Major Class Championships At Stake In Super Taikyu 5 Hours of Autopolis
Just two races remain in the 2020 Pirelli Super Taikyu Series, which heads to the remote Autopolis International Racing Course this weekend for the 5-hour TKU Super Taikyu Race on 13 December.
The Autopolis round brings with it a 46-car entry list across all eight classes of Super Taikyu competition, down just a small handful compared to the most recent round at Twin Ring Motegi in November.
This year, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic’s foreseen impact on the series, only the best five out of six results per team are counted towards their championship tallies for the season. And on the eve of this penultimate race of the season, there could be as many as five different class champions which could be decided before the final round, including the ones in the three top classes – ST-X (FIA GT3), ST-Z (FIA GT4), and ST-TCR.
Over in ST-X, the story of the season has been first-year entrants Mercedes-AMG Team Hirix Racing, winners of the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours on debut, and winners of the most recent 5 hour race at Twin Ring Motegi, just three weeks after facing the very real possibility of suspending operations when Shinichi Takagi crashed at Okayama.
But thanks to the efforts of gentleman racer Daisuke Yamawaki and young professionals Shaun Thong and super-sub Yuki Nemoto, the #888 Hirix Good Day AMG GT3 has a 23-point lead in the ST-X points table. And if Yamawaki, Thong, and Nemoto win their third race of the season at Autopolis, they will clinch the ST-X Championship, which would be a first for Mercedes.
Otherwise, one of three other ST-X teams, separated by just two and a half points from second to fourth, have a chance to extend their championship hopes if they were to win the race. The #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 features the newly-crowned GT300 Drivers’ Champion Kiyoto Fujinami, racing alongside Kazuki Hoshino, and father/son duo Noboyuki and Ryuichiro Oyagi. Hoshino and Fujinami won at Autopolis last July for this same GTNET Motor Sports team.
To boost their chances of a victory, the #9 MP Racing GT-R has recruited recent GT World Challenge Europe export Ryuichiro Tomita to partner the regular trio of Joe Shindo, Yusaku Shibata, and Masami Kageyama. The #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3 will feature gentleman drivers Hideki and Hiroaki Nagai alongside Koki Saga and Kazuto Kotaka. And while out of championship contention, the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, and Tsubasa Kondo will still aim for a victory in the last two races to end what has been a frustrating 2020 season.
In the GT4 ranks, the #3 Endless Sports Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Yuudai Uchida/Hideki Yamauchi/Tsubasa Takahashi/Togo Suganami) is on the verge of wrapping up their second consecutive ST-Z Championship. In order to clinch the championship, the #3 Endless AMG GT4 has to win the race and secure the two bonus points for taking pole position. That won’t be easy however, as they’re carrying 50 kilogrammes of Success Ballast this weekend – which is a component in Super Taikyu as it is in Super GT, albeit, the handicaps are meted out much less aggressively.
They currently lead the #47 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT4 (Tatsuya Hoshino/Manabu Orido/Takuro Shinohara/Kenji Hama) by thirteen and a half points. The D’station Vantage GT4 scored its maiden S-Tai victory last time at Motegi, but likely needs another to stay in the championship hunt.
It’s an eight-car entry in ST-Z this time out, and there’s a few likely candidates to play the role of spoiler. The #19 BRP/Sunrise Blvd Porsche 718 Cayman MR (Kohei Fukuda/Takeshi Matsumoto/Yusuke Shiotsu/Koichi Okumura) is fielded by the same team that won this class last year in a Mercedes. Speaking of the Silver Arrows, the #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Takayuki Aoki/Yuya Sakamoto/Takuya Otaki) already has a race win under its belt, gentleman driver Otsuka will be racing at his home track, and Otaki adds a genuinely talented young driver into the fold. And don’t forget the #20 SS/YZ Studie BMW M4 GT4, which has added 2004 Le Mans winner Seiji Ara to the regular lineup with S-Tai legends Takayuki Kinoshita and Jukuchou Sunako, with gentleman driver Hirokazu Suzuki.
One GT4 car that has wrapped up a title already is the new ST-1 Champions, the #28 Rookie Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Naoya Gamou, Daisuke Toyoda, Yasuhiro Ogura, and Shunsuke Kohno. Although they were a scratch from the last race at Motegi, they clinched the title by virtue of being the only ST-1 team to enter this race.
With a debut championship already decided, albeit by default, the aim for Rookie Racing’s pre-homologation Supra GT4 will be to match up against the other ST-Z runners.
ST-TCR, which features a four-car entry list, can also crown a champion this weekend. The #290 F-Link Home Honda Civic TCR of Tadao Uematsu, Yuji Ide, and Shintaro Kawabata – winners of two of the last three races – can clinch the championship with a win and pole position this weekend.
They currently have a 22-point lead to the #22 Waimarama Kizuna Audi RS3 LMS (Kizuna/Katsumasa Chiyo/Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa), which suffered a devastating retirement in the last round.
Some of the production classes are also poised to crown a champion early. In ST-2, for instance, the hot new #32 Rookie Racing Toyota GR Yaris of Takuto Iguchi, Masahiro Sasaki, and Toyota CEO Akio “Morizo” Toyoda” can clinch the championship in its debut season with a win in this weekend’s race.
The #59 DAMD Motul Subaru WRX STI of Manabu Osawa, Hitoshi Gotoh, and Mizuki Ishizaka needs to win from pole position in each of the next two races, if their team, TOWA INTEC Racing, are to have any shot at a record-extending eighth straight championship in the class.
In ST-5, the #69 J’s Racing Honda Fit of Shinsuke Umeda, Hideo Kubota, and Toshihiro Kubota can wrap up the championship with a victory, which would be J’s Racing’s first since 2016.
On the other hand, the battles for the ST-3 and ST-4 Championships are likely to go to the wire in one-on-one battles.
Four teams are still mathematically eligible to win the ST-3 title, with the leading #39 Air Buster/Winmax Lexus RC 350 (Kazuya Oshima/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Hirotaka Ishii) leading the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS (Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Takayuki Hiranuma) by 13 points. Even if the #39 Lexus wins the race this weekend, the #52 Toyota can still stay in the championship if it finishes 2nd.
Down in ST-4, the gap between the leading #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Toyota 86 (Rintaro Kubo/Shinya Hosokawa/Sho Tsuboi) and the #884 Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing 86 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Yuji Kunimoto/Hiro Hayashi/Keishi Ishikawa) is just six points, but a retirement for either team would be a disaster for their championship hopes.
The TKU Super Taikyu Race at Autopolis goes green this Sunday at 10:45 AM JST / 1:45 AM GMT / 2:45 AM CET / 3:45 AM SAST (for those watching from Kyalami!) / Saturday 8:45 PM, with live Japanese-language streaming on the series’ official YouTube channel, and live timing available for all sessions.
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