2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round8

MOTEGI GT 300km RACE GRAND FINAL

Dates: November 4-5, 2023
Location: Mobility Resort Motegi (Tochigi Prefecture)
Attendance: Prelims: 15,600 Finals: 30,000
Qualifying: 10th
Finals: 11th
Points Earned: 0
Series Rank: 14th (20 points in total)

　The last race of the SUPER GT 2023 season was held at Mobility Resort Motegi. The race distance was 300km, which was the third time this season following the opening race in Okayama and round 6 SUGO. The rule was that cars that participated in all races throughout the series would not be required to load success weights assigned according to cumulative acquired points. As a result, all cars participated in this race with no weights.
　Also, the Balance of Performance (BoP) assigned to Mercedes-AMG GT3 in this round was 34.5mm for the air restrictor (unchanged), and the weight loaded was 40kg, which was 5kg less than the last race in Autopolis.
　Unfortunately, when round 7 finished, GOODSMILE RACING & TeamUKYO no longer had the possibility to become the champion this season. However, the team still had the goal to get on the winner’s podium. Everyone in the team, including Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka, worked toward this goal.

November, 4th(Sat) [Official Practice, Official Qualifying]
Weather: Sunny
Course: Dry
Air/Track Surface Temperature:
Q1 Start: 23℃/29℃
Q2 Start: 23℃/27℃

　The support race preliminary held before the official practice had a session delay due to the deep fog that surrounded the circuit. However, the fog cleared before 9:25 a.m. when the official practice for SUPER GT started, and the driving started as scheduled. The air temperature was 15℃, and the road surface temperature was 18℃. Many machines headed to the course when the session started. However, the No.4 GOODSMILE Hatsune MIKU AMG, driven by Driver Kataoka, waited for the road surface conditions to improve for about 10 minutes before heading to the course.
　For the 6th lap, Driver Kataoka marked 1:47.724, which was the 6th best time in the class. After that, he repeated short runs, observing the brought-in set’s balance and tire conditions. After Driver Kataoka completed 17 laps, Driver Taniguchi took over. From here, No. 4 checked the pace of the race and made laps between the times 1:48 and 49. The road surface temperature, which did not even reach 20℃ at the start of the session, had risen to 28℃ by 10:50 a.m. when the GT300 Class-only driving slot started.
　Driver Taniguchi returned to the pit to change tires before the GT300 Class-only driving slot and then headed to the preliminary simulation. For lap 4, he marked 1:47.775 and continued to attack, marking the overall best time in sector 1. However, the time did not improve in sector 2 and after, marking 1:47.901. He could not renew his personal record. No.4’s best time was Driver Kataoka’s early 6th lap time, finishing the session at the 12th spot.
　In the FCY test slot right after, Driver Kataoka drove again for final balance checks and prepared for the preliminary in the afternoon.

　The preliminary started at 2:20 p.m. The road surface temperature barely changed from the morning session at 29℃. This time, the GT300 class Q1 was again divided into 2 groups in the order of rankings. No.4’s was put into Group B.
　This time, the team assigned Driver Taniguchi for the Q1 preliminary and Driver Kataoka for the Q2 attacker, also known as “Kataoka, who is good in Motegi/Driver ‘Mote’oka.”
　At 2:38 p.m., the Q1B Group course opened. After entering the course, Driver Taniguchi warmed up for 2 laps and then conducted his first attack. With the time of 1:48.291, he put himself in the 4th position at that point. He tried to improve the time even more by repeating sector personal records. Driver Taniguchi improved the time to 1:47.257 with this attack and secured the Q2 qualification in 7th place.
　After that, Q2 started at 3:13 p.m. At the same time as the start of the session, Driver Kataoka headed to the course to warm up the tires. He tried to attack after warming up for 2 measures laps like Driver Taniguchi in Q1 but stopped attacking in sector 1 as he felt the grip peak hadn’t been reached. He switched to attack in the following lap. Driver Kataoka showcased an extraordinary drive on the hot lap, marking a time of 1:46.270. The time improved by more than a second from the official practice time, so an upper position grid could be expected. However, the rivals also improved their time, with 7 cars fiercely marking early 1:46. As a result, No. 4 finished the preliminary in 10th position.
 
November,5th (Sun) [Final]
Weather: Sunny/Rain
Course: Dry/Wet
Air/Track Surface Temperature:
Prior to Start (12:50 PM): 23℃, 28℃
Mid-Race (2:00 PM): 21℃/25℃
End of Race (3:00 PM) 20℃/23℃

