M&K Racing Honda wins Super Taikyu race at Autopolis

The M&K Racing team returned to victory in the Japanese Super Taikyu series, thanks to Mitsuhiro Endo, Shinji Nakano and Jack Young who drove their #97 Honda Civic Type R FL5 to the top of the TCR class in the Autopolis 5-hour race.

The combination of the qualifying laps posted by Endo and Nakano had placed the Civic on P6 overall of the grid, just ahead of the sister #96 car that Koji Yamanishi, Yosuke Yamaki and Kento Omiya shared with Thai guest driver Thanasiwanat Phongsinnatchaachun. This car was then eliminated in a race incident at mid distance.

The winning team completed 140 laps to finish a respectable fifth overall behind four GT3 cars, one lap ahead of the #19 Birth Racing Project CUPRA of Takashi Kochiya, Takeshi Suehiro-Matsumoto, Jiei Okuzumi and Takahisa Ohno that was classified seventh overall.

The Waimarama Racing Hyundai Elantra N of ‘Kizuna’, Lee Jeong Woo, Ryusuke Masumoto and Katsumasa Chiyo that had won the previous round at Sugo completed the podium one further lap behind, in eighth overall.

In the TCR standings, Waimarama Racing leads by 4.5 points ahead of BRP.

The next round will be the Okayama 3H race on October 25/26.

Picture: Super Taikyu