51 Entries For Super Taikyu Race in Okayama
The Eneos Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook is in action this weekend as the series heads to Okayama International Circuit for a double-header weekend.
51 cars have entered this year’s running of the Super Taikyu Race in Okayama: Split into two groups, 23 cars will feature in the Group 1 race, and 28 cars will take part in the Group 2 race, each three hours long.
The Group 1 field prominently features the ST-X and ST-Z (GT3 and GT4) classes, along with the ST-2 production category and two petrol-powered vehicles from the ST-Q class.
Entering the sixth round of the championship, the two leading teams in ST-X are separated by just half a point. After their second victory of the season, the #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Martin Berry/Shaun Thong/Shinichi Takagi/Daisuke Yamawaki) moved ahead of the #62 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R GT3 (Yutaka Toriba/Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki) in this tight championship showdown. And the #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R (Noboyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Aoki/Kiyoto Fujinami) is only 15 points behind, so a win for them would vault them right back into title contention at the finale in Suzuka on 26-27 November.
The #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R (Hiroaki Nagai/Yuta Kamimura/Daisuke Ito) enters this race as the defending champion at Okayama, and has won pole position for each of the four previous races they’ve entered this season.
The #500 Team 5Zigen Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryuichiro Otsuka/Kakunoshin Ohta/Toshihiro Kaneishi) currently leads the ST-Z standings by 43 points, and can wrap up the ST-Z Championship if they finish sixth or better in their class.
There’s been some shake-up in the ST-Z ranks after a long layoff. After announcing in September that they would suspend their Super Taikyu racing programme, CSIRacing have returned with new title sponsors, Kanagawa car rental company HIRIX (title sponsors of the 2020 ST-X champion team) and karting supplies company EIKO, to continue their season as My Cars CSIRacing. They’re currently second in points, ahead of the #885 SHADE Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 and the #19 Birth Racing Project Porsche Cayman MR Clubsport.
Audi Team Hitotsuyama have entered as “Audi Driving Experience Japan” and changed numbers from 21 to 33, while Audi Team AS Sport makes their third appearance of the season in place of the absent Porsche Team EBI Waimarama, on a one-race sabbatical.
In ST-2, two Toyota GR Yaris hot hatches sit at the top of the points table, with the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motor Sports (KTMS) team and their lineup of young single-seater stars leading the #13 Endless Sports crew by 13 points.
We’ll also see the #244 Max Racing Nissan Z Racing Concept in action once more, a car that we now know has been running as the testing prototype for the upcoming Nissan Z GT4.
| No. | Class | Team | Drivers | Car | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | ST-X (GT3) | Porsche Center Okazaki | Hiroaki Nagai Yuta Kamimura Daisuke Ito | Porsche 911 GT3-R | |
| 23 | ST-X (GT3) | TKRI | DAISUKE (Daisuke Matsunaga) Yuya Motojima Yuhki Nakayama | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | |
| 31 | ST-X (GT3) | apr | Hideki Nagai Koki Saga Kazuto Kotaka | Lexus RC F GT3 | |
| 62 | ST-X (GT3) | HELM Motor Sports | Yutaka Toriba Yuya Hiraki Reiji Hiraki | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | |
