2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round1

OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE

Dates: April 15th-16th, 2023
Location: Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Prefecture)
Attendance: Qualifying: 7,800 people, Finals: 14,500 people
Qualifying: 5th
Finals: 9th
Points earned: 2 points
Series rank: 9th(2 points)

Nobuteru Taniguchi, who holds three GT300 titles, and Tatsuya Kataoka, along with GOODSMILE RACING & TeamUKYO, welcomed the opening day of the 2023 season at the Okayama International Circuit in April.
This season’s GT300 class features 27 cars of 12 different models and four tire manufacturers: Yokohama Tire, Bridgestone, Dunlop, and Michelin. This competition between different car models and different tire manufacturers, which is now rare among the top racing series around the world, is one of the most attractive features of the SUPER GT GT300 class.
GOODSMILE RACING & TeamUKYO consists of CEO Takanori Aki, team manager Ukyo Katayama and drivers Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka. The team’s familiar set-up includes the Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car, tires by Yokohama Tire, and RS Fine in the maintenance garage, continuing a partnership that began in 2012.
A key factor that could have a major impact on the course of this season is the “SUPER GT Green Project 2030,” announced by the series’ promoter, the GT Association (GTA), at last year’s final race in November. This project consists of a number of initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the entire SUPER GT series by 50%. One of these initiatives has been the implementation of several rule changes.
Firstly, the number of tire sets allowed per race has been reduced by one set from the previous season, with five sets of dry tires and six sets of wet tires now permitted. In addition, the use of Haltermann Carless’ carbon neutral fuel (CNF) “GTA R100” from Germany has become mandatory for this season. However, in the GT300 class, there will be a grace period for “engine compliance,” and its use will be deferred until the first and second rounds. These changes will require teams to re-evaluate their strategies and engine set-ups.
In races like SUPER GT, where different car models compete, it is necessary to balance the performance of each car. This is why performance adjustments, called Balance of Performance (BoP), are made. For the inaugural race, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was subjected to BoP with the addition of an air restrictor (a component that limits intake airflow to suppress power output) with the smallest diameter among naturally aspirated (NA) engine cars, 34.5mm × 2. The BoP weight, which is added to the car weight of 1285kg, has been reduced by 10kg from last year’s +45kg to +35kg.

April, 15th (Sat) [Qualifying]
Weather: Cloudy
Course: Wet
Air/road temperature:
GT300 Q1 start: 14℃／15℃
GT300 Q2 start: 14℃／15℃
GT300 Q2 finish: 15℃／16℃

The weather conditions during the practice session on Saturday were expected to be dry. However, the weather forecast had worsened towards the weekend, and it had been raining since the morning of that day. A WET announcement was made prior to the session, which was scheduled to start at 9:10 am. With the air temperature at 13 degrees Celsius and the track temperature at 14 degrees Celsius, pilot Kataoka, who was in charge of the initial run, decided to assess the texture of the wet tires.
Kataoka entered the track as soon as the pit lane opened, and after setting a time of 1:39.776 on the 12th lap, he immediately returned to the pits and took to the track on different tires. However, shortly afterward, a GT500 car crashed out of the Mos S, causing a red flag to be waved and the session to be interrupted.
The session resumed about 30 minutes later, at 10:10 am. Kataoka, back on track, continued to put in laps in the 1 minute 41-42 second range. However, due to the continued heavy rain, just as Kataoka had expressed concern about the excessive amount of water on the track, another red flag was waved just before the 10:35 slot reserved for the GT300 class-exclusive session, citing “an increase in rainfall.” The session ended without being restarted. Taniguchi was initially scheduled to take the wheel in the exclusive session, but the red flag prevented him from completing a single lap of official practice. As the rain continued to fall, the 1:39.776 lap time recorded earlier remained the best time, finishing 11th in the official practice.
Following the red flag at the end of the official practice session, the scheduled 10-minute Full Course Yellow (FCY) session was hastily changed to “Free Practice.” Taniguchi made his first appearance on track here but returned to the pits after two laps due to excessive rainfall. With minimal confirmation of conditions and tires, uncertainty remained for the afternoon qualifying session.
By 2 pm, with no significant change in air and track temperature since the morning and the rain continuing to fall, track conditions were in a heavy wet state. The Q1 qualifying session was divided into Group A and Group B based on the previous year’s results, with car #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG placed in Group B. Normally, the Q1 qualifying session lasts 10 minutes. Still, in consideration of the time needed for the tires to grip, the running time was extended to 15 minutes. Despite this extension, Group Q1A, which started at exactly 2 pm, declared the session over at 2:09 pm because of the still continuing downpour and the fact that many cars had not completed their time attacks.
Group Q1B started 15 minutes later than scheduled at 14:33, waiting for the rain to decrease. Taniguchi, who was in charge of Q1, left the pits immediately after the session started and commented, “In these conditions, it’s all about the amount of rain and water on the track and whether the tires match or not. As for where to go (the part of the track with grip even in the rain), you have to find it before making an attack, so it’s not a problem even if you haven’t been able to practice,” demonstrating his ingenious mindset as he grasped the grip of the wet tires.
In his usual style of putting his money where his mouth is, Taniguchi put in an impressive performance in the fierce battle for lap times in the 15-minute session. He continued to improve his personal best and remained in the top five, recording a time of 1:40.134 on lap 8. At the control line, he was in fourth place, but later dropped down the order due to the improved times of his competitors. Nevertheless, he finished Q1 in 6th place and passed the baton to Kataoka, who took over Q2.
Kataoka took over Q2. When the session started, he quickly went out for warm-up laps and started his time attack on the 4th lap. Gradually, he improved his times from 1:39 to 1:37. On the 8th lap, he deliberately slowed his pace to let the tires cool down. Then, in a determined final attack to squeeze the last bit of grip out of the tires, he set his personal best time of 1:37.070 and took the checkered flag in 5th place. This set the stage for the next day’s race, the first race of the season, from the 5th grid position.
The pole position went to car #65, a Mercedes-AMG GT3 equipped with Bridgestone tires. Despite being the same car model, there was a difference of about one second, demonstrating the significant performance gap between rain tires.

