No.23 MOTUL AUTECH Z
Katsumasa Chiyo
“This has been the first victory in some time for car No. 23 and for me. It has been a bit too long (wry laugh). This season again we had not been able to give the NISSAN fans a race that they hoped for. I thought that this race at SUZUKA (where NISSAN cars have traditionally done well) would be the chance to give them a good race. Still, it wasn’t easy. In the first half, Takaboshi-san ran well for us, and all the member of the team did their jobs well in the pit….(enabling us to get the lead).”
Mitsunori Takaboshi
“Although car No. 16 got away from us at the start, we knew that this would happen because of our tire choice, and we knew we would get faster when the tires warmed up. So, even after the re-start from the Safety Car stoppage, I was determined to stay calm. I had hoped to be able to pass it (car No. 16), but I didn’t push too hard, and with the pit work we were confident that Chiyo-san would be able to pass it. This time we had an advantage over the other cars in terms of the Success Weight they were carrying, and since our first aim was to get a win, I wanted to take this win as encouragement and to see us go on to do even better in the second half of the season.”
No.7 CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3
Zak O’Sullivan
It was a great race, wasn’t it. When I ran in the first half, I wasn’t able to pass the leader, and it led to an early pit stop. But from there Kobayashi-san was very fast and he showed great racing in his battle with car No. 60. I want to thank Kobayashi-san and the team for giving us the wonderful weekend to enjoy.”
Rikuto Kobayashi
“To tell the truth, we had trouble with the team radio during the race, and we couldn’t hear messages from the pit, so I didn’t even know what place I was running in. But I kept calm and continued driving to the end, believing in the potential of our car and watching the cars around me with the intention of running at as good a pace as possible. Because our car was slower on the straights than the leading car No. 60 it was hard to pass, so I’m glad I was able to use the car’s other strengths to eventually take the lead.”