| 81 | ST-X (GT3) | GTNET Motor Sports | Noboyuki Oyagi Takayuki Aoki Kiyoto Fujinami | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | |
| 777 | ST-X (GT3) | D'station Racing | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Tsubasa Kondo | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 | |
| 888 | ST-X (GT3) | Grid Motorsports | Martin Berry  Shaun Thong  Shinichi Takagi Daisuke Yamawaki | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | |
| 19 | ST-Z (GT4) | Birth Racing Project (BRP) | Kenji Suzuki TAKESHI (Suehiro) Kohei Fukuda Tatsuya Tanigawa | Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR | |
| 33 | ST-Z (GT4) | Audi Driving Experience Japan | Hideki Nakahara Ritomo Miyata Seiya Jin Shota Takegawa | Audi R8 LMS GT4 | |
| 34 | ST-Z (GT4) | Techno First | Naozumi Saka Hironobu Yasuda Kazuki Oki Ryosuke Ogawa | Ginetta G55 GT4 | |
| 111 | ST-Z (GT4) | Hiroshima Toyopet Racing | Toshiyuki Matsuda Yuga Furutani Yoshiaki Nakamura Yasutaka Hinoi | Toyota GR Supra GT4 | |
| 310 | ST-Z (GT4) | My Cars CSIRacing | Manabu Yamazaki Sho Tsuboi Seita Nonaka Shinya Hosokawa | Toyota GR Supra GT4 | |
| 500 | ST-Z (GT4) | Team 5Zigen | Ryuichiro Otsuka Kakunoshin Ohta Toshihiro Kaneishi | Mercedes-AMG GT4 | |
| 505 | ST-Z (GT4) | Audi Team AS Sport | Takeshi Okamoto Ryosuke Kagami Shozo Tagahara | Audi R8 LMS GT4 | |
| 885 | ST-Z (GT4) | SHADE Racing | Hiro Hayashi Katsuyuki Hiranaka Eijiro Shimizu | Toyota GR Supra GT4 | |
| 6 | ST-2 | Shinryo Racing Team | Tomohiro Tomimasu Yasushi Kikuchi Masazumi Ohashi | Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X | |
| 7 | ST-2 | Shinryo Racing Team | Yoshiki Fujii Mamoru Okada Kensuke Anzai | Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X | |
| 13 | ST-2 | Endless Sports | Reimei Ito Mizuki Ishizaka Masaya Hanazato Hitoshi Okada | Toyota GR Yaris | |
| 59 | ST-2 | TOWA INTEC Racing | Manabu Osawa Hitoshi Gotoh Hideto Yasuoka | Subaru WRX STI | |
| 225 | ST-2 | Kobe Toyopet Motor Sports | Hibiki Taira Rin Arakawa Jiei Okuzumi | Toyota GR Yaris | |
| 743 | ST-2 | Honda R&D Challenge | Hiroaki Ishigaki Junichi Kidachi Hideki Kakinuma | Honda Civic Type R (FK8) | |
| 3 | ST-Q | Endless Sports | Ryo Ogawa Shintaro Kawabata Riki Tanioka | Mercedes-AMG GT4 | |
| 244 | ST-Q | Max Racing | Toru Tanaka Atsushi Miyake Tetsuya Tanaka | Nissan Z Racing Concept |
Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave won last year’s Group 2 race in Okayama, which once again will feature the ST-3, ST-4, and ST-5 production categories exclusively.
The #52 GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS has a 17-point lead over the reigning champions’ #39 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350. Only five cars are entered in ST-3 this time out, following the announcement that FKS Team Fukushima will not take part in the final two races of the season.
An all-Toyota GR86 ST-4 class is headlined by the leading #86 TOM’s Spirit GR86, which will have Shunsuke Kohno back after he missed the previous round due to illness. They’re currently 19 points clear of the #884 SHADE Racing GR86.
Then, in ST-5, just six points separate the top four teams in the championship table, each fielding four different vehicles! The diesel-powered #17 Team NOPRO Mazda Demio has but a half-point advantage over the #72 Öhlins-sponsored NATS Mazda Roadster, the winning model in each of the last three years. The #104 HMRacers Mazda2 is just two points out of first place, ahead of the #4 Team Bride Honda Fit RS. Over Drive (odula) have won their class at Okayama for the last three years, and if their #66 Roadster can win this weekend, they can stick themselves right back into the forefront of the title conversation if they win their fourth in a row.
