D’station Racing Wins at Suzuka to Clinch ST-X Championship

At long last, the premier class championship in the Super Taikyu Series has been won by D’station Racing. The #777 D’station Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, and Tsubasa Kondo took the overall and ST-X class win in the Suzuka S-Tai 5 Hour Race – and mathematically clinched the ST-X Class Championship before the final race of the season.

Fittingly enough, it comes at the same venue where the Vantage GT3 claimed its first competitive victory in the spring of 2019. That was the last time that Super Taikyu had raced at Suzuka prior to this weekend, with the 2020 race eventually being cancelled due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the threat of typhoon No.14 heading into the weekend, conditions were perfect throughout Sunday’s five hour race. When the green flag waved at just past 11:30 JST, it was pole sitter Keita Sawa in the #290 Floral Racing with ABSSA McLaren 720S GT3 that led the opening lap, ahead of Hiroaki Nagai in the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R. From third on the grid, Fujii in the #777 D’station Vantage quickly worked his way into second, and then on the second lap, he overtook Sawa for the lead into the Triangle Chicane. Takayuki Aoki, who started fifth in the #81 Daishin/GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3, found his way through into second place after six laps.

There was a reversal at the top following the first pit cycle. Kondo got aboard the D’station Vantage, while Kiyoto Fujinami took over the Daishin GTNET GT-R for the second stint. The D’station Vantage had a 12 second lead when both cars pitted at the end of lap 35. But Fujinami was able to catch Kondo, and on lap 58, he took the lead of the race. Things seemingly went from bad to worse for the D’station Vantage when, shortly after conceding the lead – they were given a drive through penalty for avoidable contact with an ST-5 class car.

Fujinami’s lead had grown to over 30 seconds. And after a 36 lap stint, he came in on lap 71, with Aoki taking over for his second stint in the Daishin GTNET GT-R. Gentleman driver Hoshino took over the D’station Vantage on the next lap, giving Aoki the incentive to build as much of a lead as he could before his gentleman driver team mate, Noboyuki Oyagi, took over for the final stint.

With a lead of ~50 seconds, Aoki was negotiating slower traffic when he made contact with the #62 HELM Motorsports Lexus RC 350 heading down the back stretch, damaging the right-rear suspension of the bright orange Nissan. This effectively ended their race; after two hours of repairs, the Daishin GTNET GT-R was sent back out on track with Oyagi doing the final laps – but they were only able to complete 86 laps, and were not classified.

This gave the lead back to the D’station Vantage of Hoshino, who was able to further secure his lead when the #290 Floral/ABSSA McLaren – now in the hands of Yuji Ide – picked up a drive through penalty for a pit work infraction. On lap 103, the D’station Vantage made its final pit stop, and Kondo took over for the final stint.

Meanwhile, the bright red #16 PC Okazaki 911 GT3-R had moved into second place, and Yuta Kamimura, Kondo’s long time rival from the Porsche Carrera Cup Japan series, was closing in rapidly. In the final hour of the race, Kondo had to defend his lead with Kamimura right on his spoiler for several laps. Eventually, Kondo would begin to pull out a margin over Kamimura. And, with nine minutes left in the race, Kamimura was forced to make an emergency pit stop at the end of lap 132 – he had run out of fuel, and needed a splash to get to the end of the race.

At the exact same time, there was a critical battle for third place between Shintaro Kawabata in the #290 Floral/ABSSA McLaren, and the pursuing #31 apr Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Kazuto Kotaka. Floral Racing with ABSSA needed a minimum third place finish to remain mathematically eligible for the championship. As Kamimura exited the pits for the last time on one end of the circuit, Kotaka overtook Kawabata on the other end of the circuit for third place.

At the end of five hours of racing, the #777 D’station Vantage GT3 of Hoshino, Fujii, and Kondo completed 137 laps en route to their second win of the season, 45.3 seconds ahead of the #16 Porsche of Nagai, Kamimura, and Yuichi Nakayama in second. The #31 Lexus of Hideki Nagai, Koki Saga, and Kotaka held onto third place by nine tenths of a second, ahead of the #290 McLaren of Tadao Uematsu, Sawa, Kawabata, and Ide.

With a 24 point lead over the Floral/ABSSA McLaren, D’station Racing clinched their very first ST-X Class Championship – the first for Aston Martin in Super Taikyu.

