r/super_gt • u/Stuff_And_More . • Nov 04 '22
Race Thread 2022 Season Fianle - Motegi GT 300KM Race
2022 Season Fianle - Motegi GT 300KM Race
Where to watch
The full 2022 Season will be streamed on Motorsport.TV outside of Japan including qualifying.
Domestic coverage will be provided by J-Sports 3 or J-Sports On-Demand.
Schedule
Saturday November 6th
Free Practice 2 @ 00:00/9:00
Qualifying @ 05:20/14:20
Sunday November 6th
- Sportsland Motegi GT 300KM Race @ 04:00/13:00
Times in UTC/Local
Important Links
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u/shigs21 . Nov 06 '22
Congrats to Impul! After all these years Baguette wins 500 in a nissan! what a year for them
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u/Michal_Baranowski . Nov 06 '22
Talking about season finale... What a race it was. Thriller, basically like during every single Super GT event.
GT500 - last race of the season was the first victory for Kunimitsu Honda #100 crew. Better late than never. Well-deserved race win. Kudos and respect to Makino and Yamamoto for giving a respectful tribute to the late Kunimitsu Takahashi on the podium. Thanks to this victory, #100 ends up third in the championship.
Congratulations to Team Impul #12. Second place secured the championship for Calsonic-sponsored Nissan team. Their first title in almost 30 years in Japanese sportscar racing! What a great story. In recent seasons Impul really struggled. They couldn't find the grip with GT-R GT500, but since this year and switch to Z GT500 Nissan is in a different league. Team Impul especially. Hard-fought, but a championship earned deservingly.
Third place for Toyota Team Rookie #14, which was a good conclusion to an underwhelming weekend for Toyota teams and generally speaking a disappointing season. Once again Supra proved that in a race trim without success ballast it is a good car. However all the damage was done throughout the year with their competition being better all-round, mistakes along the way and Supra losing touch to Honda and brand new Nissan. Toyota really need upgrades for their Supra GT500. #14 ends the season in fifth place in the standings, which by Toyota standards must be a painful defeat, especially if we consider Team Rookie as the new top runners among Toyota teams.
NDDP/Nismo #3 unfortunately missed out on the championship. Katsumasa Chiyo made their race harder after colliding with ARTA Honda #8 and receiving a drive-through penalty. Mitsunori Takaboshi made quite a comeback, but fourth place wasn't enough and in the battle of Nissans, #3 was left defeated. Second place in the championship is not a bad result though, they left their much more experienced factory teammates from #23 well behind.
GT300 - what a thriller... GT300 provided all the championship drama you can ever imagine. The race went to ARTA Honda #55, which could be a great send-off for their GT300 team, as ARTA probably will focus on GT500 only from 2023.
First of all, I feel sorry for Subaru #61 team. Pace-wise they were nowhere at Motegi. Not sure it was down to setup, problems or general lack of pace but seeing them falling down the order was painful to watch. Sad way to lose a potential title. Kondo Racing Nissan #56 went from heaven to hell and heaven back again. When they lost a wheel, I thought it was all done for them. Mercifully crawling back to pits and bringing car safely to the finish turned out to be enough thanks to everything that happened to their main rivals. Subaru was nowhere and Gainer Nissan #10 didn't manage to keep enough cars behind to secure a safe position for the championship. Same thing happened to Toyopet Supra #52. Among all the chaos, huge collision under the safety car, Kondo Nissan wins the GT300 title.
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u/yossarian328 Nov 07 '22
Congrats to Impul and Realize! I was rooting for Chiyo and Takaboshi after that early crash, but it's also been such a long time for the iconic Calsonic. I can finally add a blue car next to the red 23 on my shelf. Looking forward to what comes next for Fujinami.
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u/RezaMaulana98 . Nov 06 '22 edited Nov 06 '22
What... The hell is that season finale, holy shit that delivered and then some especially in GT300.
Congratulations on Team Kunimitsu for visiting the Victory Lane for the first time since Kunimitsu-san's passing, that's gotta be an emotional one for the #100 team and they sure made Kunimitsu proud with their effort given that they gave them all to the point that they ran out of fuel in the cooldown lap.
But the big congratulations must go to the two Nissan title-contending squads, the #12 Impul and the #3 NDDP/NISMO teams! The Calsonic Nissan gets to be a champion after 27 long years and what a way to do it, never setting a foot wrong and keeping themselves to be there at the front end of the field to bring home the gold.
As for the #3 team, what a comeback from them! I thought they would be royally screwed after their self-inflicted Drive Through, but thanks to a really fortunate timing on the FCY/SC, a lightning quick pit stop and a spirited charge from Takaboshi they somehow managed to find their way to 4th position on the line! They came up short on the title in the end, but the #3 team sure made Impul worked on it all the way to the checkered flag. The #3 team is certainly my team of the race for the GT500 field this weekend.
Congratulations to ARTA's #55 for winning the race in GT300 on what could be their final race as a GT300 competitor, but that GT300 title battle race... Holy crap. This is up there with Kunimitsu's 2020 GT500 title and RE Amemiya's 2006 GT300 title as one of those "You can't made it up" title stories because Kondo Racing, after losing a wheel midway through the race, somehow stayed on top to be crowned champion for the second time in three years.
I was convinced that they lost it when that front-right Yokohama tire departed from the #56 Nissan GT-R, but that sight of JP Oliveira somehow bringing the #56 GT-R back to the pits after driving on three wheels for 3/4ths of a lap (without causing too much damage to the floor no less!), rejoining the race and then still crossing the finish line as champions is going to be a highlight for years and decades to come.
Kondo, JP, and Fujinami really need to invite JLOC to their post-season celebrations because JLOC really gave them a huge favor this weekend. The JLOC Lambo's with nothing to lose just gunned for their best and unintentionally ending up wreaking havoc to the title race with the two overtakes that the Lambo's did late in the race. First the #87 denied Saitama Toyopet of a runner-up finish that would give the #52 the title, then later the #88 denied GAINER's #10 car of a fifth place finish that they need to earn the title on the final lap of the race. Absolutely crazy stuff.
And speaking of GAINER's #10 car... My god those last 10 laps must have been heartbreaking for them. I don't know if it's the temperatures or the car just ate the tires more than they should, but their pace dropped off at a very alarming rate in the closing stages of the races. It sure give us the spectacle of a lifetime (especially with that long side-by-side battle with the #18 NSX), but I can't imagine what's going on on the team and Tomita's mind as they slowly lost their grip on the title that looked certain to come their way after that incident with the Kondo car. And just to add insult to the injury, the K-Tunes Lexus also got them on the last lap before the Miku AMG beat them to the line by 0.004 seconds to deny Riki Okusa of a second place finish in the drivers standings.