The first three-hour race was held

On Saturday 4 May 2024, the second Super GT round was held at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture. The winners of this first 3-hour race format were No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) in the GT500 class and No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) in the GT300 class. This time, we will report on the GT500 class race.

Fairlady Z shows strong performance

The Fuji round is a regular Golden Week event in Super GT. It is the most spectator-attractive race of the season, with 88,400 people visiting the grandstands and paddock over the two days. This was the first time that the three-hour race, introduced this season, had been run, so it was interesting to see what strategy the cars would adopt. The race is expected to be just under 120 laps, and regulations require two pit stops for refueling. The race got underway at 13:30 under clear and dry conditions.

It was the Honda Civic Type R-GT that showed speed in GT500 qualifying. Pole position was taken by No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT, which was also the first pole for the Civic in its debut this season, followed by NISMO cars No. 3 Niterra and No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z in second and third positions, with the Toyota “GR Supra” at the top of the list at 14 The highest ranked Toyota GR Supra was No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra in 7th position. However, No. 14 had tire damage in qualifying and had to change four tires at the start, and had to start from the pits.

Takahoshi in No. 3 Niterra took the holeshot at the start, followed by Koudai Tsukakoshi in No. 17 Astemo and Katsumasa Chiyo in No. 23 NISMO. In the early stages of the race, the top cars did not separate greatly and were evenly spaced, but gradually the gap between the top three cars and those in 4th position and below widened.

However, Tsukakoshi in second position on No. 17 Astemo started to lose some ground from the leaders. At 35 minutes into the race (23rd lap), Chiyo in No. 23 NISMO overtook car No. 17 and moved up to 2nd position. This made it a one-two for NISMO.

At around the 50-minute mark from the start of the race, the pits finally got underway, starting with No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT which pitted in after 30 laps, and one after another the cars made their first refueling and tyre changes. Many teams chose not to change drivers, but to have the starting driver do a double stint.

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