| No. | Class | Team | Drivers | Car | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | ST-3 | Okabe Jidosha Motorsport | Masaaki Nagashima Kazuomi Komatsu Aruga Tomita Seiya Motojima | Nissan Fairlady Z34 | |
| 25 | ST-3 | Team ZeroOne | Teppei Natori Ryuichiro Tomita Takuya Shirasaka | Nissan Fairlady Z34 | |
| 39 | ST-3 | Tracy Sports with Delta | Yusuke Tomibayashi Takashi Itoh Hirotaka Ishii Dai Mizuno | Lexus RC 350 | |
| 52 | ST-3 | Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave | Naoki Hattori Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai | Toyota Crown RS | |
| 63 | ST-3 | Tracy Sports | Ryohei Sakaguchi TBN Rintaro Kubo | Lexus RC 350 | |
| 18 | ST-4 | Asano Racing Service | Takeo Asano Daiki Fujiwara Toshiki Ishimori | Toyota GR86 (ZN8) | |
| 60 | ST-4 | Team G/Motion' | Takao Seto Resshu Shioya | Toyota GR86 (ZN8) | |
| 86 | ST-4 | TOM's Spirit | Shunsuke Kohno Takamitsu Matsui Kenta Yamashita TBN | Toyota GR86 (ZN8) | |
| 884 | ST-4 | SHADE Racing | Keishi Ishikawa Yuji Kunimoto Shinnosuke Yamada | Toyota GR86 (ZN8) | |
| 4 | ST-5 | Team Bride | Hiroshi Ito Takuji Okada Hidefumi Minami | Honda Fit RS | |
| 5 | ST-5 | Team Bride | Hiroki Kokuzawa Rina Ito  Carlos Honda | Toyota Yaris (XP210) | |
| 11 | ST-5 | Ambitious Racing | Masaki Baba Katsuhiro Sato Teppei Tsuruta | Honda Fit RS | |
| 12 | ST-5 | Mazda Spirit Racing | Haruhiko Sugino Noriyuki Higuchi Ikuo Maeda | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 17 | ST-5 | Team NOPRO | Kazunari Yoshioka Tobio Ohtani Yuya Tezuka Toshihiko Nogami | Mazda Demio Diesel (DJ) | |
| 37 | ST-5 | Team NOPRO | Tatsuya Nogami Yoshihiro Kato Shunsuke Ozaki | Mazda Demio (DE) | |
| 50 | ST-5 | Love Drive Racing | Hiroyuki Matsumura Yoshihito Shinoda Isao Ihashi Junko Fujii | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 65 | ST-5 | Over Drive | Shuichiro Hokazono Ryohei Arioka Masahiro Aoai | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 66 | ST-5 | Over Drive | Takayuki Takechi Kousei Kanto Kyosuke Inomata | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 72 | ST-5 | Nihon Automobile College (NATS) | Tetsuya Yamano Makoto Kanai Toshiya Nojima | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 88 | ST-5 | Murakami Motors | Hiroyuki Murakami TBN TBN | Mazda Roadster (ND) | |
| 104 | ST-5 | Hiroshima Mazda HM Racers | Soichiro Yoshida Kota Sasaki Tomomitsu Seno | Mazda Mazda2 | |
| 110 | ST-5 | Hiroshima Toyopet Racing | Hiroyuki Saka Sota Muto Takao Onishi Satoshi Matsubara | Toyota Vitz (XP130) | |
| 222 | ST-5 | Honda Cars Tokai | Toshiki Takeuchi Masanori Tanaka Hajime Saimen Masayuki Sumi | Honda Fit RS | |
| 290 | ST-5 | AutoLabo | Yuichi Yokoo Kazuhisa Shimoyama Takeshi Kitagawa Tatsuya Watanabe | Toyota Yaris (XP210) | |
| 28 | ST-Q | ORC ROOKIE Racing | Naoya Gamou Daisuke Toyoda Ryuta Ukai | Toyota GR86 CNF Concept | |
| 32 | ST-Q | ORC ROOKIE Racing | Masahiro Sasaki MORIZO (Akio Toyoda) Hiroaki Ishiura Yasuhiro Ogura | Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept | |
| 55 | ST-Q | Mazda Spirit Racing | Kazuhiro Terakawa Kaoru Ijiri Yutaka Seki | Mazda Mazda2 Bio Concept | |
| 61 | ST-Q | Team SDA Engineering | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi Koichi Hirota | Subaru BRZ (ZD8) CNF Concept |
The penultimate rounds of the Super Taikyu Series take place this Sunday, with the green flag for the Group 2 race at 8:30 JST / 00:30 BST, and the Group 1 race starting at 13:30 JST / 5:30 BST.
Feature image © Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
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