2015.06.21

B-MAX NDDP GT-R wins GT300 race in Thailand two years in a row

Round3 Thailand : GT300 Race

The BURIRAM SUPER GT RACE, Round 3 of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was run in the afternoon of June 21 at Thailand's Chang International Circuit. In Thailand's tropical heat as severe as mid-summer races in Japan, the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida came from a 3rd-position start to take the GT500 class win. In the GT300 class race, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R driven by Kazuki Hoshino and Mitsunori Takaboshi was victorious in Thailand for the second consecutive year.

 

  

 

The GT300 class race got off to a start with no major mishaps, but the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) starting from second position on the grid was already beginning to accelerate toward the front from the time it entered the first turn. With bold passing moves, Hoshino first went past the pole-starting No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) in quick succession to come through the first lap in the lead. The GAINER TANAX GT-R also managed to pass the VivaC 86 MC to put two GT-R machines in the lead in no time at all. Although it appeared as if there would then be a battle between the two leading GT-Rs, the pace of the B-MAX NDDP GT-R was clearly faster. Within the course of just five laps, Hoshino had built up a lead of nearly three seconds over the GAINER TANAX GT-R and the gap continued to widen with each lap. That didn't mean, however, that the GAINER TANAX GT-R was slow by any measure, as it also puled away from the pack to put the top three cars well in the lead with the gaps growing between them.
Meanwhile, the order from fourth position downward was the No. 65 LEON SLS (Haruki Kurosawa) followed by the No.11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Bjorn Wirdheim), the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga), No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara), No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi), all battling in a group of six.
Entering the middle stages of the race, the pace of the leading B-MAX NDDP GT-R didn't show any signs of slowing, as it continued to lap the track with times in the 1'35 to 1'36 range, barring interference from GT500 cars. The GAINER TANAX GT-R chasing it in second was lapping in the 1'36 to 37 range, and by the time they both made their routine pit stops on the 29th lap, the gap between the two leaders had grown to approximately 13 seconds.

 

 

When No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh) that had been running in the tentative lead by stretching its first stint to the 40th lap finally made its routine pit stop, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi) was back in the lead. The gap between No. 3 and the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita) in 2nd position had grown to about 16 seconds, which was more than enough of a margin for No. 3's second driver, the rookie Mitsunori Takaboshi, who was now driving at a pace nearly as fast as his teammate Hoshino had in stint one. In the closing stages of the race, Takaboshi's pace slackened slightly, but until the last five laps of the race his margin of lead had remained virtually unchanged.
Behind the two leaders, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) that had held on to 3rd position until the 47th lap was now feeling the pressure from the car on its tail, the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Jorg Muller) that had emerged from the fierce battle for 4th place by following a strategy of holding position in the first half of the race and then pressing hard to the front in the second half. Once he was passed by the veteran German driver in the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4, the rookie Matsui in the VivaC 86 MC put up a plucky fight to try to pass him back, but the fight ended when Matsui suddenly pulled into the pit lane on the 55th lap. His machine had been showing symptoms of running out of gas, but in fact the cause was [fuel] percolation resulting from the heat and it would have been better for Matsui to have kept driving rather than return to the pit, since there was still a gap of nearly 14 seconds to the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) behind him. While the rookie's lack of experience hurt, it was also compounded by the trouble in getting the engine restarted in the pit and it all cost car No. 25 its chance of a podium finish.
Slowing his pace on the last lap, Takaboshi in the leading No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R was able to savor crossing the finish line victorious in the Thai round. Finishing 2nd came the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R, giving the GT-R its second 1-2 finish in a row after Fuji, although with the order changed this time.
This was the second consecutive win in Thailand for the B-MAX NDDP GT-R, which had been the seventh round of last year's series. For the rookie Takaboshi it was a momentous first GT win. The GAINER TANAX GT-R finished 2nd and in the process lifted Couto to the top of the season's driver ranking. Taking 3rd place was the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4, which followed up on last year's 2nd-place finishing here in Thailand to give the team consecutive podium finishes.

 

 

 

 

 

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