#100 Civilian combat by carrying heavy handi…

Morning practice sessions were delayed due to miserable weather and poor visibility, and subsequently all track practice sessions scheduled for Saturday were ultimately cancelled. As a result of this decision, it was announced that official qualifying for the GT300 and GT500 classes will begin on Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and will last 30 minutes each. The race starting grid should correspond to the best times marked at the sessions.

Race day at Autopolis was greeted by cloudy skies, the rain had already stopped but both ambient and road surface temperatures dropped. Qualifying took place at 8:00 a.m. on the track where some puddles had formed due to the rain yesterday. After the GT500 class time attack, the #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta) took fourth place, the highest in the CIVIC TYPE-R GT squadron, and behind it was #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R -GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) in 6th place, #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) in 7th place, #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) in 11th place and #8 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa) started the race in 15th place.

At 1:00 p.m., when small patches of blue sky could be seen through the thin clouds and the asphalt was completely dry, the 3-hour race started. The leading CIVIC runner, car #17 (Tsukakoshi), started from the fourth grid and quickly closed on car #14 (ENEOS PRIME GR Supra), losing its third place after hitting it in Turn 1 on lap 6 had overtaken. The car with starting number 100 (Makino), on the other hand, started to catch up rather slowly from 7th place on the grid and moved up to 5th place about an hour after the start when the safety car (SC) was deployed.

On lap 35, car #17 (Tsukakoshi) and car #100 (Makino) arrived for refueling and driver changes. Unfortunately, car number 17 (Ohta) had to retire soon afterwards. On lap 38, the No. 100 car was displaced by the No. 14 car while attempting to overtake it and crashed into the guardrail, damaging the car beyond repair.

The No. 100 car (Yamamoto), now assuming the leading role of the CIVIC TYPE R-GT squadron, made its second stop after 60 laps, but Yamamoto maintained his mission and returned determinedly focused on the steering. Immediately afterwards, the #64 car (Izawa) went off the track at Turn 3 and SC duly arrived as the #100 car (Yamamoto) deftly stopped, moved up to virtual third place and then began chasing the #100 car. 23 (MOTUL) to hunt AUTECH Z).

Car No. 100 (Yamamoto), which had already reached the Success Weight (SW) of up to 86 kg and therefore had the heaviest handicap of all, i.e. Chasing car #23, which had no such handicap in the form of a fuel limit, was far too difficult a task for car #100, which later began to suffer from tire wear and even car #3 (Niterra MOTUL Z) with it lighter SW allowed to follow closely behind.

The No. 100 car (Yamamoto) tried its best to fend off the attack of the No. 3 car, but gave up on lap 86 and dropped to 4th place, which was held until the end after completing 92 laps in 3 hours had driven from the start. The #16 car (Otsu) finished 6th and also earned series points. After the 7th round, the No. 100 car (Yamamoto/Makino) collected its total points to 51 and will catch up with the No. 36 car (au TOM'S GR Supra) with a total of 53 points in the upcoming round at Mobility Resort Motegi. SW will be on the Half reduced.

In the effect of “One Day Race”, due to the bad weather, all activities inevitably turned into a kind of slapstick. Because of this, all of the CIVIC TYPE R-GT drivers except the #100 car were not in good shape to survive the race and therefore had to lose points to their competitors. However, even with heavy weights, car #100 delivered a better result than competitors with less or similar weights, which I believe means we were able to demonstrate the car's performance. As the points distribution among the top 3 runners becomes increasingly tight, we must do our best to achieve maximum points in the remaining two rounds and ultimately win the series title. We thank you in advance for the fans' continued support.

We never thought the round would ever be a one-day race! It was a difficult weekend, but our team did a great job. As a driver, the result is frustrating as we were almost in control of the podium until the final stages. But 4th place wasn't so bad considering the fuel limiter or other unpleasant factors.

We had a hard time when the fuel limiter came into play, but still I think we did what we could do as drivers. We owe the result to our team, who did a fantastic job. This time too we collected some points, but we don't know anything about the future. Staying focused and doing our best is all we can do.