Japanese
The BURIRAM UNITED SUPER GT RACE, Round 7 of the AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on the afternoon of October 5 at Chang International Circuit (Thailand). The GT500 class winner of the first SUPER GT race on the new circuit was the PETRONAS TOM'S RC F driven by Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter, in dramatic reversal that gave the team their second consecutive series victory. In the GT300 class, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R driven by Kazuki Hoshino and Lucas Ordonez won for the first time this season.
The No. 99 i MOBILE ASS that had won pole position in yesterday’s qualifying got a good start and continued to lead the race, driven by Thai driver V. Inthraphuvasak. Recording fastest laps one after another in his first SUPER GT race, Inthraphuvasak proceeded to pull away from the chasing No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) in 2nd position. As the leading Porsche pulled away, the battle for 2nd place intensified. Behind the B-MAX NDDP GT-R came the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara) and the No. 10 GAINER Rn-SPORTS SLS (Hideaki Yamauchi) to tangle in the 3-way battle. After the 15th lap the i MOBILE ASS had a nearly 10-second lead and appeared to be heading toward a runaway victory. Then, the B-MAX NDDP GT-R in 2nd also managed to break away and build up a 10-second margin over the No. 10 GAINER Rn-SPORTS SLS and Studie BMW Z4 that continued to battle each other.
Entering the middle stages of the race past the 20th lap, Inthraphuvasak in the i MOBILE ASS was brushed by a GT500 machine, causing his pace to falter slightly, but he still maintained a 5-second lead when he made an early pit stop on the 26th lap. This gave the wheel of car No. 99 to the previous day’s pole position winner, Alexandre Imperatori, a driver with GT300 experience in the past. The GAINER Rn-SPORTS SLS and the Studie BMW Z4 battling for 3rd place also chose to make early pit stops on lap 23.
After this, when the No. 0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Yuhki Nakayama) finally made its it stop and relinquish the interim lead on lap 41, Imperatori in the No. 99 i MOBILE ASS resumed leading the race. Soon he was pulling away from the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Lucas Ordonez) and the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 Jorg Muller) battling for 2nd and 3rd positions.
Having built up a 4-second lead over these two machines vying for 2nd with ten laps remaining in the race, the i MOBILE ASS suddenly returned again to the pit. It appeared that running over a broken machine part that had fallen on the track had cause a slow puncture in one of its tires. Although it was able to return to the race in 9th position, the local Thai team had lost its dream of a pole-to-checkers win in its first SUPER GT race.
This left the GT-R and the BMW Z4 to battle for the win. Muller, a BMW works driver in Europe before coming to the No. 7 BMW Sports Trophy Team Studie, now made his move on the GT-R driven by Ordonez, a unique driver who had won his seat as a pro racing driver in GT300 after becoming the world champion in the Gran Turismo racing simulation game. In this contest between two drivers with completely different backgrounds, Ordonez was defending a lead of just one second. With sand and broken machine parts scattered making the track slippery and dangerous, the high-strung battle of nerves went on to the just before the goal.
In the end, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R took the checkers with a lead of 0.862 sec. For the team, it was their first win since 2012, and for Ordonez it was his first-ever SUPER GT win. It was also the first win for the FIA GT3 specification GT-R that Ordonez’s teammate Kazuki Hoshino has been working on as development driver. Finishing 2nd in the race was the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4, and finishing 3rd after driving stubbornly on through a number of mishaps and trouble was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU Z4 driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka.
These results puts the No. 4 driver pair of Taniguchi and Kataoka firmly at the top of the ranking for the GT300 drivers’ championship. Also, the No. 7 pair of Muller and Ara stand second in the ranking going into the final round of the series, nine points behind.
In other developments, the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS team (Bjorn Wirdheim＞Katsuyuki Hiranaka) that had been battling to keep its championship hopes alive after a wrong tire choice made them decide to change the tires at the start and opt for a pit start rather than starting from their 18th-position grid spot. This choice turned out to be the right one, as they managed to finish 8th in the race and thus remain at 2nd place in the ranking with the same point total as the No. 7 pair for the final race of the season. Meanwhile, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi＞Kota Sasaki) that had to start from the very back of the grid after a regulation violation was found in their car after the qualifying, drove with a very fast pace to finish the race in 5th. However, this result ended their possibility of competing for the title in the final round.
The last race of the regular series will be held at Twin Ring Motegi on November 15 and 16. What will happen with the three teams competing for the title? And, what kind of action will we see in this final race? It won’t be long before we can watch the dramatic climax unfold.
| 4/13-14 | Round1 OKAYAMA | |
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5/03-04 | Round2 FUJI |
| 6/01-02 | Round3 SUZUKA | |
| 8/03-04 | Round4 FUJI | |
| 8/31-9/01 | Round5 SUZUKA | |
| 9/21-22 | Round6 SUGO | |
| 10/19-20 | Round7 AUTOPOLIS | |
| 11/02-03 | Round8 MOTEGI |