2014.07.20

On a slippery track the reigning champions shine! ZENT CERUMO RC F takes its first win of the season!

Round 4 Sportsland Sugo : GT500 Race

On the afternoon of July 20, the SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 4 of the 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT was run at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Prefecture). With rain falling on and off during the race, last year’s GT500 class champion team, the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F with drivers Yuji Tachikawa and Kohei Hirate ran at a steady pace to lap all its rivals from 3rd place down and win the GT500 race in impressive style. In the GT300 race, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 driven by Manabu Orido and Takayuki Aoki took the win.

 

  

 

In unstable conditions plagued by continuing fog and rain, the SUGO GT 300km RACE got underway on schedule at 2:00 in the afternoon. This race was planned to run over a long 81 laps. However, during 8-minute warm-up session, many teams changed to slick tires and the track status was changed from semi-wet to dry. By the time of the start, conditions had improved even more and all the cars ended up starting the formation lap on slick tires.
Then the conditions changed again during the running of two additional formation laps when rain began to fall, and by the time of the start, the race distance was adjusted to 79 laps. Immediately after the start, the pole-sitting No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter) and six other cars including the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Toshihiro Kaneishi) and the No. 8 ARTA NSX CONCEPT-GT (Kosuke Matsuura) rushed back to the pit to change to intermediate or wet tires. This put the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Hideki Mutoh) in the lead, only to be passed by a number of machines during the first lap and choose to make a tire change too. At the end of the first lap, the first machine to come down the straight was the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Andrea Caldarelli), followed by the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F (Kazuya Oshima), the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Kohei Hirate) and the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama).
By the third lap of the race, the teams that had changed to wet-condition tires were beginning to approach the lap times of the machines that had run on with slick tires, but soon after that the rain suddenly stopped and by the eighth or ninth lap the cars on slick tires were again out-pacing those that has changed to wet tires. This forced the teams that had changed to intermediate or wet tires to once again return to the pit to change back to slick tires, which dropped them far behind the lead teams that had chosen to stay on slick tires from the beginning. The No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F that had led in the early stages of the race was soon being gradually caught by the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F that had risen to 2nd position on lap two of the race, and on the SP out corner of lap 12 car No. 1 succeeded in passing No. 37 to take the lead. Once in the lead, Hirate in the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F began to push at a fast pace and gradually open up a growing margin of lead.

 

 

At the end of the 20th lap, three Lexus machines led the race, the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F and the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F, and they were followed by three Nissan machines in 4th to 6th places, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira), the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli), all running at a slightly slower pace. At the 22nd lap, the gap between the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F in 3rd position and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R was already more than 20 seconds, making for an unexpected one-sided race.
On the 37th lap the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F running in 2nd position made its routine pit stop and Daisuke Ito took the wheel for the second stint of the race, while the leading No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F and No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F continued to run on. It wasn’t until the 51st lap that the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F finally made its pit stop. Then the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R now in 3rd place returned to the pit on lap 52, but with its large lead, the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F remained in command of the race. Having made its pit stop early, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F now took over 2nd position, but meanwhile, Yuji Tachikawa, now in the cockpit of the leading No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F, was continuing to widen the gap running at impressive speed still on the slick tires as the rain began to fall harder at times. With ten laps remaining in the race, his lead had grown to an unprecedented one minute and change.
As the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F raced on with its big lead, it was followed by the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F and the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F (Yuji Kunimoto) in 2nd and 3rd respectively, but having elected to change to rain tires just at a point when the rain was falling harder, the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F would suffer again when the rain let up and its pace began to drop, losing ground in the process. Showing a stunning push in the closing stages of the race was the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi), which managed to rise to 3rd place. In the end, while its rivals struggled in the changing rain conditions, the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F raced on to eventually lap all but one of the field to score an impressive come-from-behind victory from 11th position on the starting grid. This win made Tachikawa the sole holder of the record for most GT500 wins by a driver, with 16. Holding on to finish 2nd was the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F, gaining enough points to put it on top in the season standings, while the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT took the 3rd spot on the podium and the first podium finish for a Honda team this season.
Finishing 4th came the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F and in 5th place came the 5 No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA RC F. Followed in 6th place was the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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