2024.05.04

Rd. 1 Qualifying GT300: JLOC Lamborghini GT3 takes a perfect win from pole position without ever losing the lead!

Round 2 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE” was held on May 4th (Sat./Holiday) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m × 3hours) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atushi Miyake) started from 2nd position on the grid to quickly take the lead and ran on to finish the race unchallenged for the win. In the GT300 class, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) never lost the provisional lead to take a perfect win from pole position.

 

 

 

 

 

　Blessed with another day of fine weather, race day for Round 2 of the series saw nearly 54,000 spectators pack the stands at Fuji Speedway. Under clear skies and fine conditions with the air temperature at a comfortable 23℃, the first SUPER GT 3-hour race got underway at 1:30 in the afternoon, following a traffic safety promotional parade lap led by nine motorcycles and four patrol cars of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police.

　Starting from the GT300 class pole position, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) kept the lead going into the TGR Corner (first turn). Following in 2nd position came the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNEMIKU AMG (Nobuteru Tanoguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), but during the first lap, after passing the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) moved into 3rd position. In the lead, car No. 88 continued to run away at a fast pace and built a lead of about 3 sec. over 2nd place by the time it entered the fifth lap of the race, and that lead continued to grow.

　This time, Round 2 was a race with a time limit of 3 hours. With the new race format, attention focused on what kinds of race strategies the teams would choose, and the first indication came when the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Kazuto Kotaka/Jin Nakamura/Yuki Nemoto) that had been running in 9th or 10th position suddenly made an early pit stop. Returning to its pit after the 17th lap of the race, the team opted for a no-tire-change strategy. The other cars in the lead group began to return to the pits about 45 minutes from the start, after they passed the 24th lap of the race. As the teams chose different strategies regarding the number of tires changed or how they changed drivers, etc., the one car among the lead group that continued to delay its pit stop longest was car No. 2, which finally returned to its pit after the 45th lap. By the time all the cars had finished their first pit stop and the order was sorted out, Motojima in car No. 88 was in the lead by a large margin of more than 20 seconds. Following in 2nd position was car No. 31, which had moved up considerably due to a no-tire-change strategy.

　As the race reached it midway point of one hour and 30 minutes, car No. 4 was closing in on car No. 31 running in 2nd position. Also, following them came the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa) and the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) that had gradually been moving up through the pack from the early stages of the race.

 

 

 

 

 

　In this 3-hour race, all cars were required to make two pit stops that included refueling. With about one hour and 15 minutes remaining in the race, the cars that had their starting driver run for two stints now began to make their second pit stops to give the second driver time to put in the required amount of driving time. Making their pit stops here were cars including No. 31 and No. 4 that had made their first pit stop early, and cars like No. 52 that were competing for 2nd position. Here, car No. 52, which had changed tires in its first pit stop, now switched to its accustomed no-tire-change strategy in an attempt to take the lead all at once.

　Meanwhile, car No. 88 made its pit stop after the 68th lap while still running strongly in the lead with about one hour and five minutes remaining in the race. They changed drivers from Motojima to Takashi Kogure to go into the final stint still holding a big lead. Also contending for the lead were car No. 52, as well as cars No. 4 and No. 56 now running on fresh tires. However, car No. 65 developed chassis trouble that forced it to return to the pit at the end of the 77th lap, which dropped it out of the series point range.

　The Checkered Flag was finally waved on this 3-hour race at 4:36 in the afternoon. With this, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) that had not given up the actual lead for 107 laps reached the goal with a nearly 18-sec. lead over 2nd place. For Kogure and Motojima this was their second win in the GT300 class, following the one in the final round of last season.

　As for the battle for 2nd place, it played out to the very end between the two cars that had been the GT300 class champions last year and two years ago, cars No. 52 and No. 56. As No. 52 struggled with tire grip problems as a result of its no-tire-change strategy, it was passed in the final stages by car No. 56 running on four newly changed tires. This gave the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) 2nd place. Also, despite being threatened by a fast-closing car No. 4, the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) succeeded in taking the last spot on the podium in 3rd place.

 

 

 

 

 

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