On Nov. 4, The FUJI GT 300km RACE, 9th and final round of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Pref. In the GT500 class the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval/Fabio Carbone) ran to its first victory of the season. The GT300 class winner was the No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi/ Dominik Farnbacher), its second victory of the season. Also, the season title for drivers in the GT300 class was claimed by team of Kazuya Ohshima and Hiroaki Ishiura (No.101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S), who finished second in this race.
Race Weather:Cloudy | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 17°C | Track Temp. 25°C
The race started at 14:05 under clear skies and with a dry track. The air temperature at the start was 17 degrees C. and the track surface temperature 25 degrees.
No.17 REAL NSX
The start saw the top qualifiers of the GT500 class go through the first lap in their grid order. After the tires got warmed up, however, the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval) began to pick up the pace. Just before the first turn of lap seven, Duval got past the No. 17 REAL NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi) and moved into 2nd position. On the last corner of lap 19, No. 32 finally caught up to the pole position starter, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Benoit Treluyer). The two machines went down the straight side by side and by the entrance to the first curve No. 32 had pulled ahead to take the lead.
With the track surface temperature warmer than expected, some of the teams had begun preparing for a tire change after the 12th or 13th lap. It was just at this point that there was a collision between the No. 3 Yellow Hat YMS MOBAHO! TOMICA Z (Sebastien Philippe) and the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO Z (Satoshi Motoyama). No. 23ran off the track as a result, and on the next lap it was forced to return to the pit for a tire change. Meanwhile, No. 3 was given a drive-through penalty.
No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z
After 22 laps, the machines began to make their pit stops, beginning with the No. 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 (Takeshi Tsuchiya > Manabu Orido). Also making early pit stops and driver changes were the No.100 RAYBRIG NSX (Dominik Schwager > Shinya Hosokawa), the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Toranosuke Takagi > Yuji Tachikawa) and the No. 1 houzan TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer > Juichi Wakisaka). After being passed by No. 17 on the 26th lap, No. 12 made its pit stop, changing tires, refueling and changing drivers to Kazuki Hoshino. The leader at this point, No. 32 (Duval > Fabio CARBONE) made its pit stop two laps later and the 2nd position runner No. 17 (Toshihiro Kaneishi > Katsutomo Kaneishi) made its pit stop five laps later. No. 17 managed to get back on the track in between No. 32 and No. 12, but on its out-lap it was passed by No. 12 before its tires had warmed up. This put the top three in the order of No. 32, No. 12 and No. 17. After this, No.17 tried to ride the tail of No. 12, but with its handicap lifted by two performance (restrictor) allocations, No. 12 proved faster on the straights and was able to pull away and open up a margin on its pursuer. All this while, No. 32 was maintaining a fast pace in the lead and opening up a margin of more than 20 seconds over No. 12.
On lap 48 the No. 6 Forum Eng.SC430 (Tatsuya Kataoka > Bjorn Wirdheim) suffered damage in a collision with another machine while running in 5th position and came to a stop at trackside. Although it couldn't continue to the checkered, No. 6 was classified as a finisher, having completed more than the required lap count.
After that, a battle for 6th position developed between Wakisaka in car No. 1 and Hosokawa in No. 100. There was one point where Hosokawa inched ahead at the last corner only to have Wakisaka pass him again through the first corner after the home straight. After that, as they passed back-lappers, a gap of about two seconds opened up between them.
No.32 EPSON NSX
There were no changes in the order of the top three for the remainder of the race and they took the checkered at the end of lap 66. For No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval/Fabio Carbone) it was the first win of the season and the first since the final round of last year's series. Finishing 2nd was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Benoit Treluyer/Kazuki Hoshino) and in 3rd the No. 17 REAL NSX (Katsutomo Kaneishi/Toshihiro Kaneishi).
The winners of the season's driver title in the previous round, Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman in the No. 8 ARTA NSX, managed to finish 8th despite a brush with the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm/Tsugio Matsuda) on the last lap. As a result, the team title also went to AUTOBACS Racing Team Aguri.
Oil leakage was discovered on the No. 66 triple a GALLARDO RG-3 (Naohiro Furuya) after it reached the dummy grid and it had to be pushed back to the pit area. Also, drive shaft trouble caused the No. 31 DOUBLE HEAD apr MR-S (Kyosuke Mineo) to drop out of the race before the opening lap.
No.2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden
In the early stages of the GT300 class race, the class pole sitter, No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima) raced in the lead, followed by the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta). Behind them, the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) and the ensuing pack were blocked by No. 43, allowing No. 101 to build up a lead. But, moving up at a faster pace was the No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and the No. 88 AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 (Marco Apicella). Starting from 7th position on the class grid, No. 26 managed to pass four machines in the first three laps. On lap four it also passed No. 43 to move into 2nd position. No. 88 also passed No. 43 later on lap nine to move into 3rd.
On the hairpin of lap 13, No. 101 had its brakes lock when cut off by a GT500 machine while running in the [class] lead. No. 26 took advantage of this chance to slip past and quickly begin opening up a lead of its own. This set the top three order with No. 26 in the lead followed by No. 101 and No. 88. After the 20th lap, No. 101 seemed to be losing tire grip, as evidenced by increasing sliding on the curves. On lap 26 it was unable to prevent No. 88 from passing, and on the next lap it was passed by No. 2 as well. Pressed by the need to finish ahead of No. 2 in order to win the season title, No. 101 made its pit stop at the end of lap 30. In just 29 seconds the crew changed the tires and refueled the machine and returned to the track with the second driver, Hiroaki Ishiura now at the wheel.
In contrast, No. 2 waited as long as possible before making its pit stop. At that point it had already built up a one-minute margin on No. 101. Meanwhile, the leader, No. 26 made its pit stop at the end of lap 33 and switched to second driver, Dominik Farnbacher, with the lead still effectively in hand.
No.101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S
On lap 42, No. 2 made its pit stop. Now at the wheel, Kazuho Takahashi returned to the track just in between No. 26 and No. 101. But, with his tires not yet warmed up, Takahashi was unable to prevent No. 101 from getting past him. By the time all the machines had finished their pit stops, the leader was No. 26 and No. 101 and No. 2 followed in that order.
Knowing that this order of finish would give No. 101 the drivers title based on number of wins to break the tie in point totals, No. 2 needed to get past No. 101 no matter what. Takahashi rose to the occasion with a magnificent display of driving. As No. 101 began to slide more on the turn in the latter half of the race, Takahashi in No. 2 was able to maintain constant lap times. He narrowed the gap to within less than one second and over the last two laps there was an intense battle that almost involved car contact. But, Ishiura in car No. 101 managed to hold his position to the checkered and win second place in the race to clinch the drivers title.
The class victory went to the No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Dominik Farnbacher). The high top speed of the Porsche proved to be enough of an advantage on the Fuji course with its long straight. This was the team's second win of the season. Finishing in 2nd was the No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima/Hiroaki Ishiura). For Ohshima, this gives him titles in both the SUPER GT and the All Japan F3 Championship. A 20 years of age, he has rewritten the record for the youngest driver to win a SUPER GT/JGTC title. Third place went to the No.2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh). Although this was the second year in a row that their drivers lost the title in point tie, the Shiden team still managed to win the team title.
Comments
GT500 Class | Winner
No. 32 EPSON NSX
GT300 Class | Winner
No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE
GT500 Class | Driver Champions
No.8 ARTA NSX
GT300 Class | Driver Champions
No.101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S
GT500 Class | Team Champions
No.8 AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI
GT300 Class | Team Champions
No.2 Cars Tokai Dream28