On October 5th and 6th, Autopolis in Oita Prefecture will host the 2013 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 7 “SUPER GT IN KYUSHU 300km.” A total of eight rounds consist this season, and there are two races remaining including upcoming Autopolis. Battle for the title is just unpredictable still: the contention in the GT500 class is ever close than any other seasons and the GT300 class is approaching the climax. This battle is indeed a race to watch.

Halved handicap weight creates close battle.

One of the key characteristics of SUPER GT is the handicap weight. Under the current sporting regulation, a car is required to mount a handicap weight of a number that is twice the amount of championship ranking points from its second participation to sixth participation in the event (e.g. 20kg for 10 points), and for seventh participation the amount of weight is the same number of kilograms as the points, thus halved. No handicap weight is set for the eighth participation (e.g. 0kg even for 10 points). The number of participation is the number of participation by a driver, and whichever the lesser number of participation out of two drivers will be applied.

According to the latest GT500 class entry list, all cars will have their handicap weight for the Round 7 halved from the previous round. Cars in the upper group of ranking should have clearly better acceleration and maneuvers in the race. In another words, hard and close battles will be showcased on the field.

In addition, the gaps in this season’s point ranking in the GT500 class are smaller than usual years. Current leader, No.18 Weider Modulo HSV-010 (Naoki Yamamoto/Frederic Makowieck), has 46 points. No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) follows with the same points (difference in the number of fifth place finishes), and there are 11 cars within the 15 points range from the leader, indicating how congested the series is. Therefore, a podium finish, moreover a win, would give a thrust to emerge to the top group of ranking, and for those already in the top group can fight the final round in an advantageous position.

All models of GT500 are “Autopolis favorable” !?

Stage of Round 7 Autopolis is located at the foot of one of the famous mountains in Kyushu, Mount Aso. From its nature, the track has many ups and downs, but with the power of GT500 class machines, there shouldn’t be much of differences between the models. The layout is mainly consisted of mid- and high-speed turns, and many drivers refer the circuit as “challenging” and “fun to drive.”

Another interesting point of Autopolis is that most of the leading drivers of GT-R, HSV-010 GT, and SC430 all say that they believe their car suit the track well. Hence, there is no favorable/unfavorable by a model at the track. It seems that it is dependent on driver’s or team’s suitability or preference.

Then, who is good at Autopolis? Yuji Tachikawa holds the record of four pole positions out of ten (series) races in the past, thus, his team No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate) should come to the top of list. SC430 is fast in qualifying and the fleet is in a streak of three consecutive poles since 2009. However, GT-R squad flies high in the race. Satoshi Motoyama holds the most win record at Autoplis, hence, eyes should be kept on No.1 REITO MOLA GT-R (Motoyama/Yuhi Sekiguchi). Sekiguchi, by the way, got pole position here last year on GT-R in GT300 class. No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R can also be named as a candidate since the drivers, Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli, showed a hard push and completed a huge come-from-behind win and clinched the title here last year. Contrastingly, the HSV-010 GT fleet has neither pole position nor a win at Autopolis. But the track shouldn’t be an unfavorable place for the car considering the layout. As mentioned before, drivers are not feeling bad about the track. Wider Modulo HSV-010, RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Takashi Kogure), or KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Toshihiro Kaneishi) are on uprising flow lately and could possibly achieve the first Autopolis win.

Rivals stand strong to prevent GT300 championship decision.

In the GT300 class, ten cars participated in the SGT class (GT300 cars only) of the Asian Le Mans Round 2 “3 Hours of Fuji” held at Fuji after the Round 6 Fuji. Cars that finished in the upper positions are given 8 to 1 point. The three hour endurance race was won by No.16 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Yuhki Nakayama). Despite the race was not a series event, the team picked up 8 points from a pleasant first win by a CR-Z GT. The gap was extended to 16 points against the second place in ranking, No.11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/ Bjorn Wirdheim), which finished the race at second, and 17 points against the third place in ranking, No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki).

In last year’s GT500 class, Yanagida’s team had 8-point advantage against the second place team before the Round 7, and, with the rivals slowing down, the team was able to win and clinch title here. Considering that, the situation looks bright for MUGEN CR-Z GT.

Nonetheless, you never know what would happen in a race and this is SUPER GT. GAINER DIXCEL SLS and SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT are likely to come in with do-or-die attitude to try to catch up the MUGEN CR-Z GT by scoring their second win of season. Hiranaka as well as Yamano/Sasaki duo are past Autopolis winners. There is possibility if you take into account their suitability to the track.

And in case if MUGEN CR-Z GT ends in disappointment, No.52 OKINAWA-IMP SLS (Hironori Takeuchi/Takeshi Tsuchiya), No.4 GSR HATSUNEMIKU BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), and No.55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi/Takashi Kobayashi) could find a threshold to the title at the final round.

2013 season is reaching the finale. Autopolis is a race before the final round, which is referred to as “may be the most exciting” by many racing fans. Do enjoy fully the excitements and emotions at the circuit, or, if that’s not possible, through the broadcast on the J SPORTS.