Team Kunimitsu Not Fazed by Schedule Change

Honda’s Civic Type R-GT appeared to be the weakest of the three GT500 cars during winter testing at Suzuka in early March.

However, Team Kunimitsu chief engineer Satofumi Hoshi believes that the progress the Sakura marque has made with the car since then means those results are not so relevant, and was encouraged by the Civic’s pace in Round 3 at Suzuka in June.

“At the beginning of this year, we had the test at Suzuka, but it was just the start of the car’s development and we hadn’t maximized the performance,” Hoshi told Sportscar365.

“But in the four races we have had so far, we have progressed with the set-up and the performance is getting better and better. Also, in Round 3, the Civic’s performance was good. So I think the performance should be better than in winter testing.”

Hoshi also predicted that, depending on ambient temperatures and other factors such as wind direction, the existing lap record at Suzuka is likely to be beaten comfortably.

Then-Honda driver Toshiki Oyu set a new unofficial record at Suzuka of 1:42.630 last year in testing, but the official benchmark is a 1:44.112 set by Toyota’s Yuji Kunimoto.

“Normally [in the summer], lap times should be around the 1:44 range, but things like the wind direction can have a big influence,” said Hoshi.

“If the conditions are good, I think we could see lap times around 1:42.5.”