The Super Taikyu Series reaches its conclusion this weekend at the seventh and final round of the season at the Fuji Speedway circuit and it’s all change for the locally based D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team within their Vantage GT3 and GT8R.

Having followed within the wheel tracks of the #2 KS Frontier KTM X-Bow team for most of the season, the ST-1 class battle was finally conceded last time out at Okayama after the #47 Vantage GT8R crew of Max Orido, Kenji Hama, Jake Parsons and Tatsuya Hoshino again finished second to the #2 KTM crew.

 

As you may have already heard, the second round of the Japanese Super Taikyu Series embarks upon its biggest round of their season this weekend as the multi-class grid again battles a 24-hour race around the Fuji International Speedway circuit.

Again with two Aston Martin Racing platforms listed within the series full season entry, this round will also only see the D’Station Racing team’s AMR Vantage GT8R compete as their AMR Vantage GT3 crew remain otherwise pre-occupied with their World Endurance Championship commitments over in Europe and particularly their preparation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and its Official test day weekend including le Pesage.

 

Following on from their earlier Asian Le Mans Series confirmation, the Japanese based D’Station Racing team have today confirmed another two-car entry into next season within their domestic Super Taikyu Series.

Having raced this year with an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and well as converting to the Vantage GT8R from the Vantage GT4 platform in time for this year, the team have confirmed a continuation of their 2022 drive line up aboard both cars.

 

Like we have said before, there are not too many races left in the calendar before we see out 2022 but one of those events is the final round of the Super Taikyu Series from Suzuka, Japan this weekend.

Again, featuring amongst the traditionally large multi-class grid for this final five-hour affair will be the two D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R and GT3.

 

Bucking the trend just a little with being only at their penultimate round of their season sees the Japanese Super Taikyu Series run their three-hour race from the Okayama circuit this weekend.

Featuring amongst the fifty-two-car entry will be just the sole Aston Martin Racing entry from the D’Station Racing team with their Vantage GT3 as their Vantage GT8R entry (that runs within the ST-1 Class) will not be running this time around as it is the turn of that class to skip a round before the season finale at Suzuka at the end of November.

 

Bittersweet fortunes for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team overnight at the latest round of the Super Taikyu Series from Motegi as a class win for their GT8R crew was countered with an early retirement for their GT3 crew.

Having Qualified their #777 car onto the second row of the grid, the Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo driven car was easily staying at the head of the ST-X lead class as the five-hour event entered its final half of the race.

 

One last-minute piece of domestic GT racing for the Japanese D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team this coming weekend when they will have both of their Vantage GT3 and GT8R cars out for the latest round of the Super Taikyu Series from Motegi.

 

Now just a week away of their much-awaited appearance in their home round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji next weekend, this five-hour race on Sunday will serve as good final practice for drivers Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii ahead of that race weekend before they swap out their Vantage GT3 for their TF Sport prepared AMR Vantage GTE in that event.

Having claimed a double podium in both their ST-X and ST-1 Classes last time out at Autopolis, the #777 Vantage GT3 car will again be driven by both Hoshino and Fujii as well as series regular co-driver Tsubasa Kondo.

 

Their full season Vantage GT8R entry will also be out on track after their class win at Autopolis with drivers Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido, Kenji Hama and Jake Parsons again behind the wheel, chasing down that 17.5-point deficit to the class leading KTM crew with this and two further rounds of the season to go.

 

Photo credits – D’Station Racing

 

It was something of a successful visit to Sugo for the D’Station Racing team this weekend at their latest round (and their first round together) for the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT8R crews in the Japanese Super Taikyu Series.

Having been forced to skip all the preceding rounds thanks to the conflicts within their World Endurance Championship programme, the AMR Vantage GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo qualified their #777 car in seventh whilst their Vantage GT8R crew of Max Orido, Kenji Hama, Tatsuya Hoshino, and Jake Parson would start this five-hour race from P21 overall and P2 in their own ST-1 class.

 

Whilst most will be keeping an eye on the events at Spa Francorchamps this weekend, the Japanese Super Taikyu Series will be running their fourth round of the season with a visit to 4.64km circuit of Autopolis.

D’Station Racing again represent the Aston Martin Racing marque with this time, not just one but two cars as the teams Vantage GT3 crew finally get to compete in the series within their Vantage GT8R counterparts.

Double podium delight for two Aston Martin Racing Partner teams last night and early this morning as both the Heart of Racing and D’Station Racing crews brought back the silverware in their respective rounds of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Super Taikyu Series.

Reunited for this event only, had the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD being driven for the final time around the Belle Isle circuit in Detroit by car regular Roman de Angelis and his last year’s Sprint Cup co-champion, Ross Gunn.

With the young Canadian Qualifying the car in second place within the grid of just ten GTD cars and six DPi’s, a quick start from De Angelis saw him take an early class lead from the #17 Lexus which he would hold until he pitted just before the halfway.

Two super quick in-laps from the #17 car however, saw them leapfrog Gunn out of pit lane to the tune of about 3.5 seconds but Gunn being Gunn, he was having none of it and chased the #17 car down to be onto its rear with just twenty odd minutes to go.

Sadly for the crew of the #27, the was to be no opportunity for Gunn to Challenge for the lead as the passing DPi leaders thwarted the remaining possibility with track position but this was still after all, the #27 cars first podium finish of the year so not all bad.

