The #16 ARTA car of Fukuzumi and Otsu took advantage of a well-timed first pitstop under full-course yellow to cement their early lead, ultimately beating NISMO pair Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli to victory by just over 10 seconds.
Completing the podium was the SARD Toyota GR Supra of Yuichi Nakayama and Yuhi Sekiguchi, the team scoring its first podium in over a year.
Otsu took the start from pole position and maintained a two-second lead over Quintarelli’s NISMO Nissan in the early laps until the first full-course yellow was thrown at the end of lap 11 of 77 when the Team LeMans Audi shed its left-rear wheel and stopped on track.
ARTA reacted quickly and brought Otsu into the pits before the FCY was called, but Nissan squad Kondo Racing was less fortunate, with Kohei Hirate being handed a 60-second stop-and-go penalty for being judged to pit under FCY.
Quintarelli took over the lead and stayed out until lap 18, but such was the advantage of pitting under FCY that Otsu emerged with a 42-second advantage once the dust settled on the first round of stops.
During the second stint Quintarelli began to close the gap, and had the deficit down to 26 seconds before coming in for his second stop and handing over to Matsuda on lap 42.
Two laps later, Otsu pitted from the lead to make way for Fukuzumi, whose lead was down to 15 seconds by the time the second pitstop cycle was completed.
Matsuda continued to chip away at the lead in the closing stint, but Fukuzumi was able to stabilise the gap, going on to score his fourth GT500 win and a first for Otsu in what will be the NSX-GT's final visit to Suzuka before it is replaced by the new Civic Type R-GT next year.
Source: Autosport