2016.05.04

MOTUL AUTECH GT-R comes from behind to score consecutive wins!

Round2 Fuji Speedway : GT500 Race Review

The FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on the afternoon of May 4th at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref). The GT500 class the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driven by Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli followed up on their victory in the season opener to make it two wins in a row. In the GT300 class, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Jann Mardenborough) emerged victorious to make it Nissan GT-R wins in both classes.

 

 

 

Though there were still strong winds, the skies were clear, the temperature had risen and the stands were full of over 50,000 SUPER GT fans waving different colored flags when the FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the series started at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira in the pole-sitting No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R got a beautiful start and took the lead followed by the other front-row starter, the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama).
In the early going, De Oliveira maintained an outstanding pace and pulled away from the pack, while behind him, the battle for third position was heating up. In the eighth lap, Motoyama in 2nd place and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa) in 3rd were running close together. But, the gap gradually opened up and soon it was the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) running in 4th position with speed that belied its 40 kg weight handicap that was closing in on Tachikawa. On the 15th lap, Quintarelli managed to pass Tachikawa.
However, after the 16th lap the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F had recovered its pace and on the 17th lap, Tachikawa was able to re-pass Quintarelli and move up on the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R again. This began a battle between Motoyama and Tachikawa, two drivers competing for most GT500 wins, and finally on the 27th lap, Tachikawa succeeded in passing Motoyama. This put the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F in 2nd place and broke the NISSAN GT-R teams' hold on the top places.
However, the battle to take 2nd place from the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F would soon heat up again. This battle for 2nd would see the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Heikki Kovalainen) running together with No. 38 in a group of four.
In this race, all the teams were required to make two routine pit stops, and the first among the leaders to take its stop was the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R running in 3rd position. Making the stop on the 32nd lap, Motoyama turn the wheel over to teammate Katsumasa Chiyo. On the next lap, the No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F also returned to the pit and made its driver change from Tachikawa to Hiroaki Ishiura. Then, around the 35th and 36th laps the other GT500 class teams all began to make their routine stops one after another. Meanwhile, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R continued to cruise on alone in the lead before finally making its first routine stop on lap 38. The drivers changed from De Oliveira to Hironobu Yasuda.

 

 

When all the GT500 class cars had completed their first pit stops, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R was in the lead 11 seconds ahead of the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Hiroaki Ishiura) in 2nd place. Running in 3rd place in the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R, Chiyo had found a good pace and succeeded in moving up on the tail of the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Ishiura). On the TGR Corner of lap 43 Chiyo move up to Ishiura's inside and then he moved in front of him on the Coca Cola Corner. This put the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R back in control of 2nd position, and making it a 1-2 lead for the GT500 NISSAN GT-R nismo machines.
For a while, the race continued like this with the top order virtually in stalemate until an upset happened on the 72nd lap. As it entered the Advan Corner, the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Takuya Izawa) suffered a left-side tire burst. Pieces of the machine's shattered rear cowl were strewn across the track. Izawa managed to get out of the car unhurt, but the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT was stopped on the run-off area.
To clear the track of the broken parts, the Safety Car (SC) was brought in and, as a result, the gaps between the lead machines narrowed rapidly. Furthermore, this happened just at the time some of the teams were about to make their second routine pit stop, and there was now a danger that they would run out of fuel. Until last season, the best practice had been to make pit stops while the SC was controlling the race, but from this season the sporting regulation was changed for safety reasons, and under the new rules cars making pit stops during an SC run would be penalized.
Well aware of this, the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R was so low on fuel that the team had to bring it in for refueling knowing that it would cost them a devastating penalty. On the 76th lap the pit stop was made and drivers changed from Chiyo to Motoyama, and after the Safety Car left the track, car No. 46 was forced to take a penalty stop of 90 seconds.
The Safety Car left the track on lap 78 and the race resumed, and as soon as it did, several cars that were seriously low on fuel immediately made their routine stops, including the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Kohei Hirate) and the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Ryo Hirakawa). On the other hand, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Ishiura), which had made its first pit stop one lap after the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R, and the leading No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda) stayed out on the track and kept running. Their race had re-started.
However, just as it re-started the race, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F began running out of fuel. Its driver, Ishiura slowed down and tried to make it back to the pit, but he ran out of gas and came to a stop in the third sector of the track.
These mishaps took the 2nd and 3rd placed teams out of the competition for the lead. While this was happening behind it, the leading No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R made its second routine stop at the end of the 78th lap. The driver change put De Oliveira back at the wheel of car No. 12 and racing on toward victory, but when the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R that had steadily been moving up in position made its pit stop on the 80th lap and changed drivers from Matsuda to Quintarelli, the Nismo crew finished the pit work in a very fast 38.5 seconds of stopped time and managed to get the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R back into the race in front of the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R.
Now the battle for the win was between Quintarelli in the leading No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R and De Oliveira in the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, and commanding a faster pace, De Oliveira was able to catch and pass Quintarelli on the TGR corner of the 96th lap and pass him going through the Coca Cola Corner. This put car No. 12 back in the lead.

But the upsets weren't over in the second half of the long Round 2 race at Fuji. On the 100R turn of the 107th lap, with the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R right on its tail, the left rear tire of the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R suddenly burst! De Oliveira couldn't keep his machine from spinning out and had to come to a stop. In this way, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R team that had run the race so perfectly to that point lost a win that was already within its reach.
This accident left the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R in the lead. Quintarelli went on from there to complete the 110 laps of the race and take the checkered flag unchallenged. This gave the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Matsuda/Quintarelli) its second victory in a row, following their win in the opening round at 0kayama. This was the first time since 2008 debut year of the NISSAN GT-R that a NISMO machine had won two straight victories from the season opener. This win also extended Tsugio Matsuda's record of most GT500 wins to 18.

Finishing the race in 2nd place came the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Hirate/Kovalainen), which had continued to run at a strong pace throughout the race. For Kovalainen, this was his first podium finish in his second year of SUPER GT competition. Finishing 3rd after a tough charge from a 9th position grid start was the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter/Ryo Hirakawa). Among the Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT teams, the No. 8 ARTA NSX CONCEPT-GT (Kosuke Matsuura /Tomoki Nojiri) had moved up steadily throughout the race to finish 6th.

 

 

 

 

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