April, 16th (Sun) [Final]
Weather: Sunny/Cloudy/Rainy
Course: Dry/Wet
Air/Track Surface Temperature:
Prior to Start : 19℃, 30℃
Early Race : 18℃/23℃
Mid-race: 16℃/24℃
End of Race: 11℃/14℃

In contrast to Saturday’s rough weather, Sunday’s sky was clear from the morning. In the calm atmosphere of “Sunny Okayama,” the Event Plaza attracted crowds with various merchandise tents and stage events. In the pit area, teams held giveaways and autograph sessions, bringing back the bustling atmosphere of the pre-pandemic days, although some restrictions remained.
However, as the start preparations got underway, what should have been a clear sky quickly became covered in thick dark clouds. Just as the cars were about to start the final race at 13:30, a few drops of rain began to fall. According to the weather forecast, rain was expected during the finals but not until later in the race, so the earlier-than-expected rain brought a sense of urgency to the paddock from the start of the race.
During the early stages, when the track was dry, Kataoka maintained 5th place, closely followed by a chasing pack that included car #31 (apr LC500h GT), car #52 (Saitama Toyopet GB GR Supra GT), and car #56 (Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R), with positions changing rapidly behind him. He was able to keep them at bay while observing the possibilities in front of him, especially the gaps between car #88 (JLOC Lamborghini GT3) and car #7 (Studie BMW M4).
However, on lap 14, as the rain intensified, car #7, which was two positions ahead of Kataoka, suddenly showed signs of trouble. Kataoka recalled, “It suddenly braked hard early on, causing confusion for those behind it, including me. I took the opportunity to pass car #88 first and then made a move on car #7.“
The track was now mostly wet. Although the nearby competitors remained on slick tires, the conditions resembled low-speed driving, where it was almost impossible to maintain racing speed. Kataoka decided to make a move at the second double hairpin to gain an advantage.
“The braking from a relatively high speed seemed much earlier, maybe tens of meters earlier. I almost collided with the blocking car, so I thought I could line up with them in the slow section of the double hairpin,” said Kataoka. At that moment, the opponent also reacted by braking late.
“However, instead of hitting the side of their car, I made contact with their rear. At that point, I thought, ‘I’ll probably get a drive-through penalty. Because of the wet track and the slick tires, everything felt like slow motion. For a brief instant, I even considered pushing further and trying to regain the position, but in the end, I thought, ‘I have no choice but to keep going.’” He shifted his focus and returned to the home straight. Despite briefly overtaking car #88, which had been involved in the contact, he was passed again and dropped back to 4th. However, when car #2 (muta Racing GR86 GT), which was running in 2nd place, pitted to change to wet tires, Kataoka moved up to 3rd place.
Around the same time, car #6 (DOBOT Audi R8 LMS) went off the track in turn one and got stuck in the gravel, resulting in a Full Course Yellow (FCY) and the closure of the pit lane. Furthermore, car #11 suffered a tire failure on the back straight, causing back-to-back accidents and the immediate deployment of the safety car (SC).
Although car #56 had passed Kataoka just before these incidents, car #88 went off the track in the hairpin and dropped back in the standings. Running on dry tires was already pushing the limits.
“I think if I really wanted to pit on that lap… but unfortunately, when the pit stop communication came through, I happened to be right next to the pit lane entrance,” said Kataoka. Due to the closure of the pit lane during the FCY, he was forced to continue running the race on slicks. It wasn’t until the 18th lap, when the pit lane reopened, that he finally went in for a tire change, but even then, misfortune continued.
“Just before the FCY, car #56 had come out in front of me, and it was so far away from the front pack… maybe 300 or 400 meters away. This delayed my pit entry by tens of seconds, and at that moment, the light at the pit exit turned red right in front of me… I think I lost about a minute in total,” he explained.
