Nissan has made something of a habit of winning the SUPER GT title with new GT500 models in their first year of service. Its works NISMO team did so with the R34 variant of the GT-R in 1999, then again four years later with the 350Z. In 2008, the then-new R35 GT-R also took the title at the first time of asking.
And now, in the first year of competition for the all-conquering new Z, Nissan is in a brilliant position to end a long, painful title drought stretching back to 2015, with two of its crews occupying the top two spots in the standings ahead of this weekend’s Motegi finale.
But to finally claim the prize that has eluded it for seven years, Nissan will have to overcome Honda at its home circuit, where the NSX-GT has been victorious in the last four races.
The last time Honda failed to win in the GT500 class at Motegi was back in 2019, incidentally when the last time the track served as the venue for the title-decider. You have to go back to 2017 to find Nissan’s last win at the track, although Impul came very close last year.
That said, the Z has arguably taken over from the NSX-GT as the king of the ‘technical’ tracks this year with two wins at Suzuka and another in the wet at Sugo. The two title-contending Nissans were both laden with fuel flow restrictors last time out at Autopolis, and yet the Impul car was still able to come through for sixth, but very nearly came fourth.
At Motegi, there are no more fuel restrictors or success ballast slowing down the top cars in the title chase, the #3 NDDP Racing (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) and #12 Impul (Bertrand Baguette/Kazuki Hiramine) Nissans, both of which banked valuable extra mileage in last month's Bridgestone/Michelin tyre test at Motegi.
Still, having made a real step in performance from Sugo onwards with the introduction of the Spec 2 engine, Honda certainly can’t be counted out. Victory at Autopolis for Real Racing pair Nobuharu Matsushita and Koudai Tsukakoshi means the #17 crew have momentum on their side, and are close enough in the points to still have their destiny in their hands.
To recap: the #3, #12 and #17 crews will all be champions if they win the race, regardless of who gets the bonus point for pole. Three more crews are still in theoretical contention, Honda squad Team Kunimitsu (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino), and Toyota outfits TOM’S (Sacha Fenestraz/Ritomo Miyata) and Rookie Racing (Kenta Yamashita/Kazuya Oshima), but their chances are so remote we won’t consider them here.
Who ends up wearing the crown at the end of the weekend is likely to boil down to two things: qualifying performance, as passing is notoriously tough at Motegi, and fuel economy, as after the start the pitstop window will provide the clearest chance to gain positions.
Motegi is the toughest circuit on the calendar for fuel economy, and while Toyota and Nissan have made progress on this front, Honda has traditionally been the strongest. Last year the earliest pitstops came on lap 23 of 63, two laps after the one-third minimum cut-off, but if any crew can find a way to pit on lap 21 this weekend, they could gain a major advantage.
Impul’s Baguette knows how strong Real Racing is at Motegi, having won driving alongside Tsukakoshi in the #17 car at the Tochigi venue in 2020, but is also bullish that Nissan won’t have any issues matching the fuel economy of the NSX-GT.
“Since the start of the year we’ve had really good fuel consumption,” he said. “Honda has always been strong on this point but Nissan has caught up with them, we are often doing the same numbers. It’s not so much of a concern for us, but it always plays a big part.”
One thing Baguette admits is more of a concern for he and Hiramine’s hopes is qualifying, as the pair haven’t managed to qualify higher than P7 all season - as well as the possibility that Michelin happens upon a tyre choice that puts the #3 Nissan out of reach.
“Unfortunately that has been our weak point this year,” the Belgian admitted. ”We have been super-strong in the race but not in qualifying. It will be important to be in Q2, if we can’t qualify in the top five it will make our jobs much harder. I won’t give up even if we qualify towards the back, but for sure it would be hard from this position.
“I know Honda will be fast, there is no doubt, they are on the same tyres as us. But Michelin we don’t know, we will only know after FP1 if they brought good tyres or not. It’s possible they brought something that will make them unbeatable, it’s hard to judge.”
While Michelin’s pace remains the major unknown, one advantage the #3 Nissan will have, especially in qualifying, is engine mileage, as the NDDP took an extra unit penalty-free following Takaboshi’s huge crash earlier in the year at Fuji.
Chiyo is reluctant to say whether this could be the difference, but knows that qualifying in the first two rows of the grid will be pivotal.
“I’m quite confident, I feel relaxed,” said Chiyo. “NISMO’s support has been really big and they prepared everything well. Michelin has also brought what we think is the best choice of tyre. The first key is to be as high up as possible in qualifying.
“On peak grip all four tyre manufacturers are very close, so one mistake could mean you drop out of Q1. What’s important is not making any mistakes, but this is our job.”
Matsushita is equally optimistic for he and Tsukakoshi’s chances to score what would be a first-ever GT500 title for Real Racing following the #17 car’s performance against the two title-contending Nissans in last month’s test.
“We did the test and we seemed quite competitive, so I really hope it will be the same here again,” he said. “Of course we need to improve a little bit more, but this weekend we’ve brought a new set-up so we hope that’s going to work.
“The temperature will be similar to testing, which makes it predictable. I think it’s good for the Bridgestones, which also means it’s good for Impul. But I’m not sure about Michelin. I think the key will be to stay calm, no mistakes, but we have the potential for sure.”
Michelin has historically struggled in colder conditions, but if the French firm has hit the sweet spot this weekend, then Chiyo and Takaboshi would be in a strong position to finally end Nissan’s barren run of titles.
But, despite being the A-driver for the leading NISMO car in the points, Chiyo is determined not to allow the pressure of the occasion to get the best of him.
“If I think too much, it’s not necessary and sometimes it can have a negative effect,” said Chiyo. “I want to forget everything about that when I am behind the wheel.
“We are maintaining our mindset as ‘challengers’ because all the mechanics and engineers on the #3 car are new. It’s a very new team. I worked with some of them in the past with the MOLA team, or in Europe or in Australia. It’s a kind of mix of team members.
“It’s better to think of ourselves as ‘challengers’ than ‘defenders’, so that we keep pushing like always. That’s what we have to do, and it’s all we can do.”
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