Super Taikyu Sugo 3h, Qualifying Report – and Where to Watch
The 2021 Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook is at Sportsland Sugo this weekend, for the Sugo Super Taikyu 3 Hour Race double-header. For those lamenting Super GT’s move behind a broadcasting paywall for the 2021 season, all of Super Taikyu’s races this year are still available to watch live and free via the series’ […]
The post Super Taikyu Sugo 3h, Qualifying Report – and Where to Watch first appeared on dailysportscar.com.The 2021 Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook is at Sportsland Sugo this weekend, for the Sugo Super Taikyu 3 Hour Race double-header.
For those lamenting Super GT’s move behind a broadcasting paywall for the 2021 season, all of Super Taikyu’s races this year are still available to watch live and free via the series’ YouTube channel.
Group 2 Race Video – Green flag Sunday 8:45 JST / 00:45 BST / 1:45 CEST / Saturday 19:45 EDT
Group 1 Race Video – Green flag Sunday 14:00 JST / 6:00 BST / 7:00 CEST / 1:00 EDT
Now, on to the report from Saturday’s qualifying, held under wet conditions…
Group 1 Qualifying: First pole for apr Lexus RC F GT3
The #31 Lexus RC F GT3 apr Racing and drivers Hideki Nagai, Koki Saga, and Kazuto Kotaka will start on pole position for Sunday afternoon’s three-hour Group 1 Race at the newly renovated Sportsland Sugo circuit.
The Driver A segment of qualifying, the first of two segments to determine the grid, was handled by the gentleman drivers in the top classes. Tadao Uematsu was fastest in the #290 Floral Racing with ABSSA McLaren 720S GT3. Second was the #16 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R of defending Sugo race winner Hiroaki Nagai, followed by his younger brother Hideki in third in the #31 apr Lexus.
Afterwards, the professional drivers took to the circuit for the Driver B segment. This time, Takayuki Aoki in the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R GT3 set the fastest time, with a 1’30.298. The #31 Lexus of Saga was just half a second off in 2nd place, with Motegi winner Tomonobu Fujii 3rd aboard the #777 D’station Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3. The #290 McLaren of Keita Sawa was 5th in this stage, and crucially, a full second slower than the #31 Lexus of Saga.
By a margin of just 0.138 seconds, the #31 Lexus of Nagai, Saga, and Kotaka secured the pole position for the Group 1 race – the first pole for apr Racing since debuting in the ST-X class last season, and the first for the Lexus RC F GT3 since Max Racing won pole for the 2019 round at Autopolis.
The #290 Floral/ABSSA McLaren of Uematsu, Sawa, Shintaro Kawabata, and Yuji Ide consolidated 2nd on the grid, with a gap of over eight-tenths to the #777 D’station Vantage GT3 of Fujii, Satoshi Hoshino, and Tsubasa Kondo in 3rd.
The #9 MP Racing GT-R (Joe Shindo/Yusaku Shibata/Masami Kageyama/Keiichi Inoue) qualified 4th, ahead of the #81 Daishin GT-R of Aoki, Noboyuki Oyagi, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Ryuichiro Oyagi in 5th, and the #16 PC Okazaki 911 of Nagai, Yuta Kamimura, and Yuichi Nakayama in 6th. Fujinami and Ryuichiro Oyagi were fastest in the Driver C and Driver D segments of qualifying, but their times do not impact the grid order.
Pole position in the ST-1 class went to Tracy Sports’ #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra of Yuui Tsutsumi, Ryohei Sakaguchi, and Makoto Hotta, qualifying in 7th overall. The #71 Akiland Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Masayoshi Oyama/Ken Yamamoto) was just behind them, 2nd in class and 8th overall.
There was an open goal after the #2 KTM Cars Japan X-Bow GTX (Taiyou Iida/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh) suffered a crash in the morning’s Free Practice session, and the damage sustained left them unable to take part in Qualifying.
With 14 GT4 cars in the ST-Z class (down from 15 following Comet Racing withdrawing their #77 Mercedes-AMG GT4 before the event), battle for class pole position was bound to be a fierce fight. As it turned out, Corolla Shin-Ibaraki Racing’s #311 Fabulous GRMI Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Hirokazu Suzuki, Rintaro Kubo, Yusuke Shiotsu, and Kimiya Sato took the pole for the ST-Z class in just their second race.
