The GT300 class remains ever-competitive and ever-unpredictable through four rounds of the 2017 Autobacs Super GT Series. So far, we’ve seen stunning results, first-time winners, rookie sensations, memorable photo finishes, and brilliant driving from top to bottom in the largest GT300 field in history.
The second half of the season kicks off at Fuji Speedway, spiritual home of Japanese sports car endurance racing, for the traditional 300 kilometer sprint after the Golden Week classic, the Fuji 500km. The middle leg of the Summer Series, the Fuji GT 300km Race has the makings of another potential classic, especially if last year’s memorable finish between Autobacs Racing Team Aguri and Audi Team Hitotsuyama serves as any indicator.
With half of the 2017 Autobacs Super GT Series completed, there’s still another half left to run. The next four rounds and 1,850+ kilometers of racing will decide the championships in both classes of Super GT, and so far, the story of GT500 has been the domination of the new Lexus LC500, winner in the first four races of 2017.
This weekend, Super GT starts the second half of the 2017 season with the second leg of its traditional Summer Series: The Fuji GT 300km Race, the second event to be held annually at Fuji Speedway in Oyama Prefecture, Japan.
And it is only fitting that Fuji Speedway, home circuit for Toyota Motor Corporation and the Lexus badge, could become the venue where Lexus could make Super GT history with a fifth straight win to open the 2017 GT500 season.
Sportsland SUGO is a track that’s little-known to fans outside of Japan, but is well-established as one of Japan’s top national-level racing facilities. Bearing resemblance to western venues such as Laguna Seca and Brands Hatch, it’s a track that combines tight, technical rhythm sections with two flat-out bursts up and down the hills of the town of Murata.
It’s the start of the traditional, informal “Summer Series”, a stretch of 3 races in 6 weeks that will culminate with the Suzuka 1000km in August. But first, 28 teams in the GT300 class will have to clear Sugo, a demanding circuit with narrow margins that will punish every driver error.
And as tantalizing as the potential for Nissan and Honda to rise from the floor and take the fight to Lexus in GT500 seems to be, the battle for the win in GT300 could be every bit as good.
It’s been a two-month Spring Break that has felt like an eternity for the teams and drivers of the Autobacs Super GT Series, apart from the occasional test sessions and the drivers who’ve taken part in events all around the world. But all the teams and drivers are back together, and ready to resume the fight for the championships in Japan’s most popular racing series.
The waiting is over, and it’s time for the GT500 teams to resume play with the first leg of the traditional “Summer Series” – a three-race stretch that begins this weekend at Sportsland SUGO in rural Murata town in Miyagi Prefecture, just southwest of the city of Sendai.
The story in GT500 has been a story of Lexus domination, with three wins to open the season with their new Lexus LC500. But for the supporters of Nissan and Honda, there’s cause for hope yet that this fourth round at Sugo could point to a major turnaround in the power struggle in the premier class.
