Round 6 of the AUTOBACS SUPER GT championship took place at Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture on September 19-20. Known as a driver’s track due to its technical and undulating layout, the 3.586 km-long circuit has been part of every season since the inception of the series (back then named JGTC) until the globally pandemic-altered schedule in 2020. Throughout the years, the annual visit to the Tohoku region of Japan has been the setting for many memorable moments. With typhoon Dujuan approaching East Japan, there was even a looming threat of rain. For the SUGO weekend, NILZZ Racing’s C driver Daiki Fujiwara was joining the team, with James Pull’s regular teammate Taiyo Ida opting to sit out the weekend.

Despite the weather forecast predicting rain, Saturday’s conditions remained dry but exceptionally humid. Following his outstanding qualifying performances in the previous rounds, Pull was once again in charge of Q1. Despite an almost perfect lap, Pull barely missed out on the cut for Q2 in his qualifying group, as the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 camp as a whole was struggling with the conditions on the weekend. Pull positioned the #48 Kenko K’s Frontier WM NILZZ GT-R well ahead of the rest of the GT-R camp and only 0.18 sec behind the championship-leading #56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R. It meant that both cars would start from the 10th row on the grid.

Sunday morning brought intermittent rain. Stopping just in time for the start of the 300 km race at 13:30 local time, the rain left the track in damp conditions. Warm air and track temperatures of 23°C and 25°C, as well as high humidity, meant that the circuit dried quite quickly, though, leading all teams to start on slick tyres. Due to the few remaining damp patches, race control decided on a Safety Car start. Once the race began in earnest on lap 5, Pull immediately made moves to climb up the ranks, despite Sportsland SUGO being one of the toughest tracks to overtake on because of its narrow layout. Passing multiple cars, Pull drove well into the points positions. A heavy crash on lap 27 between two competitors from the GT500 and GT300 classes at the exit of the final 110R corner caused a Safety Car neutralisation. Once the pit lane opened as the race went green again, multiple teams immediately dashed inside. NILZZ Racing once again opted for a longer stint. Despite running on older tyres, Pull successfully managed the gap, keeping his rivals at a distance and cementing himself in a strong points-scoring position.

However, as Pull continued to push, bad luck struck him near the end of his stint. Due to a slow puncture, he slid off the track, losing some valuable time in the process. Pull carefully nursed the car back to the pits, handing the wheel to his teammate Fujiwara on lap 37. A slow pit stop as well as a compromised outlap caused another unfortunate time loss, ultimately resulting in P23 at the end of the race. Without the slow puncture, the #48 Kenko K’s Frontier WM NILZZ GT-R was en route for a second points finish this season following Round 2 at Fuji Speedway earlier this year. Despite the unlucky result, NILZZ Racing can take the positives out of the weekend, as the trio of Pull, Ida and Fujiwara are heading into the second three-hour endurance round on October 17-18, when SUPER GT is visiting the equally challenging Autopolis circuit in Kyushu’s Oita Prefecture.

James Pull:

“It’s been a very challenging weekend for us. The weight situation of our car meant that we had to try extra hard in qualifying. I’m very satisfied with my qualifying lap. It was an almost perfect lap, easily one of the best, if not the best, of my career so far. It’s a bit frustrating that, because of our situation, it didn’t make the cut for Q2, but starting from the same row as the championship leaders showed me that we got the maximum out of the car.

I was able to push hard in the race, managing to overtake multiple cars, giving us a shot at a points finish. The slow puncture denying us such a result is unfortunate. It’s especially frustrating, since I was running all race long in tandem with the championship-leading #56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R. They were on a similar strategy as us and finished on the podium.

We’re going to thoroughly analyse our strengths and take this with us to Autopolis. We scored the team’s first points finish in 11 years at the previous endurance round, so the goal is to top that result.”

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