2015.11.01

B-MAX NDDP GT-R comes from 8th position on the grid to take a big turnaround win in GT300 race! GAINER TANAX GT-R finishes 2nd to clinch the season titles

Round 7 Autopolis : Race GT300

The SUPER GT in KYUSHU 300km RACE, Round 7 of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit (Oita Prefecture) on the afternoon of November 1. In the GT500 class race that saw fierce battles around the track befitting the late-season title ambitions of the teams, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driven by Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli came from 3rd position on the starting grid to win its second race of the season and move into 2nd position in the season ranking. Starting from pole position, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) finished the race in 2nd place to maintain their lead in the season ranking. In the GT300 class race, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Mitsunori Takaboshi) won its second race of the season. Also, the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto/Katsumasa Chiyo) charged up hard from 14th position on the grid to finish the race in 2nd place and thus with the series driver's title for Couto and the Team title for GAINER.

 

  

 

 

Before the start of the GT300 class race, several big upsets had already occurred. It struck in the form of clutch trouble in the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT, the machine of a team that had come to Autopolis determined to get a win to keep its dream of a season title alive. The trouble struck only after No. 31 had qualified in 2nd place and also recorded the second-fastest time in the practice on race morning. Unable to finish repairs in time to make it to the starting grid, it was forced to start the race from the pit. Another victim, this time of steering trouble, was the No. 20 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86, which had been unable to compete in the qualifying but managed to record the 15th fastest time in the morning practice and win the right to compete in the race; but it too was relegated to a pit start. What's more, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 was unable to leave the pit at first due to damage to its output flange. Also, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC, which had manage to make it to the grid on time, was forced to return to the pit just before the parade lap. Eventually, No. 88 was unable to start the race and car No. 25 managed to make a pit start but had to drop out of the race on the 14th lap due to machine vibration.

 

 

At the start of the race, the pole-sitting No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh) got a good start and was soon opening up its margin of lead over the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi) in 2nd place. That margin between cars No. 2 and No. 55 grew to 10 seconds by the tenth lap. Car No. 55 had also been able to hold a substantial margin of lead over the rest of the pack until its pace began to slow after the tenth lap. This allowed the No. 21 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Tomonobu Fujii), No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi), No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 360 RUNUP Group & DOES GT-R (Hiroki Yoshida) to catch up.
After this, the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS team took their usual strategy of stretching out the first stint as long as possible. During the middle stages of the race from laps 25 to 33, No. 2 built up a lead of between13 and 15 sec. over the 2nd-place car No. 0.
The SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS was the last of the GT300 machines to finally make its routine pit stop on lap 42, and Kazuho Takahashi took the wheel as the second-stint driver. Although Takahashi entered the race with the lead in tact, charging up rapidly from behind came the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R, driven now by Mitsunori Takaboshi. From an eighth-position start, No. 3's first driver, Kazuki Hoshino, had picked his way through the crowded middle pack to move up to 5th position, and after some quick pit work, Takaboshi had retuned to the race in 2nd place, despite the pit-work races going on among all the teams. What's more, once he began pushing his car No. 3, he found himself just under two seconds behind the leading car No. 3. This encourages Takaboshi (No. 3) to push even harder. By now, light rain had begun to fall, making the track increasingly slippery. Compared to the 1'48 sec. lap pace of Takaboshi, Takahashi in car No. 2 was lapping at a pace of 1'50, making it hard for him to defend his position. After catching car No. 2 on the 43rd lap, No. 3 moved into the lead. Although it would be hard now for No. 2 to catch the new leader, it still had a margin of nearly 11 seconds over car No. 0 (Nobuteru Taniguchi) in 3rd place. A podium spot was waiting is No. 2 could hold out, but after an apparent bump-up with another machine, its left rear tire burst. With this, Takahashi was forced to pull car No. 2 off the track and quit the race.

 

 

With car No. 2 now out of the race, it was Katsumasa Chiyo in the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R that had started the race in 14th position, who now emerged in 2nd place. With a chance to clinch the driver championship in this race, Chiyo's teammate Andre Couto had driven car No. 10 magnificently up through the field in the first stint, rising to 5th position before the team's routine pit stop on lap 34. With some fast pit work, Chiyo had been able to take over the wheel and return car No. 10 to the race at the rear of the group effectively battling for 2nd position. Among their rivals in the title race, car No. 31 had suffered machine trouble before the start (after which it had managed to climb to 5th position at one point while recording the fastest lap of the race, only to experience trouble again that forced an extra pit stop that dropped it out of contention), also, car No. 55 had slowed down, car No. 0 had lost time in the battle for 2nd place, car No. 61 also had machine trouble and car No. 2 had dropped out of contention. Despite all these lucky turns of events in the trouble-plagued race from car No. 10's standpoint, the fact that it had finally risen to 2nd place was in the end due to the strength of its team and the drivers. And, it had maintained the speed of its pace from the start of the race, fast enough now to close the 10-sec. gap to the leading car No. 3. Furthermore, the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara > Jorg Muller) that they had battled with at the end of the round five race at Suzuka had now risen to 3rd position. Although there was still a considerable margin, the threat was still there. If Chiyo (No. 10) could only hold this position in 2nd place, his teammate Andre Couto would clinch the season title.
In the end, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R held its margin over 2nd place (N. 10) and took its second win of the season, following the win in round three in THAILAND. The No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R also used its margin effectively to finish 2nd and clinch the season titles for Couto and the GAINER team before the final round. Finishing 3rd was the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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