When the light turned green, Kataoka, now on wet tires, rejoined the track in the 11th position. By the 22nd lap, he had recovered to 8th place. He continued to lap at a pace of 1:38. At this point, however, he received a drive-through penalty for the contact with car #7 and went through the pit lane on lap 27. He rejoined the field in 15th place, overtook car #96 (K-tunes RC F GT3) and car #244 (HACHI-ICHI GR Supra GT), and recovered to 11th place by lap 37 before handing over to Taniguchi.
As the track began to dry up, Taniguchi, on slicks for the first time this weekend, took full advantage of the grip and launched his comeback. He put in a stunning out-lap that impressed team manager Ukyo, who said, “Including qualifying, I always think he’s something else, really.” Taniguchi successfully executed an undercut strategy, rejoined the track in 14th place, and quickly climbed up the order.
However, the chaos of the day was far from over. On lap 44, car #61 (SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT) went off the track in the hairpin, resulting in a Full Course Yellow (FCY). Shortly after the FCY was lifted on lap 48, car #9 (PACIFIC viesse NAC AMG) and car #88 made contact between Moss S and Atwood, resulting in another deployment of the safety car (SC).
During the FCY, there was also a situation where the car in front, car #56, had a slow speed limiter and caused a bottleneck. When the FCY ended, and the restart took place, Taniguchi, who was running in 8th place, quickly overtook the GT-R. However, on lap 51, the rain intensified and brought out the second red flag of the day.
Car 4 car, still on slicks, came to a stop on the home straight during the SC-led restart on lap 52. As soon as the pit lane opened, the car headed for the pits to change to wets. However, time was lost due to heavy traffic in the pit lane. After the release, the fast lane leading to the pit exit was also congested with cars coming out, causing a drop to 10th place.
But during the SC-led period, car #2 (Muta Racing GR86 GT), which had been in 8th place, stopped due to a tire failure, allowing Taniguchi to move up to 9th place. On lap 59, the race was again interrupted by a red flag. At 16:20, near the maximum extension time for the race of 16:30, a restart was attempted under the SC, but the rain showed no signs of stopping, and five minutes later, the race was stopped for the third time. At this point, it was announced that the “race would end under a red flag,” resulting in a 9th-place finish within the points zone. Despite being challenged by drive-through penalties and other obstacles, GSR showed their ability to thrive in intense battles and was able to bring home two points, securing points in the opening race for the second year in a row.

 

■Comments from the Team

Team Owner: Aki Takanori
I’m a bit disappointed because we went into the race with high expectations, but some factors just felt like a game of chance, including the pit decisions. It was difficult to assess our situation. We were also unsure about the tire choice in qualifying, and as the session was extended to 15 minutes, we opted for a harder compound. If we had chosen the other option as originally planned, we might have been a little further up the grid. In a chaotic race, being at the front gives you the initiative, so almost all that is to be said is, “We should have been further up.” Throughout the weekend, our decision backfired little by little, and the drive-through penalty was also a crucial factor. There were many instances where we didn’t know which direction our decisions might lead us, and unfortunately, they often worked against us. The next race is 450 km long, which is an advantage for us. We don’t want to make any mistakes.

Team Manager, Ukyo Katayama
Even in the Q1 session, which was a sudden challenge, I told Taniguchi, “Shouldn’t you practice a little more?” But he said, “I’m fine,” and I think that’s really remarkable. Usually, people can’t do that. To be able to push and get 97 to 98 points out of the machine right away is impressive. If you hesitate, it affects your mental state… especially in slightly wet conditions or after rain. Even on the out lap, when I told him to do his best for the undercut, he was unbelievably fast in those wet and slick conditions because he peeled the skin off the tires a little bit. Also, after the race, both of us were like, “This never seems to go away, does it?” (laughs). This week, each decision we made didn’t go well, but we didn’t let the conditions get worse beyond a certain point, and we thought, “If only we had ten more laps.“