The debate around Gran Turismo 7’s new physics model has raged all week, but one notable endorsement has arrived from an unusual place: the top step of a Super GT podium. Yusuke Tomibayashi, who made history in 2022 as the first Japanese sim racer to compete in Super GT, took his maiden victory in the series this past weekend, sharing the #9 Pacific Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Yuta Fujiwara in the GT300 class at the Suzuka GT 300km race. It was a proper statement drive, too: Tomibayashi put the car on pole by just 0.004 seconds, then opened up a commanding lead after taking over from Fujiwara at the pit stop. He stretched the margin to around 15 seconds before a late Safety Car brought the field home. Celebrating the win on social media, Tomibayashi credited a training tool familiar to GTPlanet readers. As translated from Japanese, “I was able to put the results of driving Suzuka tens of thousands of laps in Gran Turismo to use. Thank you so much!! The new handling is also very similar to the real car, so it’s great.” Of course, “the new handling” refers to the physics changes introduced in update 1.71 just last week, which our community has been picking apart in detail ever since. Opinions range from drifters calling it a ten-out-of-ten, to rally fans mourning the state of dirt racing, so a real-world GT300 winner’s opinion carries some weight. Tomibayashi knows both sides of this equation better than most. Before he racing real cars professionally, he won the FIA-backed Manufacturer Fan Cup at GT Sport’s 2016 unveiling event in London alongside Spain’s Carlos Martínez, a precursor to what would become the FIA Gran Turismo Championships. He earned his racing license in 2018, collected a string of national titles,