In a similar vein but over at the Fuji International Speedway in Japan had the #47 D’Station Racing team competing in the second round of their domestic Super Taikyu Series, this time with their annual 24-hour race at the circuit.

Sporting this year an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R in lieu of their GT4, the team had already had podium success in their first outing in the car at Suzuka where they secured a race debut P3 in class.

This time featuring a 24-hour specific extended driver line up of Max Orido, Tsubasa Kondo, Kenji Hama, Kosuke Matsuura and Australian Jake Parsons, the #47 Qualified second within their SP1 class and extended that run of form throughout the race to finish it in fifth overall, second in class and just two laps behind the class winning KTM.

The next round of the series will be at Sugo in early July where the teams AMR Vantage GT3 crew will again sadly be absent due to their WEC commitments that weekend at Monza.

Photo credits – AMR / D’Station

 

Next weekend proves itself to be an extremely busy weekend of global GT racing with attention not just restricted to the Sebring International Raceway for the IMSA and World Endurance Championship double header weekend (and its supporting series) but also for the opening rounds of the GT World Challenge Australia and Super Taikyu Series over in Australian and Japan respectively.

In Japan, the Super Taikyu Series have their opening round of the season this weekend with a visit to Suzuka for a five-hour opener.

Having this domestic series event clash with their larger WEC racing obligations in Sebring sadly sees the D'Station Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo miss the opening round but we will see for the first time D’Station Racing’s brand-new AMR Vantage GT8R crew where drivers Tatsuma Hoshino, Max Orido and Kenji Hama will give their new car its racing debut in Japan.

With a whole host of pre-season racing news coming out of Europe so far this week, today was the turn of Aston Martin Racing Partner teams in Asia to make the headlines.

With the benefit of hindsight, late last year D’Station Racing posted a stream of photographs taken from the inside of their Fuji based headquarters for other matters that appeared to show a number of AMR Vantage GT3’s more that we first expected them to have for their then Super Taikyu and former Super GT domestic racing commitments.

Today confirmed as to why that may have been as not only do we already know about their continuing Asian Le Mans Series and World Endurance Championship commitments that will kick off next week in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the ALMS and later in March for the opening round of the WEC respectively, that the team now also has an intense season planned for their domestic arena.

Again no surprise we know to see two green AMR’s confirmed by the team today for the Super Taikyu Series again this season, but this time their #47 car will no longer be an AMR Vantage GT4 but a GT4 based Vantage GT8R that racers Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido and Kenji Hama will race within the ST1 Class.

That will go alongside the STX Class AMR Vantage GT3 that series regulars Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo will compete in when gaps in the WEC Calendar allow for the reigning Champions.

In addition to all of these, the team also confirmed an AMR Vantage GT3 entry into the Japan Cup rounds of the GT World Challenge Asia Series again for Satoshi Hoshino and Fujii behind the wheel of their car. Four rounds strategically placed within Japan in the midst of their season will allows these Japanese team to enter without the worry of crossing international borders during their continuing COVID related travel restrictions.

Further to that, we also learn of the continuing re-emergence of the Chinese GT racing market at the BSEM AMR team prepare themselves for another new season – this time with the newer turbo charged variant of the AMR Vantage GT4. We do not presently know of either drivers nor Series so we will leave it like that for the time being.

Photo credits - Teams

This weekend also sees the final round of the Japanese Super Taikyu Series take place from Okayama Circuit with another packed multi-class grid of over fifty cars expected for the final three-hour event.

Whilst the D’Station Racing Team would normally be expected to field both an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and a Vantage GT4, their #777 GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo secured the ST-X (GT3) Championship at the last round from Suzuka.

That was just as well as both Hoshino and Fujii would have been required to self-isolate after their return from Bahrain where they and third driver Andrew Watson completed their first World Endurance Championship season together with two tough races in the desert to finish ninth overall at their first time of asking.

That leaves the team’s #47 AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido, Takuro Shinohara and Kenji Hama to fight it out in their thirteen strong ST-Z (GT4) class where they presently stand P2 in class going into this weekend’s finale where they lay just 9.5 points behind the class leading #3 Endless AMG GT4 team.

Photo credits – D’Station Racing

 

Aston Martin clinched its first major GT championship title in Japan when the British luxury sportscar brand’s partner team D’station Racing won the 2021 Super Taikyu Series championship, with one round still left to run in the series.

Team owner Satoshi Hoshino, along with team-mates Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo, won the Suzuka 5 Hours overall with their Aston Martin Vantage GT3, giving them an unassailable lead in the ST-X (GT3) class standings. D’station Racing has conducted a stellar campaign this year. The Suzuka win was the team’s second victory of the season, having also triumphed in the opening round at Motegi. The Japanese trio have stood on the podium in every race this season, having also recorded a third place at Sugo, and second places at Fuji Speedway and Autopolis.

 

After the four rounds of the Super Taikyu Series so far, it’s off to the Suzuka Circuit this weekend for the multi-class Japanese series as D’Station Racing aim to solidify their top-class ST-X position at the top of the class as well as move up in the ST-Z class for their GT4 entry.

For their #777 Aston Martin racing Vantage GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo having maintain their four out of four-podium run with a P2 finish at Autopolis last time out, the #777 crew hold a slender eleven-point lead from the #290 Floral Racing McLaren 720S going into this weekend’s five-hour race.