2015.08.30

PETRONAS TOM'S RC F comes from behind for second Suzuka 1000km victory in two years!

Round5 Suzuka Circuit : Race GT500

The "44th International Suzuka 1000km" race, Round 5 of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Pref. on August 30. The winner of the GT500 race competed in difficult conditions that saw rain in the early stages and two Safety Car stoppages that caused it to reach its maximum time extension limit and be cut short before reaching the 1,000 km distance was the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F driven by Daisuke Ito and James Rossiter. In the GT300 class, the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto/Katsumasa Chiyo/Ryutaro Tomita), carrying the class' largest load of handicap weights at 88 kg, won its second race of the season.

 

  

 

 

With the track still wet rom the night's rain and the beginning of a drizzling rain around start time, conditions were patchy for the start, which came off on schedule at 12:30 in the afternoon with all of the machines on wet tires.
At the start, the 3rd-place grid starting No. 64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Bertrand Baguette) got a good start and managed to pass the 2nd-plce grid starting No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Hiroaki Ishiura). The opening lap also saw No. 64 pass the pole-starting No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) to take the lead. By the end of the first lap, Baguette already had a 2.3 second lead over 2nd place, and by the third lap that lead was already stretched out to 4 seconds. However, perhaps because the conditions were continuing to change, Baguette overran the first corner on the sixth lap and this allowed Quintarelli to get on his tail as they reached the control line on that same lap. Although Baguette was able to hold him off that time, he could do nothing to keep from being passed by the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Takashi Kogure) that had been charging up hard to the front and soon taken 2nd position. Baguette finally had to let No. 15 (Kogure) past him into the lead on the eighth lap. Once in the lead, Takashi Kogure quickly began to leave the pack behind, being the only one to maintain a pace in the 1'59 range. By the end of the 10th lap, Kogure already had a 10 second lead over the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, which had worked back into 2nd position.
Kogure continued to turn out lap times in the 1'59 range, while behind him the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) was also picking up the pace to the same level. With consecutive 1'59 laps, Yamamoto would move up into 2nd position. From around this time the sky was gradually getting brighter, but the track was not yet dry enough to warrant a change to slick tires. So, as cars began to make their first routine pit stops around the 25th lap, they were still changing to wet tires. On this first pit stop it was the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter > Daisuke Ito) team that demonstrated outstanding pit work to get back in the race several seconds faster than the rival after just 51 sec. of stopped time. By the time all of the cars had finished their first pit stop on the 35th lap, No. 36 had managed to return to the race in 2nd position between the leading No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT now driven by Takuya Izawa and the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT now in the hands of Oliver Turvey.

 

  

 

As the race passed the 40th lap, patches of blue sky began to appear between the breaks in the clouds, and as the areas of blue grew, the track began to dry along the running line. This caused the teams to begin changing to from wet to dry tires from their second routine pit stops. The first to change to dry tires in their pit stops on the 57th lap were the No. 64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Daisuke Nakajima>Bertrand Baguette) and the No. 24 D'station ADVAN GT-R (Michael Krumm>Daiki Sasaki), while the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R that had changed drivers from Masataka Yanagida to Satoshi Motoyama and returned to the race with wet tires several laps earlier, now had to make another stop to change to dry tires, with Motoyama remaining at the wheel. While the second routine pit stops were still taking place, a GT300 class car crashed on the 62nd lap, brining out the Safety Car for the first time. When the SC returned to the pit road and all of the cars had completed their second routine pit stops, the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F had moved up into the lead ahead of the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT and No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT.
After this, a penalty and other factors took the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT out of contention for the lead. That put the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R and No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F in the lead group chasing No. 36. By this time the track was in completely dry and probably due to rapid changes in other conditions like the track surface temperature, there were rapid changes in the respective paces of the cars.
However, there was no wavering in the speed and strength of the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F, and after taking the lead on the 69th lap, it continued to build its lead over the rest of the competition, only giving up the lead for brief moments due to the timing of its pit stops. The result was that over the last 30 laps of the race, car No. 36 enjoyed a solid lead of more than 60 seconds over the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F in 2nd place. With its pace never faltering, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F returned to the lead after its final pit stop and ran on to finish the race with a big margin of 1'25. For the team it was their second consecutive Suzuka 1000km victory, following their win here last year. Finishing 2nd came the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F. The No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R finished 3rd to keep its driver pair of Yasuda/De Oliveira at the top of the season ranking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

Page Top