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.

 

Japanese team D’Station Racing set the podium winning Sunday way for the Aston Martin Racing family earlier today as both the team’s Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars claimed an overall P3 and class win respectively in today’s Super Taikyu Series from the Autopolis circuit.

A two-month gap in their domestic calendar since the last 24hour round of the series at fuji, the #777 AMR Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo had earlier Qualified P4 whilst their #47 AMR Vantage GT4 of Max Orido, Tatsuya Hoshino, Takura Shinohara and Kenji Hama P7 in their ST-Z class.

 

Invigorated by their first World Endurance Championship GTE Am podium success at Monza two weeks ago, the D’Station Racing team have returned home in time for the next round of their domestic Super Taikyu Series.

Competing this weekend from the Autopolis Circuit, the #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo retain a slender thirteen-point lead after the three previous rounds within the six car ST-X class with a race win last time out in fuji.

 

The 2021 Super Taikyu Series 24-hour event at Fuji International Speedway turned out to be another bitter-sweet moment again for the D’Station Racing team again after an amazing recovery drive from their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 team to claim a class podium by the end through to the late retirement of their AMR Vantage GT4 team, who were also in sight of a class podium.

Having impacted heavily into the tyre barrier in only the third hour of the race, the Japanese team lost over forty laps repairing the #777 car before being able to release it back into the race. By the time dawn came about this morning, other ST-X class cars had suffered similar ailments and woes – everything that gave Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo the incentive to chase for a class podium.

It’s another busy week ahead for the Japanese D’Station Racing team as they prepare for the third round of the Super Taikyu Series at the weekend, with this round being the pivotable Super Tec 24-hour race from their home track at Fuji International Speedway.

Again, entering both their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars, it has already been something of a productive year for the team in the series so far as they presently lead in the SP-X (GT3) class and stand in a competitive fifth spot in the SP-X (GT4) class after the previous rounds from Motegi and Sugo.

 

With the North America GT racing scene continuing this weekend with the twelve hours of Sebring event for the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge over in Florida, this weekend also sees the Japanese national Super Taikyu Series start its new 2021 season with their opening five-hour round from the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

In a new year that also sees the series move on from the Pirelli supplied control tyre of previous years to the all-new Hankook tyre of this season sees the D’Station Racing team again support the series in more ways than one with another two-car entry from their fleet of Aston Martin Racing Vantage race cars.

Just a week after concluding their first racing duties of the year at the final double header round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Yas Marina last weekend, it will be back to business for many of the returning contingent of the Japanese based D’Station Racing this weekend as they attend the first official test weekend for their domestic Super Taikyu Series.

With the final round of last years delayed 2020 season being cancelled due to the escalation of their national COVID-19 situation and honours being awarded to the class leading cars by the end of the penultimate round, the sole Japanese team again return with both an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 with an unchanged driver line up in either car.

Team boss Satoshi Hoshino again pairs up with Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo in the #777 ST-X Class GT3 whilst Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido, Takuro Shinohara and Kenji Hama all return in the team’s #47 ST-Z classed AMR GT4 having potentially missed out on a championship winning finale with the cancellation of last season’s finale.

Tomorrow’s test will see four sessions running between 10:00hrs and 20:00hrs local at the Fuji International Speedway circuit and will be critical for all teams as this year has seen the Series swap to the Hankook tyre.

In what will be a very busy year for the team having stepped up to a full season in an AMR Vantage GTE in the World Endurance Championship, it appears that the team may have had to sacrifice their continued participation within the Super GT Series as a price worth paying for the national and world racing programme.

The Super Taikyu Series is due to start at the end of March at Motegi and will cover five more rounds (interrupted by a further Series test at Fuji in April) before concluding at Okayama in November.

Update - Appears that the team elected not to run the Vantage GT3 at this non-mandatory test after members of team who recently returned from Abu Dhabi were still serving a voluntary period of self isolation

Photo credits – D’Station Racing

 

Congratulations to the D’Station Racing AMR team who yesterday confirmed another race series for their Aston Martin racing fleet of cars to go alongside their already declared baptism into the World Endurance Championship this season.

Long term supporter and participant within the (then) Pirelli Super Taikyu Series in Japan, D’Station Racing confirmed a continuation of their race programme within the series for both its #777 AMR Vantage GT3 and #47 AMR Vantage GT4.

 

In this topsy-turvy year of global motorsport, Japanese team D’Station Racing AMR signed off their years’ worth of racing (but not their season) within the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series with another double podium for their GT3 and GT4 crews at Autopolis this weekend.

The #777 Aston Martin Racing GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo had earlier secured their third consecutive Pole Position and their fourth pole of the Series so far whilst the four-man crew of Max Orido, Tatsuya Hoshino, Takuro Shinohara and Kenji Hama also achieved another front row start for their #47 ST-Z class Vantage GT4.

 

This weekend sees the concluding round of the 2020 Japanese Super GT Series, back again at the Fuji International Speedway Circuit for the fourth time this year in another racing season ravaged by the effects of the global pandemic.

The D’Station Racing team and their title sponsors Pacific had high hopes for the new season having secured the racing services of a one, Nicky Thiim but a lot of those hopes and aspirations quickly faded as it soon became apparent that neither Thiim nor the supporting Prodrive engineers would be able to freely travel in and out of the country as the world slowly worked out how to deal with the virus.

The much delayed 2020 Pirelli Super Taikyu Series finally gets to start their season off next weekend with a mouth watering 24 hour race from the Fuji Speedway.

Amongst the eight classes and forty five expected entries into this years events sees the Japanese D'Station Racing AMR team again support an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 car within the top flight ST-X class as well as a (new for 2020) AMR Vantage GT4 car within the second tier ST-Z class.


Having swapped to the AMR Vantage GT3 platform for the first time in 2019, the team came in runners up in the overall Championship after AMR factory driver Darren Turner got the team off to a flying start in 2019 before drivers Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo took things to the end, narrowly missing out on a Series win at the final race of the season.

This season, we see all three GT3 drivers return to the Series for 2020 as well as a whole new driver crew for their GT4 entry, a car that will race for the very first time at Fuji since they acquired it from Prodrive at the tail end of last year.


Like the teams parallel Super GT programme, their Super Taikyu efforts shall again be affected by the ongoing travel restrictions into and out of Japan due to the ongoing CV-19 issues meaning that the Prodrive supplied technicians and engineers remain (at the moment) unable to freely travel in and out of Japan within long periods of self isolation. That support will still be there but (like with the Super GT programme), it will all be remote from a 'control room' at Prodrive.


Running both cars at the Series official test at Fuji in July (having originally tested for the usual intended start off the season in March), the team have now confirmed they driver roster for the Super Tec 24. Joining Hoshino, Fujii and Kondo in the #777 GT3 will be Yuya Motoshima with the #47 AMR GT4 crew being listed as Tatsuya Hoshino, Manabu Orido and Kenji Hama for the season ahead with the first two being joined by Tsubasa Meikari and Takuro Shinohara in for the 24hr.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing