The 2018 Okayama GT 300km was the first round of the 2018 Super GT Series. It was held at the Okayama International Circuit in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

The GT500 category was won by Koudai Tsukakoshi and Takashi Kogure in the #17 Real Racing Honda NSX-GT, whilst Yuhki Nakayama and Takashi Kobayashi won the GT300 category in the #18 Team UpGarage Toyota 86.

Race Report

Qualifying Rain affected both qualifying sessions for the GT500 and GT300 categories, which shuffled the grid owing to changing track conditions.

GT500 In a what was tumultuous qualifying session, the #17 Real Racing outfit piloted by Koudai Tsukakoshi and Takashi Kogure achieved pole position, after the #24 Kondō Racing Nissan GT-R of Mitsunori Takaboshi and João Paulo de Oliveira had set the pace in the first qualifying session. 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button qualified fifth on his Super GT debut, whilst Swede Felix Rosenqvist qualified in fourth place, cementing a solid run in his debut. One of the biggest shocks to come out of qualifying was the defending champions Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy failing to get into the second part of qualifying.

Pos No Team Vehicle Qualifying 1 Qualifying 2 Grid 1 17 Real Racing Honda NSX-GT 1:18.351 1:26.905 1 2 8 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda NSX-GT 1:18.696 1:27.058 2 3 3 by B-Max Racing Nissan GT-R 1:18.605 1:27.486 3 4 6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's Lexus LC 500 1:18.576 1:27.570 4 5 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT 1:18.332 1:27.985 5 6 24 Kondō Racing Nissan GT-R 1:18.160 1:28.659 6 7 19 Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh Lexus LC 500 1:18.619 1:29.793 7 8 23 NISMO Nissan GT-R 1:18.370 1:35.248 8 9 1 Lexus Team KeePer Tom's Lexus LC 500 1:18.796 9 10 38 Lexus Team Cerumo Lexus LC 500 1:18.877 10 11 12 Team Impul Nissan GT-R 1:18.944 11 12 16 Team Mugen Honda NSX-GT 1:18.992 12 13 64 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX-GT 1:18.994 13 14 36 Lexus Team au Tom's Lexus LC 500 1:19.108 14 15 39 Lexus Team SARD Lexus LC 500 1:19.315 15 Source(s):

GT300 The qualifying session for the GT300 category was just as hectic. The Toyota 86 MC entries in the GT300 class appeared to be the pace setters throughout the weekend, with the #25 Tsuchiya Engineering entry of Takamitsu Matsui and Sho Tsuboi set the initial pace in Q1 with a time of 1:25.232. But, it was ultimately the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Marco Mapelli and Kazuki Hiramine took the pole with a time of 1:33.925 in Q2.

Pos No Team Vehicle Qualifying 1 Qualifying 2 Grid 1 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 1:26.220 1:33.925 16 2 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS 1:25.966 1:34.082 17 3 11 Gainer Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:25.619 1:34.798 18 4 65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 1:26.173 1:34.804 19 5 25 Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota 86 MC 1:25.232 1:35.154 20 6 96 LM corsa Lexus RC F GT3 1:26.043 1:35.236 21 7 31 Toyota Prius apr GT 1:25.770 1:35.543 22 8 55 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri BMW M6 GT3 1:26.307 1:35.729 23 9 18 Team UpGarage Toyota 86 MC 1:25.926 1:35.756 24 10 61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ R&D Sport 1:25.674 1:36.623 25 11 777 CarGuy Racing Honda NSX GT3 1:26.008 1:36.623 26 12 5 Team Mach Toyota 86 MC 1:26.029 1:36.990 27 13 26 Team Taisan Audi R8 LMS 1:26.141 1:37.176 28 14 2 Cars Tokai Dream28 Lotus Evora MC 1:25.492 1:43.462 29 15 0 Good Smile Racing with Team Ukyo Mercedes-AMG GT3 1:26.316 30 16 34 Modulo Drago Corse Honda NSX GT3 1:26.505 31 17 10 Gainer Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:26.524 32 18 52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Mark X MC 1:26.604 33 19 360 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:26.646 34 20 7 D'station Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R 1:26.730 35 21 9 Pacific with Gulf Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R 1:26.730 36 22 87 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 1:26.880 37 23 50 Arnage Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 1:26.971 38 24 60 LM corsa Lexus RC F GT3 1:27.001 39 25 30 Toyota Prius apr GT 1:27.009 40 26 117 EIcars Bentley Bentley Continental GT3 1:27.070 41 27 22 R'Qs Motor Sports Mercedes-AMG GT3 1:27.339 42 28 35 Arto Panther Team Thailand Lexus RC F GT3 1:27.587 43 29 48 Dijon Racing Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:27.779 44 Source(s):

Race

     GT500 entries

Pos Class No Entrant Drivers Vehicle Laps Time / Retired Grid 1 GT500 17 Real Racing Koudai Tsukakoshi Takashi Kogure Honda NSX-GT 82 1hr 55min 14.381sec 1 2 GT500 100 Team Kunimitsu Jenson Button Naoki Yamamoto Honda NSX-GT 82 + 1.610 s 5 3 GT500 1 Lexus Team KeePer Tom's Ryō Hirakawa Nick Cassidy Lexus LC 500 82 + 5.582 s 9 4 GT500 6 Lexus Team LeMans Wako's Kazuya Oshima Felix Rosenqvist Lexus LC 500 82 + 5.759 s 4 5 GT500 23 NISMO Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli Nissan GT-R 82 + 36.990 s 8 6 GT500 24 Kondō Racing Mitsunori Takaboshi João Paulo de Oliveira Nissan GT-R 82 + 48.375 s 6 7 GT500 3 by B-Max Racing Satoshi Motoyama Katsumasa Chiyo Nissan GT-R 82 + 59.362 s 3 8 GT500 38 Lexus Team Cerumo Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa Lexus LC 500 82 + 1:00.357 s 10 9 GT500 19 Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh Yuji Kunimoto Kenta Yamashita Lexus LC 500 82 + 1:05.532 s 7 10 GT500 16 Team Mugen Hideki Mutoh Daisuke Nakajima Honda NSX-GT 82 + 1:06.532 s 12 11 GT500 8 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Tomoki Nojiri Takuya Izawa Honda NSX-GT 82 + 1:07.199 s 2 12 GT500 39 Lexus Team SARD Heikki Kovalainen Kamui Kobayashi Lexus LC 500 82 + 1:10.110 s 15 13 GT500 36 Lexus Team au Tom's Yuhi Sekiguchi Kazuki Nakajima Lexus LC 500 82 + 1:11.410 s 14 14 GT500 12 Team Impul Jann Mardenborough Daiki Sasaki Nissan GT-R 82+ 1:11.838 s 11 15 GT500 64 Nakajima Racing Kosuke Matsuura Bertrand Baguette Honda NSX-GT 81 + 1 lap 13 16 GT300 18 Team UpGarage Yuhki Nakayama Takashi Kobayashi Toyota 86 MC 77 + 5 laps 17 GT300 7 D'station Racing Tomonobu Fujii Sven Müller Porsche 911 GT3 R 77 + 5 laps 18 GT300 25 Tsuchiya Engineering Takamitsu Matsui Sho Tsuboi Toyota 86 MC 77 + 5 laps 19 GT300 65 K2 R&D LEON Racing Haruki Kurosawa Naoya Gamou Mercedes-AMG GT3 77 + 5 laps 20 GT300 11 Gainer Katsuyuki Hiranaka Hironobu Yasuda Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 (2018) 76 + 6 laps 21 GT300 55 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Shinichi Takagi Sean Walkinshaw BMW M6 GT3 76 + 6 laps 22 GT300 88 JLOC Kazuki Hiramine Marco Mapelli Lamborghini Huracán GT3 76 + 6 laps 23 GT300 0 Goodsmile Racing by Team Ukyo Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka Mercedes-AMG GT3 76 + 6 laps 24 GT300 26 Team Taisan Shinnosuke Yamada Shintaro Kawabata Audi R8 LMS 76 + 6 laps 25 GT300 50 Arnage Racing Masaki Kano Hideto Yasuoka Mercedes-AMG GT3 76 + 6 laps 26 GT300 52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Taku Bamba Shigekazu Wakisaka Toyota Mark X MC 76 + 6 laps 27 GT300 87 JLOC Yuya Motojima Kimiya Sato Lamborghini Huracán GT3 76 + 6 laps 28 GT300 10 Gainer Kazuki Hoshino Hiroki Yoshida Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 (2018) 76 + 6 laps 29 GT300 96 K-Tunes Racing LM Corsa Yuichi Nakayama Morio Nitta Lexus RC F GT3 76 + 6 laps 30 GT300 777 CarGuy Racing Takeshi Kimura Naoki Yokomizo Honda NSX GT3 76 + 6 laps 31 GT300 9 Pacific with Gulf Racing Rintaro Kubo Keishi Ishikawa Porsche 911 GT3 R 76 + 6 laps 32 GT300 60 LM Corsa – OTG Motor Sports Hiroki Yoshimoto Ritomo Miyata Lexus RC F GT3 75 + 7 laps 33 GT300 61 R&D Sport Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi Subaru BRZ R&D Sport 75 + 7 laps 34 GT300 22 R'Qs Motor Sports Masaki Jyonai Hisashi Wada Mercedes-AMG GT3 75 + 7 laps 35 GT300 30 apr Racing Hiroaki Nagai Kota Sasaki Toyota Prius apr GT 75 + 7 laps 36 GT300 117 Elcars Bentley Yuji Ide Ryohei Sakaguchi Bentley Continental GT3 (2016) 74 + 8 laps 37 GT300 48 Dijon Racing Masaki Tanaka Taiyou Iida Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 (2017) 74 + 8 laps 38 GT300 2 Cars Tokai Dream28 Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh Lexus Evora MC 74 + 8 laps 39 GT300 35 Arto Panther Team Thailand Nattavude Charoensukhawatana Nattapong Horthongkum Lexus RC F GT3 74 + 8 laps Ret GT300 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita Audi R8 LMS 42 Retired Ret GT300 5 Team Mach Natsu Sakaguchi Yuya Hiraki Toyota 86 MC 41 Retired Ret GT300 31 apr Racing Natsu Sakaguchi Yuya Hiraki Toyota Prius apr GT 30 Retired Ret GT300 34 Modulo Drago Corse Ryo Michigami Hiroki Otsu Honda NSX GT3 18 Retired Ret GT300 360 Tomei Sports Yusaku Shibata Takayuki Aoki Honda NSX GT3 17 Retired Source(s):

References