Tsuboi Passes Kobayashi to Give TOM’S Okayama Win

Defending GT500 champions Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita scored a straightforward victory in Sunday’s opening round of the SUPER GT season at Okayama.

Starting second at the wheel of the No. 36 Toyota GR Supra, Yamashita maintained the same position throughout his opening stint behind Toshiki Oyu in the pole-winning Cerumo Toyota until handing over to Tsuboi on lap 32 of 82.

Oyu came in the following lap to make way for GT500 debutant Rikuto Kobayashi, who initially maintained the net advantage but was soon coming under major pressure from Tsuboi in the battle for the lead as he warmed his tires.

What appeared to be a near-inevitable pass for the lead arrived on lap 38 as Tsuboi set up a pass around the outside of Attwood Curve and along the back straight.

From that point onwards, Tsuboi was able to simply drive into the distance, opening up a six-second lead by lap 46 and finally crossing the line with just under 20 seconds in hand over Kobayashi, who completed a Toyota GR Supra 1-2.

Strong early progress for Bertrand Baguette in the Team Impul Nissan Z NISMO from seventh on the grid set up a charge to the podium, as the Belgian driver cleared the Rookie Racing Toyota of Nirei Fukuzumi for third on the seventh lap.

Baguette’s co-driver Kazuki Hiramine closed the gap to Kobayashi in the closing stages but ultimately had to settle for third, 2.4 seconds down.

Fukuzumi’s co-driver Kazuya Oshima held on for fourth in a late-race battle with the SARD Toyota, keeping Sacha Fenestraz at bay until the finish.

Honda’s new HRC Prelude-GT could only manage a best of sixth on its debut with the No. 16 ARTA car of Ren Sato and Tomoki Nojiri, who gained ground with an overcut on fellow Honda squads Real Racing and Team Kunimitsu.

It had been the Real Racing car that led the Honda charge early on, albeit with Yuto Nomura losing fourth to Baguette early on, but Koudai Tsukakoshi struggled for pace in his stint and dropped all the way down to 10th place at the finish.

That opened the door for Kunimitsu duo Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto to finish seventh, followed by the NISMO and Kondo Racing Nissans, while the repaired No. 8 ARTA Honda missed out on the final point by under a second.

While the No. 36 TOM’S car got its season off to a dream start, the sister No. 37 GR Supra was forced to serve an early penalty for changing the engine and suffered further drama in the race, finally ending up eight laps down.

D’station Racing Converts Pole Into GT300 Win

In the GT300 class, Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg converted pole into a comfortable win at the wheel of the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Fujii immediately opened up a lead as the Inging Toyota GR86 GT of Kazuhisa Urabe and the apr Lexus LC500h GT of Miki Koyama locked horns throughout the first stint until the latter stopped to hand over to Kazuto Kotaka.

By the time Urabe pitted to give the Inging car to Yuui Tsutsumi, Fagg was nine seconds up the road, and the gap was seven seconds at the finish.

In the meantime, Kotaka found himself stuck behind the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Naoya Gamou that appeared to gain ground by not changing tires, and was no longer in a position to challenge for second after taking the place.

Kotaka had to turn his attentions in the final stages towards defending from the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG of Nobuteru Taniguchi, who had earlier passed the LEON car en route to fourth for himself and Tatsuya Kataoka.

Defending champions Gamou and Togo Suganami finished fifth, ahead of the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Daniil Kvyat and Takashi Kogure.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Kvyat enjoyed a strong debut race as he passed the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT of Hiroki Yoshida in a late battle over sixth, with Yoshida then losing a further place to the K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Shinichi Takagi.

A drive-through penalty for contact restricted the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Iori Kimura and Joao Paulo de Oliveira, which had been in the mix for a top-six in the opening stint, to 14th place at the finish.