Honda Continues Winning Streak in Frenetic Autopolis Race

Honda made it four SUPER GT victories on the bounce with its HRC Prelude-GT as Team Kunimitsu duo Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto reignited their title hopes with a second win of the season in a frenetic three-hour race at Autopolis.

Makino and Yamamoto will head to next month’s Motegi double-header just three points back from TOM’S Toyota duo Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita after repeating their victory at the Kyushu track from last year in a race punctuated by two safety car periods.

It follows the No. 100 crew’s win from the third round of the season at Fuji in August, from which point Honda has gone unbeaten.

Kunimitsu coming through to triumph looked unlikely around the halfway point of the race, when Makino was running 13th of the 14 GT500 runners having not long taken over the car from starting driver Yamamoto.

But the second safety car, triggered when Seita Nonaka spun and crashed his Toyota GT300 car, put the team right back in contention, as quick pit work — the car needed less fuel than many of its rivals having only just stopped — ultimately propelled Makino back into the lead once all cars had completed both mandatory stops.

Makino was able to pull away from the Cerumo Toyota GR Supra of Toshiki Oyu, who had earlier passed Kazuki Hiramine’s Impul Nissan Z NISMO, to the tune of  seconds to seal the win, as Oyu and Rikuto Kobayashi came home for second.

Hiramine was then passed for the final spot on the podium by fellow Nissan driver Katsumasa Chiyo, back in action after missing the Sugo race through injury, with the works No. 23 Nissan scoring its first podium since the Golden Week Fuji round.

Hiramine’s co-driver Bertrand Baguette had enjoyed a strong opening double stint, taking the lead after an early first stop for the Real Racing Honda, but the first safety car, caused by a crash for Miki Koyama’s apr Lexus, wiped out the car’s advantage.

A difficult final stint for Hiramine resulted in a fifth-place finish behind the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota of Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi.

ARTA’s No. 8 Honda of Kaku Ohta and Hiroki Otsu finished sixth, followed by SARD Toyota pair Sacha Fenestraz and Yuhi Sekiguchi.

The No. 36 TOM’S Toyota had been in the podium fight in the closing stages but was handed a costly drive-through penalty for a pit infraction. Tsuboi resumed ninth after that, and passed the No. 16 ARTA Honda of Ren Sato to salvage eighth.

The Sugo-winning Real Honda that led early on in the hands of Yuto Nomura was tenth, as the pole-winning Nakajima Racing Prelude ended up a disappointing 13th.

K-tunes duo Takagi, Nitta Take Surprise GT300 Win

In the GT300 division, a gamble to not change tires at the second stop propelled Shinichi Takagi and Morio Nitta to victory in their K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3.

Both drivers — who have a combined age of 115 — scored their first wins since 2019, although the championship’s ‘golden couple’ were not sharing a car at the time.

After the second safety car, triggered when Nonaka crashed the Saitama Green Brave Toyota at Turn 3 while battling Yuui Tsutsumi’s Inging Toyota, it was the Tomei Sports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 that somehow emerged with the net lead.

However, Yu Kanamaru, who was also on older tires, was powerless to hang on from Takagi, who marched to a 20-second win thereafter, a first for K-tunes since Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi won at Suzuka in 2019.

Kanamaru was passed by Taichi Watarai, who closed out Seven x Seven Racing’s first podium finish of the year aboard the Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo started by Sven Mueller.

The Tomei Nissan shared by Kanamaru and Rin Arakawa (Atsushi Tanaka was registered but did not drive) managed to hang on to the final podium place.

Ex-Formula 1 racer Daniil Kvyat came away with his best finish in SUPER GT to date in fourth aboard the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 he shared with Takashi Kogure, followed by the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the Inging Toyota.

The pole-winning Subaru BRZ failed to score points in 16th, one place behind the Kondo Racing Nissan that had led the championship coming into the race but had its strategy ruined by the second safety car, as Iori Kimura was yet to pit at that point.

However, the single point earned by Kimura and Joao Paulo de Oliveira mean they still head to Motegi leading the way, with Mueller now a solo second, eight points behind.