2015.06.21

S Road MOLA GT-R shows its strength taking first win in three years!

Round3 Thailand : GT500 Race

The BURIRAM SUPER GT RACE, Round 3 of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was run in the afternoon of June 21 at Thailand's Chang International Circuit. In Thailand's tropical heat as severe as mid-summer races in Japan, the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida came from a 3rd-position start to take the GT500 class win. In the GT300 class race, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R driven by Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi was victorious in Thailand for the second consecutive year.

 

  

 

 

There was fairly dense cloud cover over the Chang International Circuit in the afternoon of race day, making the conditions not as hot as in Saturday's qualifying but still very warm, with the air temperature was 37 degrees Celsius at the time of the 15:00 start. The start was a clean one with the drivers holding their starting grip position through the early stages of the 66-lap race.
In command with the fastest pace and beginning to pull away from the pack was Yuji Tachikawa in the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F. But, chasing not far behind in a tight group were the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter), the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama), the No .64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Bertrand Baguette) and the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F (Kazuya Oshima), and their aggressive racing kept the fans on the edge of their seats.
On the third lap, the No.24 D'station ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) made an emergency pit stop. After some stop-gap repairs it returned to the track, only to be forced to return to the pit again, this time for the duration of the race. On the fourth lap, the S Road MOLA GT-R passed the PETRONAS TOM'S RC F and moved into 2nd position. From there, it began to chase the ZENT CERUMO RC F some three seconds in the lead.
After this, there was a bump-up between the PETRONAS TOM'S RC F and the Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT that caused the Epson to spin, which in turn caused the No.15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Oliver Turvey) to bump into the Epson. This accident resulted in big loss of ground for these two cars.
With its speed advantage, the S Road MOLA GT-R finally caught up to the leading ZENT CERUMO RC F on the 19th lap of the race and set in behind it. From here, Motoyama in the GT-R and Tachikawa in the RC F -the two drivers with most SUPER GT wins and the ace drivers of their respective makers- staged a battle worthy of their great prowess and experience. On the 25th lap, Motoyama managed to overtake Tachikawa and pull into the lead, but Tachikawa kept on his tail and succeeded in re-passing into the lead again when Motoyama got caught behind a GT300 back marker. As the exciting battle continued, Motoyama succeeded in passing Tachikawa again on the 34th lap.

 

 

On the fourth lap after Motoyama regained the lead, both of the lead cars made their routine pit stop. After the driver changes the match race continued with Masataka Yanagida at the wheel of the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R and Hiroaki Ishiura chasing in the No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F. But, just five laps later, suffering from brake trouble, Ishiura had no choice but to pull the ZENT CERUMO RC F off to the side of the track. This left Yanagida in the leading S Road MOLA GT-R with an assuring 15-second margin over the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (Daisuke Ito) now in 2nd place.
Meanwhile, the PETRONAS TOM'S RC F, which now found itself in 2nd position after the ZENT CERUMO RC F dropped out, was running with the same no-tire-change strategy it had used successfully in this race last year. But, this time that strategy was proving to be a detriment for the PETRONAS TOM'S team, as they were soon passed by the No.6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F (Yuji Kunimoto) and dropped to 3rd position. And, behind it now came the hard-charging MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (driven first by Ronnie Quintarelli and then Tsugio Matsuda) that had pressed forward relentlessly from a 13th-position start, the No.17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (driven by Hideki Mutoh and Koudai Tsukakoshi) that had risen from a 7th-position start, as well as the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda and Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) and the No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Andrea Caldarelli and Ryo Hirakawa). Eventually, the PETRONAS TOM'S RC F would be passed one after another by these cars.
The leading S Road MOLA GT-R would go on to successfully manage its more than ten-second margin of lead to reach the goal and victory unchallenged. This was the team's first win since the seventh round at Autopolis in 2012, the year it won the championship. For Motoyama this was his 16th GT500 class win, which brought him to a tie with Tachikawa for most wins by a driver. Finishing 2nd was the No.6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F and in 3rd came the KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT, which meant that each of the makers had a car represented on the podium of this second race in Thailand.
In the drivers' ranking, the No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F pair of Caldarelli and Hirakawa maintained their point lead by holding on to finish 6th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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