For Fujii, this is his third ST-X title as a driver – previously a champion in the category in 2011 with Audi Team Hitotsuyama, and in 2016 with Kondo Racing. For Hoshino, this is his first championship in ST-X, and his second in the series to add to his ST-1 crown in 2016. And for three-time PCCJ champion Kondo, this is his first Super Taikyu title as a driver, in any category.

It is part of the culmination of what team founder Hoshino, managing director and ace driver Fujii, and team director Masahiro Sasaki have built over the last five years. This championship,  along with their maiden WEC class podium at Monza, and a sixth place class finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has cemented D’station Racing’s place as one of Japan’s very best privateer racing outfits.

The celebrations at D’station Racing continued as their #47 Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT4 driven by Tatsuya Hoshino, Manabu Orido, Takuro Shinohara, and Kenji Hama took the ST-Z class win – making it a D’station double victory at Suzuka!

The D’station Vantage GT4 was one of a handful of ST-Z cars that had a chance at the class victory in the middle stages of the race. The pole winning #311 Fabulous/GR Mito Inter Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Hirokazu Suzuki/Rintaro Kubo/Yusuke Shiotsu/Kimiya Sato) had the pace, and Sato had held off Takeshi Matsumoto in the #108 Future GPX Cyber Formula with RFC GR Supra in a gripping first-hour battle for the class lead. The #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Yudai Uchida/Hideki Yamauchi/Togo Suganami/Ryo Ogawa) had slowly worked its way through the rankings, as did the #23 TKRI/Matsunaga Construction AMG GT4 (Daisuke Matsunaga/Yuya Motojima/Shinichi Takagi), which opted for shorter stints between Motojima and Takagi to climb up the order.

But, after the final round of pit stops, the #47 D’station Vantage GT4 was out in front. Orido drove the final stint and took the chequered flag after 128 laps, giving the D’station Vantage GT4 its second win in a row. The #311 Fabulous/GRMI GR Supra finished in second, giving C.S.I (Corolla Shin-Ibaraki) Racing their first podium with the GR Supra GT4. And the #3 Endless AMG GT4 completed the podium in third, ahead of the #108 RFC GR Supra of Matsumoto, Toshio Suzuki, and Seiya Jin in fourth, and the #23 TKRI AMG GT4 in fifth.

The ST-Z Championship will be decided in the last round at Okayama International Circuit on 13-14 November. Endless Sports lead the table with 97.5 points, D’station Racing leap up to second with 88 points, and Team 5Zigen, who finished seventh in class, drop to third place with 80.5 points. A maximum of 22 points are available at Okayama for winning the race, including the two bonus points for pole position.

However, in addition to the ST-X championship, four other class championships were decided at Suzuka before the final race.

Finishing in sixth overall, ahead of the ST-Z leaders and winning the ST-1 Class Championship, was the #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX of Taiyou Iida, Hiroki Katoh, Kazuho Takahashi, and Hiroki Yoshimoto. This is the first season championship title for the new X-Bow GTX, and the first Super Taikyu championship for KTM Cars Japan – who previously competed in the ST-Z category from 2019-20.

Despite a fuel pump issue in the middle of the race, Yoshimoto was able to take the class lead and save enough fuel to take the GTX’s fourth class win of the season. The #71 Akiland Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Masayoshi Ogawa/Tatsuya Tanigawa/Ken Yamamoto/Makio Saito) finished two laps down in second (12th overall), ahead of the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Ryohei Sakaguchi/Makoto Hotta) in third (14th overall).

The #97 Racer/Honda Cars Okegawa Civic TCR of Mitsuhiro Endo, Shinji Nakano, and Syun Koide captured their third win of the season in the ST-TCR category, but Team Noah and their #75 Otoginokuni Civic TCR driven by Kuniyuki Haga, Yoshikazu Sobu, Shigetomo Shimono, and Shingo Wada finished the race, second in class and 19th overall, to clinch the team’s first Super Taikyu title.

Based out of Kyushu, Team Noah were one of several teams that were forced to suspend its operations in 2020 due to COVID-19. They came back this season and were the only team to have competed in every round so far. While it can be viewed as a victory by default, it is the culmination of a valiant effort just to return to the grid.

The most astonishing championship clinching moment came in the ST-3 class, where the #39 Air Buster/Winmax Lexus RC 350 of Yusuke Tomibayashi, Kazuya Oshima, and Hirotaka Ishii won the race to clinch Tracy Sports’ second consecutive ST-3 title, and their fifth in the last six seasons.

