The 450km Golden Week race was red-flagged on lap 59 of 100 after Nissan driver Mitsunori Takaboshi swerved to avoid a slow-moving GT300 car, the Arnage Racing Toyota 86 MC, and crashed into the guardrail along the start/finish straight at high speed.
Some pointed the finger at SARD Toyota man Yuhi Sekiguchi, who was leading the race at the time, for triggering the crash by seeking to use the slipstream of the ailing Arnage machine until the last moment, leaving Takaboshi unsighted.
SARD boss Juichi Wakisaka even tacitly acknowledged that Sekiguchi had been too aggressive in his defence of the lead.
However, no penalty was awarded for the incident, although Sekiguchi and teammate Yuichi Nakayama ultimately lost the win for an unrelated offence, as Sekiguchi was judged to have worked on the #39 Toyota GR Supra during a red-flag period by touching the front-left corner while inspecting damage.
Hattori appeared in the traditional pre-race press conference ahead of Sunday's Suzuka round alongside GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh to explain the crash from race control's point of view.
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Firstly, Hattori explained that a white flag had been displayed on the left-hand side of the track near the pit entrance in response to the Arnage car cruising at 130km/h owing to intermittent gearbox trouble.
It was judged that Sekiguchi may not have seen this flag as, while defending the lead from Takaboshi's Nissan, he was using the slipstream of the #31 apr Toyota Prius GT300 car that was on its way into the pits.
Hattori acknowledged that a white flag should have been displayed along the right-hand side of the track adjacent to the pits, where it would have been more visible to the front-runners.
However, he also pointed out that the driver of the Arnage machine, Takeshi Suehiro, should have either activated his hazard lights or an indicator to make it clear he was driving slowly, and that Suehiro also could have pulled over to the right-hand side beyond the white line that demarcates the edge of the track.
Hattori also said that Sekiguchi deserved some leeway for leaving it late to pull out of the Arnage car's slipstream as he was focused on defending from Takaboshi and the #37 TOM'S Toyota of Ritomo Miyata.
Additionally, it was stated that Takaboshi, right before the crash, had moved slightly to the right to duck out of Sekiguchi's slipstream, unbalancing the car even more when the Nissan driver swerved left and braked hard in avoidance of the Arnage car.
A combination of all the above factors led race direction to rule the crash to be a racing incident.
"The most important thing is how we prevent such a thing from happening again in the future," said Hattori.