　Motegi is known as a course that features few overtaking opportunities, with frequent stop-and-go segments and costly fuel efficiency. That’s why the conventional wisdom is that it is hard for cars from mid-grids to overtake upper positions. Therefore, the team prepared a risky strategy of “not changing tires.” The team also considered there is a high risk of Full Course Yellow (FCY) or Safety Car (SC). Therefore, the owner, Aki, said, “Let’s go minimum and long. The second half will be Kataoka. Let’s bet on ‘Moteoka’ who is good in Motegi.” Driver Taniguchi was selected to be the starting driver for the first time in 10 years, the last race being 2013 round 2.
　Because of this, Driver Taniguchi also drove for the warm-up that started at 11:30 a.m. Driver Taniguchi also checked how to replace the driver from Driver Taniguchi to Kataoka, which was the reverse order from usual, and prepared for the final.
　As the start procedures were underway, the sky above the circuit was covered with dark clouds. While the main straight section of the circuit didn’t rain, in distant parts of the circuit, there was a light drizzle. Some teams prepared wet tires on the grid, but fortunately, the rain didn’t get any stronger. The parade lap and formation lap started in dry conditions.
　The signal turned green, and Driver Taniguchi started in the 10th position. “We brought two types of tires on the weekend, and on Saturday, we decided ‘it has to be the hard ones.” However, it ended up warming up poorly (delayed the grip). It was no good at all after a little rain like this.” He allowed others to go ahead in the opening lap and quickly fell behind to 15th position.
　Around the 5th lap, the rain started to fall on the overall circuit. While the rain was not heavy enough to change road surface conditions, the road surface temperature started to drop. As a result, No. 4 needed to spend more than 10 laps for the tires to reach a fully functioning temperature.
　On the 12th lap, No. 4 finally passed No. 11 (GAINER TANAX GT-R) to start the counterattack. Driver Taniguchi then overtook cars one after another: on the 14th lap, No. 50 (ANEST IWATA Racing RC F GT3), on the 15th lap, No. 60 (Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT), and on the 16th lap, No. 7 (Studie BMW M4). This put No. 4 in 11th place. Driver Taniguchi returned to the pit as scheduled after completing 19 laps, an expected distance totaling one-third of the race.

　The team went ahead with the planned strategy of “not replacing the tires” to get back the track position, and Driver Kataoka took over. At this point, the road surface temperature had dropped to 24℃. No. 4 returned to the course in the 19th position and became the 13th on lap 23 and 12th on lap 25 due to the routine work of others. In the following 26th lap, No. 4 took back the 10th position.
　No. 4 chased cars that were ahead, like this season’s champion candidate No. 52 (Saitama Toyopet GB GR Supra GT and the same GT300 class No. 31 (apr LC500h GT). On the 29th lap, No.4 became the 9th when No. 20 (SHADE RACING GR86 GT) entered the pit. On the 32nd lap, No. 61 (SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT) made some work errors during tire replacement, and on the 34th lap, No. 50 entered the pit to put up No. 4 in the 7th position.

　However, a real shocker was waiting for No. 4 after the first turn on lap 35. No. 18 (UPGARAGE NSX GT3) slammed into No. 4, damaging it and slowing down. No. 4 allowed No. 6 (DOBOT Audi R8 LMS) to go ahead.
“There were still 2 GT500s. It seemed an unlikely timing for No. 18 to come in, but I saw its shadow for a split second, so I kept the inside line open. Had I closed it off completely, both of us could have gone flying, and we could have retired. However, that wouldn’t happen at a high speed. That’s all there is to it. The reason why we were slow was simply because we skipped the tires.” As Driver Kataoka said, on the 40th lap, FCY was called due to GT500 class cars crashing, and the course adopted a slow speed limit of 80km/h. The unreplaced tires that were used carefully cooled again, and the grip recovery struggled.
　The race started on the 42nd lap, but No. 96 passed No. 4 as it was rewarming the cool tires on lap 47, putting No. 4 back to 10th place. It started to rain again, and there was even an accident where the wipers stopped working. The cool tires were enough of a challenge, but the poor vision prevented acceleration even more. On the 54th lap, No. 61 went ahead, and No.4 fell behind to 11th place.
　Right after, a GT500 car that was ahead went off the course towards the end of the race, and FCY was called. The race restarted after about 3 laps, but No. 4 soon took the checkered flag on lap 58 and finished the last race of the season in 11th place.
　This season, GOODSMILE RACING ＆ TeamUKYO’s best ranking was 5th place, and they couldn’t win the championship or even get on the podium. A tough season has ended.

 

■Comments from the Team

Team Owner: Aki Takanori
There might have been another strategy if we could get a little ahead in the preliminary, but that wasn’t the case. That’s why we chose not to replace the tires and go minimum. Still, the tires warmed up slower than expected… We knew it would happen, but it warmed up so poorly that the tires cooled off during pit-in and refueling. That was a little tough. From the preliminary ranking, we tasked “Moteoka” with the long second half, but the tires couldn’t keep up. Not replacing was not a bad strategy, but we were scared of the safety car risk too much. There was an option to go long for the first stint, so that might have been better as a result. There were some instances in this race when SC might have been called, but small accidents don’t amount to an SC in Motegi or Fuji. How to deal with this SC risk in these situations remains an issue.

Team Manager, Ukyo Katayama
We heard it was the hottest November in recorded history, and the weather forecast predicted a summer day. However, the temperature kept dropping towards the weekend. We made the tires harder and harder, which put us in a tough spot overall. In the preliminary, “TK,” who is good at this course, came up with some great times. It could always have been “a little better,” though (laughs). That part was good, but the expected thing happened. We started with Taniguchi, but it was tough because “the tires just didn’t warm up.” We went with minimum because of the SC risk, and we fully loaded after that, but then there was FCY. It cooled and picked up again. It started to rain, and the wipers broke. The tires didn’t warm up…Nothing seemed to work out. There was pretty much nothing we could do for today’s race.