GT3 / 28 August 2023

Super GT victory for NSX GT3 Evo 22

Team UPGARAGE scored a magnificent victory at Suzuka to move back into the lead of Super GT's GT300 category in what was the latest major success for the NSX GT3 Evo 22.

 

Super GT

Victory for Kobayashi and Koide looked highly unlikely as they lined up 16th on the GT300 grid, but the pace the Okayama winners were able to show gave an indication of their ability to make progress.

Kobayashi was 13th when he pitted to hand over to Koide after 40 minutes, and his co-driver then set about scything through the field.

He was fifth by the time he pitted for the final time with around half an hour to go, at which point a perfectly-timed safety-car period bunched the field together and allowed him to leapfrog his rivals and grab the lead as they made their last stops shortly afterwards.

Koide and Kobayashi's second win of the year elevated them back to the head of the points table with three races to go. Team UPGARAGE lead in the Teams' standings.

Yogibo Racing's Yugo Iwasawa and Reimei Ito were ninth, having been third quickest in practice.

 

Le Mans Cup

GMB Motorsport scored a top five finish in the GT3 category as the series continued at Motorland Aragon, Spain.

From seventh on the grid, Simon Birch - sharing with Thomas Andersen - passed two cars in a lap inside the final 15 minutes but ran wide at the first corner and dropped to fifth - where the young Dane finished.

The sister car, driven by Lars Pedersen and Jan Magnussen, qualified 10th and was running there too as a misfire limited the #88 car's pace. The issue caused Magnussen to retire with 20 minutes left.

 

IMSA

Gradient Racing’s Sheena Monk and Katherine Legge scored their sixth GTD top 10 of the season in a hot and gruelling race at Virginia International Raceway.

Monk equalled her career-best qualifying result in 10th spot and climbed to ninth during her stint. Legge made it up to seventh, but a slow final pitstop and a brief off dropped her back to 10th by the flag. The duo are ninth in the points.

All the mentioned cars were competing as part of the NSX GT3 Customer Racing Programme; a global collaborative project with JAS Motorsport responsible for assembly of all cars.
 
Honda Performance Development (HPD) and M-TEC handle sales and technical support in North America and Japan respectively, with JAS responsible for these areas across the rest of the world.