Super Taikyu: Anna Inotsume takes overall podium, Aimi Saito wins ST-Q
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- Jun 6
- 4 min read
Hitotsuyama Racing's Anna Inotsume scored her maiden overall podium in Super Taikyu at the Fuji 24 Hours, while Rookie Racing's Aimi Saito won in the ST-Q class on her series debut.
In the most prestigious event of the season, Anna Inotsume scored a memorable third place finish despite late race troubles that cost her and the #101 Hitotsuyama Racing Audi a shot at the overall win. Also in the field, reigning Kyojo Cup champion Aimi Saito, won in the ST-Q class on her series debut alongside her husband, reigning Super Formula champion Sho Tsuboi.
The start of the longest race of the season was delayed until 16:00 local time, meaning the first official hour of the race was spent on the grid as the fog started to disappear. However, even when the field started doing laps behind the safety car following the delay, the #17 Team Nopro Mazda stopped at 100R and the #67 Team Yamato Honda pulled into the garage just as the race was about to begin.
With 22 hours and 43 minutes remaining on the clock the green flag finally waved with the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes leading the field as the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi went from third to second on the opening lap with James Pull behind the wheel.
As 20 hours remained, the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi lead overall and in the ST-X class, whilst the #225 KTMS Toyota of Riona Tomishita was sixth in ST-2, the #110 Access Racing Toyota was third in ST-5F and the #89 Murakami Motors Mazda was sixth in ST-5R as sun began to settle on the track.
With the night now setting in, the race had various Full Course Yellow and Safety Car periods as fog worsened during nighttime, including two red flags just past the halfway mark of the race. Both of the red flags were for barrier repairs, with the first one being for Ryuichiro Tomita's crash, whilst the latter was for further repairs before the Coca Cola corner, which took three and a half hours to repair.
With seven hours and 13 minutes the race resumed and it remained mostly clean despite both the #16 Okabe Jidosha Nissan and the #216 HMR Racing Toyota encountering mechanical problems of their own, which caused a brief FCY period.
However, the biggest shock came with three hours and 47 minutes left, as the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes, which fought for the overall lead for most of the race, suffered an exhaust failure with Kakunoshin Ohta behind the wheel, which led to the car's retirement.
At the 21st hour mark, the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi's right rear tire came off with Pull behind the wheel, which ended any hopes of victory for the team as it lost 11 laps in the pits. Also around the same time frame, the #225 KTMS Toyota ran into problems of its own with the front right tire falling off and costing the team a shot at the ST-2 podium.
Up ahead, the #666 Seven x Seven Porsche, driven by Joao Paulo de Oliveira in the closing stages, began catching up to the #23 TKRI Mercedes with less than an hour left. However, the Brazilian's charge was halted with 15 minutes left as he was forced to pit for more fuel, paving the way for the #23 TKRI Mercedes to win overall with "Daisuke", Tatsuya Kataoka, Shunji Okumoto, Yuhki Nakayama and Yuya Motojima all standing on top of the podium.
The Seven x Seven Porsche finished second, but Oliveira couldn't join "Bankcy", Kiyoto Fujinami and Taichi Watarai on the podium as he was treated for dehydration after the race. Rounding out the overall podium was the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi with Pull, Anna Inotsume, Sota Ogawa, Kenji Suzuki and Shintaro Kawabata all taking their maiden podium of the season.
In ST-Z, the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan took the spoils as Yuki Tanaka, Ronnie Quintarelli, Teppei Natori, Tsugio Matsuda, Kimiya Sato and Masataka Yanagida took the Nissan Z GT4's second win of the season. Meanwhile in ST-TCR, the #19 Birth Racing Project Cupra won with Takashi Kochiya, Takeshi Suehiro, Jiei Okuzumi, Takahisa Ohno, Taiga Imoto and Hirokazu Okumura all standing on the podium as they beat the #89 Waimarama Racing Hyundai for the win.
On her Super Taikyu debut, Aimi Saito won in ST-Q as part of the #28 Rookie Racing Toyota squad, alongside Daisuke Toyoda, Sho Tsuboi, Eisuke Sasaki, Kazuya Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi. The other Rookie Racing Toyota in ST-Q finished fifth, with Mako Hirakawa, Kazuki Nakajima, Hiroaki Ishiura, Masahiro Sasaki, Yasuhiro Ogura and "Morizo" all drove the #32 in the 24-hour enduro.
ST-1 was won by the #47 D'Station Porsche of Kenji Hama, Tatsuya Hoshino, Tetsuya Tanaka, Taiga Kabaki, Satoshi Hoshino and Yuta Kamimura. In ST-2, the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda won with Makoto Kanai, Tetsuya Yamano, Toshiya Nojima, Ippei Yamazaki and Hiroki Otsu all capitalizing on the #95 Team Spoon Honda had to serve a 60-second stop and go penalty for a pit lane infringement.
Having won in ST-2 at Motegi, the #225 KTMS of Hibiki Taira, Riona Tomishita and Tokiya Suzuki finished fifth despite their late race troubles, whilst the #39 Tracy Sports Lexus won in ST-3 with Shinya Fujita, Takumi Sanada, Takashi Ito, Takuya Otaki and Ren Takahashi behind the wheel.
In ST-4, the #884 Shade Racing Toyota of Masahiko Kageyama, Eijiro Shimizu, Shinnosuke Yamada and Morio Nitta dominated the race to win in their class. ST-5F was won by the #821 Andlegal Racing Honda of Katsuhiro Sato, Kenta Kawafuku, Hiroshi Ueda, Takuya Shiga, Junichiro Kasahara and Masaki Bada. Driving the #110 Access Racing Toyota, Hana Burton ran as high as third in ST-5F but was forced to retire in the second half of the race due to an engine failure.
ST-5R meanwhile was won by the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda with Hiroyuki Murakami, Tatsuya Ota, Keiji Amamiya, Sena Kuronuma and Soichiro Yoshida led for most of the race on their way to the class win. The sister Murakami Motors Mazda finished sixth in class, with Marie Iwaoka, Mai Hiwatari, Naohiro Yonekawa, Koki Ebukuro, "Makoto" and Shinichi Uemura all sharing the #89 during the race.
