Ohta Braced for Crucial Sugo Round for Honda Title Hopes

ARTA Honda driver Kaku Ohta has acknowledged closing the points deficit to Toyota and TOM’S in this weekend’s Sugo round will be vital for his title aspirations.

Ohta, who shares the works-backed No. 8 Honda HRC Prelude-GT with Hiroki Otsu, faces a 23-point disadvantage at the halfway point of a campaign that remains at eight races with the addition of a second race for the Motegi double-header in November.

He and Otsu are coming off the back of consecutive podium finishes, finishing second from pole in Fuji in August and third last time out at Suzuka after Honda made a major leap forward with its new Prelude-GT in the aftermath of a troubled first two races.

ARTA’s sister No. 16 car of Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato took the win at Suzuka, leading a podium lockout for Honda at its home venue.

Although the No. 8 Honda is laden with a fuel flow restrictor for the first time this year at Sugo as part of a 54 kg handicap, Ohta says that beating No. 36 TOM’S pair Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, who carry the maximum penalty of 100 kg, will be critical.

“We are using quite different set-ups on No. 8 and No. 16,” Ohta told Sportscar365. “In Suzuka their set-up works well, but at Fuji we were better than them. Also, we had more success weight for Suzuka [32 kg versus 26 kg for the No. 16].

“Despite the very hard races at Okayama and Fuji, after a three-month break we have two podiums in a row. I am really satisfied about what we are doing right now.

“For Sugo, we will have 54 kg of ballast on the car, and we are already in the [fuel flow] restrictor zone, which affects us a lot. We will try to grab as many points as possible and at least finish in front of the No. 36. That’s the main target.

“I’m not sure how Sugo and Autopolis will be for the Prelude, but I expect Motegi to be good for our car. If we can stay in the fight against the No. 36 until the last round, I think we have a chance. Having two races at Motegi might be good for us.”

However, Ohta admitted that the performance showed by Tsuboi and Yamashita at Suzuka, who finished ninth with a nominal 96 kg of ballast including a theoretical 15-second pit penalty, remains a concern for the title run-in.

“Especially in the short run, our pace is super-fast,” said Ohta. “I had pole at Fuji, and at Suzuka the car also felt great. The car has more downforce than the Civic.

“The long run pace is ok at the moment, but I am not sure what will happen when we are back to being the same weight as the No. 36. At Suzuka they were still fast, during the race they were almost matching our pace.

“We can’t say we are the fastest at the moment. But we are improving a lot, so hopefully we can stay in the championship battle until the final race.”

HRC’s GT500 project leader Tomohiro Onishi played down the chances of continuing the Prelude’s winning streak at Sugo despite the Tohoku venue, where the Prelude was first shaken down last year, sharing some characteristics with Suzuka.

“I’d like to be optimistic about Sugo and Autopolis, but there are quite a few things I’m worried about,” Onishi told reporters after the Suzuka race.

“We were lucky with the weather during the tire manufacturer test at Sugo [in July], so both the Bridgestone and Dunlop users managed to get some track time. That means we have a bit less anxiety heading into race week there compared to Suzuka.

“I was to look at things with a critical eye, you could argue that our recent results have simply came down to Honda making the right tire choice for the conditions. We could easily go to a track that suits the Prelude in theory and be completely uncompetitive.

“Of course, tire selection is crucial, but so is the setup work done at the track to get the most out of those tires; if we make even a small mistake there and fall behind in our progress, we could easily end up way down the grid in qualifying.

“So, those are definitely some of the concerns weighing on my mind.”