The advantage was set early, in the Driver A segment – where gentleman driver Suzuki set the quickest time in the class. He was four-tenths up on the #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 of Ryuichiro Otsuka in 2nd, who himself, was just two-hundredths ahead of the #3 Endless AMG GT4 of Yudai Uchida in 3rd.
With the pro drivers taking part in the Driver B segment, the #34 Techno First Ginetta G55 GT4 of Hironobu Yasuda set the fastest time of the group. Rintaro Kubo, who drove the #311 Fabulous GRMI GR Supra in the B segment, was only seventh-fastest – but was less than a tenth adrift of Toshihiro Kaneishi in the #500 5Zigen AMG GT4, and Hideki Yamauchi in the #3 Endless AMG GT4 ahead of them.
That gave C.S.I Racing their first ST-Z class pole of the season, and the very first pole in class for the Toyota GR Supra GT4.
The #30 B-Max Engineering AMG GT4 (Nobuhiro Imada/Yuhi Sekiguchi/Ryuji “Dragon” Kumita) qualified 2nd on the strength of a great lap from Sekiguchi in the B segment. The #500 5Zigen AMG GT4 of Otsuka, Kaneishi, and Jake Parsons qualified 3rd in class, ahead of the #3 Endless AMG GT4 of Uchida, Yamauchi, and Togo Suganami.
Running alone in the experimental ST-Q class, the #28 ROOKIE Racing GR Supra (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Yasuhiro Ogura/Kenta Yamashita) qualified 13th overall for the Group 1 race, and the lone ST-TCR class #75 Team Noah Honda Civic (Toshiro Tsukada/Yoshikazu Sobu/Shigetomo Shimono/Yuji Kiyotaki) qualified 23rd overall.
Group 2 Qualifying: ROOKIE Racing GR Yaris on pole
All four of the pure production classes, ST-2 through ST-5, will race together in Sunday morning’s Group 2 Race. Leading the field to green is ROOKIE Racing’s ST-2 class #32 Toyota GR Yaris driven by Takuto Iguchi, Masahiro Sasaki, Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio “Morizo” Toyoda, and Takamitsu Matsui.
Iguchi and Sasaki handled qualifying duties, and with Sasaki braving the wet track conditions and putting on dry tyres for his qualifying run in the B segment – their aggregate time was a crushing 1.8 seconds quicker than the second-quickest #6 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi) that qualified 4th overall in the Group 2 field. 3rd in class, and 7th overall, was the #225 Kobe Toyopet Motorsports GR Yaris of Seita Nonaka, Hibiki Taira, and Miki Onaga.
The ST-3 class pole winner, and 2nd overall on the grid, is the #62 HELM Motor Sports Lexus RC 350 of Yuya Hiraki, Reiji Hiraki, and Tomoki Takahashi.
In a close battle for class pole, the #39 Tracy Sports Lexus RC F GT3 (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Kazuya Oshima [b.1997]/Hirotaka Ishii) qualified 2nd in class, 3rd overall, just a quarter of a second behind the HELM RC 350. Tracy Sports’ second Lexus, the #41 (Yuma Shoji/Yoshihiro Ito/Ryuta Ukai), qualified 3rd in class and 5th overall.
C.S.I Racing took pole positions in both classes which they enter, with the #310 GR Mito Inter Toyota 86 of Sho Tsuboi, Shinya Hosokawa, and Fuma Horio taking top honours in ST-4, just a tenth of a second ahead of the #884 Hayashi Telempu Shade Racing Toyota 86 (Yuji Kunimoto/Keishi Ishikawa/Eijiro Shimizu).
And ST-5 pole position went to Nihon Automobile College’s #72 Mazda Roadster – driven by Makoto Kanai, Tatsuya Ishii, Tatsuya Okahara, and Anna Inotsume. A brilliant lap from ace driver Kanai put them at the head of a Roadster 1-2-3 in class, ahead of the #66 odula Roadster (Takayuki Takechi/Tatsuya Ota/Takahisa Ohno/Kyosuke Inomata), and the #50 Love Drive Roadster (Koji Yamanishi/Hiroyuki Matsumura/Yoshihito Shinoda).
Images courtesy of the Super Taikyu Organisation (STO)
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