Super Taikyu Completes Official Pre-Season Test At Fuji

The Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook rang in a new era on Saturday, with the completion of the first official test day since welcoming Hankook as the series’ official tyre supplier.

38 cars traveled to Fuji Speedway to take part in Saturday’s tests, which were open to a small but devoted public eager to get a first glimpse at some of the new cars that will race in the 2021 Super Taikyu Series. The official pre-season test is a voluntary event, with over twenty of the previously-announced 61 cars on the full season entry list not taking part. For instance, D’station Racing didn’t run their ST-X class Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3, because many of the staff responsible for that car were in a voluntary quarantine period after returning from the Asian Le Mans Series in Abu Dhabi.

As such, only three GT3 (ST-X) cars took part, including the new #290 McLaren 720S GT3 of Floral Racing with ABSSA Motorsport. This is a joint entry between Floral Racing – last year’s ST-TCR Class Champions – and ABSSA Motorsport, who were established in 2019 by veteran driver Keita Sawa.

Sawa, in fact, was the fastest driver throughout the three one-hour sessions held during the daytime: In Session 1, he recorded a time of 1’39.742, which stood as the best time of the day until Night Practice.

For reference, this was over a second faster than the best time during qualifying for the 2020 Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours (1’40.870), and just half a second slower than the fastest time in the first pre-season test of 2020 (1’39.272).

“Our car had just come back from Malaysia, so we had to see if it would run properly, and we were on the edge of our seats,” said Sawa. “Once we started running, even though it was our first time using Hankook tires, we were able to get a good feel for the characteristics of the car over the two days. We didn’t control the pace of the car, so I think we were able to get the top time, but I expect it will be relatively harder once the season starts.”

This season, Sawa will share the #290 McLaren with the three drivers who steered Floral Racing’s Honda Civic TCR to the title – GT500 and Super Formula race winner Yuji Ide, GT300 race winner Shintaro Kawabata, and Tadao Uematsu, the gentleman racer who gave his feedback on the new car.

“It’s easy to drive. I’ve ridden in a GT-R before, but this is much more comfortable,” said Uematsu. “I don’t get tired as much as I did in the Civic. The Civic gives you a great sense of ‘doing’, but the McLaren, I drove it a lot today, and I didn’t get tired. The cornering speed is fast, and I’m sure it puts a lot of strain on the body. Our best weapon is our driver lineup, so it will be tough for us in terms of BoP, but we will have to make up for it with our skills.”

久しぶりにGT3に乗ったけど、ダウンフォースを感じながら走るのはシンプルに楽しかった#supertaikyu #floralracing #zeppan #uematsu #mclaren #GT3 #hankook #motys #ktel #japan pic.twitter.com/nfhf1rUzHj

— 井出有治 (@yuji_ide) February 27, 2021

Floral Racing led Sessions 1 & 2, while in Session 3, the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 recorded the fastest time. Pending official confirmation, the official driver lineup for the Daishin GT-R will consist of Noboyuki Oyagi, his son Ryuichiro Oyagi, and GT300 Champions Kiyoto Fujinami and Takayuki Aoki – the latter of whom is reunited with the elder Oyagi, twenty years after they won the 2001 GT300 title in Super GT.

The test concluded with a two-hour Night Practice, which yielded the fastest time of the day from the third GT3 car in attendance, the #31 Denso Lexus RC F GT3 from perennial Super GT powerhouse apr Racing. They set a best time of 1’39.377 towards the end of the session. Hideki Nagai, GT300 mainstay Koki Saga, and Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) academy driver Kazuto Kotaka will be the team’s primary lineup in 2021.

Of the non-GT3 cars, the fastest time belonged to the #28 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Supra, which some fans noticed had been placed into a new category for 2021, called ST-Q.

ST-Q is a new category created specifically for manufacturer developed, non-homologated racing vehicles that do not fall into any of the other categories – an equivalent to the SP-X class in the Nürburgring 24 Hour Race and Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie.

“Last year, we competed in the ST-1 class, but in order to make last year’s car even better and stronger for motorsports, we had to go outside of the conventional standard. However, STO has established a new class for this purpose, and we can now try various things in the ST-Q class,” said ROOKIE Racing’s Yuta Kaga. “This is why the car does not fall into any of the other categories, since ROOKIE Racing is a private team, and we have been commissioned by Toyota Motor Corporation to develop this car in order to make it stronger.”

“The main changes we’ve made include a carbon-fibre hood, and in the morning we’ll be adding and removing canards. What form it will take in the main race depends on today’s test, and we may change it for each race, but in the ST-Z class, we wouldn’t be able to do that [because of GT4 homologation].”

Toyota factory racing ace Kenta Yamashita recorded the #28 ORC ROOKIE GR Supra’s fastest time, a 1’46.593. Yamashita will drive the car this season alongside Naoya Gamou, Daisuke Toyoda, and Yasuhiro Ogura. ROOKIE Racing’s other entry, the ST-2 class #32 Toyota GR Yaris, will be driven by Takuto Iguchi, Masahiro Sasaki, and Takamitsu Matsui – plus a fourth driver to be announced later, a slot that has traditionally been reserved for Toyota Motor Corporation President, Akio “Morizo” Toyoda.

Among the homologated GT4 cars competing in the ST-Z class, twelve of the sixteen announced entries attended the Fuji test, including six brand new entries for the 2021 season.

The class of the field in testing was D’station Racing’s #47 Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT4, which was fastest in all three daytime sessions. Legendary lead driver Manabu Orido, who will drive the #47 Vantage alongside Tatsuya Hoshino, Takuro Shinohara, and Kenji Hama, recorded the car’s best time with a 1’46.686 – an unofficial class record.

D’station Racing opted out of the Night Practice (their four drivers all have sufficient night running experience), so the fastest time of that session belonged to one of the three new, officially-homologated Toyota GR Supra GT4s – the #311 Fabulous GRMI GR Supra GT4, fielded by reigning ST-4 champions C.S.I (Corolla Shin-Ibaraki) Racing, and piloted by the quartet of Hirokazu Suzuki, driver/manager Rintaro Kubo, Yusuke Shiotsu, and Kimiya Sato.

KTM Cars Japan’s stunning new X-Bow GTX, wrapped in its white and teal Petronas Syntium colours that will be very familiar to Super GT fans made its official on-track debut in Japan. With it, the #2 Syntium X-Bow GTX set the fastest time of the two ST-1 class entries (the other being Tracy Sports’ new Toyota GR Supra, a production model). Veteran Hiroki Katoh set the fastest time with a 1’46.825 in Session 1.

“It has an aggressive look like a Group C car, but when you drive it, it’s more like a passenger car,” says Katoh of the new X-Bow GTX. “Last year’s X-Bow GT4 was more like a purpose built racing car, but this car has a milder flavor, and gentlemen drivers say it’s easier to drive. If anything, it is quite suitable for endurance racing.”

“There are still some things that I haven’t fully grasped yet, so I’m hoping to figure them out in this test. I’m not fast in a straight line, but I think it’s the first time for me to run this car on Japanese gasoline, so maybe I’m not suited to the engine mapping there.”

In the production classes, the #32 ROOKIE Racing GR Yaris was fastest in ST-2. ST-3 was led by the #244 Max Racing Nissan Fairlady Z34. C.S.I Racing’s title-winning #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Toyota 86 was fastest in ST-4. And with an unofficial lap record, the #456 Avantech Racing Team Mazda Roadster was fastest in ST-5.

Images courtesy of the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)

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