From Ninth to the Podium: The #23 Nissan Z Ends Its Drought at Autopolis

Nissan is back on a Super GT GT500 podium: the #23 MOTUL Niterra Z of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi climbed from ninth on the grid to finish third in the three-hour Round 7 race at Autopolis on Sunday, October 18 — Nissan's first GT500 podium since Round 2 at Fuji Speedway. The sister #12 Z finished fifth after leading, giving Nissan two cars in the top five on a day Honda won again.

How the #23 got there: long stint, late defence

Per Nissan's official race report, two Safety Car periods shaped the strategy. Bertrand Baguette fired the #12 TRS IMPUL Z into fourth at the first corner and into the lead on lap 23, just before the first Safety Car. The #23's decisive call was patience: Takaboshi extended his opening stint to the end of lap 36 before handing over to Chiyo, and after the second Safety Car period and the final stops, the #23 sat third by lap 72, with the #12 fourth. Chiyo closed to within a second of second place before traffic slowed him, then defended the podium to the flag; the #12 dropped to fifth on lap 92, and the #24 Z finished 11th, just outside the points.

Why it matters: Chiyo's comeback drive

The podium carried extra weight because of who was driving. Chiyo returned to the #23 after missing the previous round — in his own words in Nissan's release, "after suffering a fracture in the previous round, I felt I owed something to everyone who supported me." Takaboshi credited the extended first stint as "a key strategic decision" and Chiyo's final two stints, "especially in situations where it felt like all we could do was defend and hang on." RACER put the result in season context: third place ended a three-race podium drought for Nissan in the top class.

The race around them: Honda again, Toyota second, title at 3 points

The win went the way much of this season has gone. Team Kunimitsu's #100 Honda — Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino — took its second win of the year, Honda's fourth straight GT500 victory, using a long first stint and a shorter final fuel stop to jump to the net lead, per RACER and Sportscar365. The #38 Cerumo Toyota GR Supra finished second, 1.363 seconds back. That leaves the GT500 title fight at three points: Kunimitsu now trail TOM'S leaders Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita by three heading into the Motegi double-header finale on November 7–8, where Nissan will also run its rescheduled Round 3 and Round 8 races on consecutive days.

GT300: a GT-R from 28th to second

Nissan's day was nearly as good in GT300. Per Nissan's report, the #360 RUNUP × SOL GT-R of Rin Arakawa, Yu Kanamaru and Atsushi Tanaka recovered from 28th on the grid and was promoted to second after post-race penalties reshuffled the GT300 order — Tomei Sports' best-ever Super GT finish, per RACER, the #62 GT-R was eighth and the #26 Z ninth, and the #56 Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R scored points in 14th — and heads to Motegi still leading the GT300 championship. For Z and GT-R owners, the takeaway from Autopolis is simple: the cars are not the problem. With success weight reduced for the finale, Motegi is now a straight pace fight — and Nissan arrives at it with a podium, at last, to build on.