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Motorsport
Motorsport
Sport
Jamie Klein

Real Racing Honda disqualified, ARTA inherits Sugo win

Real pair Koudai Tsukakoshi and Nobuharu Matsushita had come through to take victory at the end of a thrilling 300km race, beating the #8 ARTA Honda of Tomoki Nojiri and Toshiki Oyu by seven seconds.

However, the #17 Honda NSX-GT shared by Tsukakoshi and Matsushita failed post-race technical inspection due to a skidblock violation.

It marks the second race in succession that a podium finisher has been disqualified for this reason, after the NISMO Nissan crew of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda lost their second-place finish last month at Suzuka.

ARTA therefore picks up its second win on the trot, as it took victory at Suzuka with its #16 crew of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu.

Quintarelli and Matsuda move up from third to second, while SARD Toyota pair Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama take the final spot on the podium.

Victory had provisionally put Tsukakoshi and Matsushita within one point of the championship lead, but their removal from the results changes the drivers' standings significantly.

NDDP Nissan duo Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi remain out front, but gain an additional point after moving up from 10th to ninth in the revised results, putting them on 51 points with two races to go.

TOM'S Toyota drivers Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata likewise gain one extra point for seventh place, having finished eighth on the road, but remain two points behind Chiyo and Takaboshi.

Quintarelli and Matsuda are now third, 11 points off the lead, while ARTA pair Fukuzumi and Otsu sit level in fourth place with Rookie Racing Toyota drivers Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita, 14 behind.

Tsukakoshi and Matsushita will head into the final two races of the season with a 22-point deficit to make up to the leaders.

The disqualification of the Real Honda means the winners in both classes at Sugo were stripped of their respective wins, as the GT300-winning Team UpGarage likewise failed post-race inspection.

Revised GT500 results:

Pos. No. Car Drivers Laps Time/Diff Tire SW
1 8 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Tomoki Nojiri
Toshiki Oyu
84 2:24'30.932 BS 22
2 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
84 2:24'31.461 MI 50
3 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
84 2:25'22.590 BS 46
4 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z Kazuki Hiramine
Bertrand Baguette
84 2:25'26.625 BS 48
5 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z Daiki Sasaki
Kohei Hirate
84 2:25'33.411 YH 10
6 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra Kazuya Oshima
Kenta Yamashita
83 2:24'27.039 BS 64
7 36 au TOM'S GR Supra Sho Tsuboi
Ritomo Miyata
83 2:24'32.586 BS 90
8 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
83 2:24'32.852 YH 48
9 3 Niterra MOTUL Z Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
83 2:24'34.137 MI 98
10 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra Ukyo Sasahara
Giuliano Alesi
83 2:24'35.254 BS 16
11 64 Modulo NSX-GT Takuya Izawa
Kakunoshin Ota
83 2:24'35.709 DL 38
12 16 ARTA MUGEN NSX-GT Nirei Fukuzumi
Hiroki Otsu
82 2:24'28.068 BS 74
Ret 100 STANLEY NSX-GT Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
37 1:17'23.008 BS 62
Ret 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura
35 46'02.030 BS 36
  17 Astemo NSX-GT Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
Disqualified BS 58
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