After the final pit cycle, the #62 HELM Motorsports RC 350 (Yuya Hiraki/Tomoki Takahashi/Reiji Hiraki) had the class lead, but was followed closely by the #39 Air Buster/Winmax RC 350, and the #244 Max Racing Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Toru Tanaka/Tetsuya Tanaka/Atsushi Miyake). With less than ten minutes in the race, Takahashi, Oshima, and Miyake were all running tail to nose.

On the penultimate lap, as the three leaders plunged into the first and second corner complex, Takahashi ran wide through the second corner and nearly lost control. This gave 24-year-old Oshima the gap that he needed to force his way through into the lead of the race, which he held until the chequered flag – taking the class win by just 0.861 seconds.

The sudden reversal at the top clinched the championship for Tracy Sports’ #39 car, and back-to-back titles for the trio of eSports champion-turned-real world racer Tomibayashi, Oshima – often confused for the veteran Toyota factory driver of the same name, and rally driver-turned-circuit racer Ishii.

In the ST-2 class, the #59 DAMD Motul Subaru WRX STI of Manabu Osawa, Hitoshi Gotoh, and Mizuki Ishizawa took the class victory by two laps over the #7 Shinryo Racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X of Yoshiki Fujii, Masato Narisawa, Kensuke Anzai, and Shingo Imai. But the second place finish for the #7 Lancer clinched the ST-2 Championship for Shinryo Racing Team – a long-awaited first championship in their 20th season of competition.

The quartet of Fujii, Narisawa, Anzai, and Imai moved to the top of the table after a win in the Fuji 24 Hours, and never looked back from that point. With the new Toyota GR Yaris established as Japan’s new all-wheel drive rally sports car of choice, today was a sign that the Lancer Evolution X – which hasn’t been in production for over five years – still has plenty of competitive viability left. An incident for the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports GR Yaris (Seita Nonaka/Hibiki Taira/Miki Onaga/Kengo Ichijo) just before the halfway point in the race, effectively sealed the title. The second Shinryo Mitsubishi, the #6 of team founder Tomohiro Tomimasu, Yasushi Kikuchi, and Masazumi Ohashi, completed the class podium in third.

That leaves just two other class titles up for grabs heading into Okayama, in ST-4 and ST-5.

C.S.I Racing’s #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Toyota 86, driven by Sho Tsuboi, Shinya Hosokawa, and Fuma Horio won from pole position, finishing one minute, seven seconds ahead of the #884 Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing 86 (Yuji Kunimoto/Keishi Ishikawa/Eijiro Shimizu).

Shade Racing and C.S.I Racing will head to Okayama separated by just half a point in the standings, setting up a winner-take-all showdown in the finale for the class championship.

Over Drive’s two Mazda Roadsters finished 1-2 in the ST-5 class, led by the #66 odula/Tone Roadster of Takayuki Takechi, Tatsuya Ota, Takahisa Ohno, and Kyosuke Inomata – finishing 3.925 seconds ahead of the #456 Avantech Racing Team Roadster (Riku Hashimoto/Kousei Kanto/Tatsuya Osaki/Koji Obara) in second. The #50 Love Drive Roadster (Koji Yamanishi/Yoshihito Shinoda/Hiroyuki Matsumura) completed the class podium in third place.

The win for the #66 Over Drive crew is their second of the season. While they didn’t mathematically clinch the championship, they now lead the Avantech #456 squad by 18.5 points going into the last race. Only a win for the #456 team and a non-scoring result or DNF for the #66 team could see the championship overturned at Okayama.

The hydrogen-powered #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept continued its record of consecutive race finishes, completing 90 laps, and eleven pit stops, en route to a 43rd place overall result for the quartet of Takuto Iguchi, Masahiro Sasaki, Takamitsu Matsui, and Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio “Morizo” Toyoda.

There was a minor electrical issue that was fixed during the race, nothing that would have derailed their chances of making the chequered flag. The performance is steadily improving with every round, as Toyota have stated that the power output of their 1.6 litre, three-cylinder hydrogen engine is now comparable to that of a petrol engine. Sasaki’s best lap of 2’28.646 was within a second of the best lap times from the two ST-4 cars. Morizo himself completed 24 laps at the wheel.

The other ROOKIE Racing ST-Q class car, the #28 Toyota GR Supra (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Yasuhiro Ogura/Kenta Yamashita), recovered from a collision with the ST-Z class #20 SS/YZ Studie BMW M4 GT4 at the Triangle Chicane to complete 95 laps and finish 42nd overall.

FINAL RESULTS (sorted by class) >>

Images courtesy of Suzuka Circuit / Mobilityland Corporation and the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)

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