2015.11.15

GT300 class was a win from pole to finish by TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT

Round8 Twin Ring Motegi : Race Review GT300

The MOTEGI GT 250km RACE, Round 8 (final round) of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the Twin Ring Motegi in Tochigi Pref. on November 15. In tricky conditions with the track wet in the early stages and dry in the latter half, in the GT500 class the race winner was the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Andrea Caldarelli/Ryo Hirakawa), and the GT300 class winner was the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga/Yuichi Nakayama). Both teams won their respective races starting from pole position.
The GT500 class Drivers Championship title went to the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driver pair of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli when they managed to place 2nd in the race, ahead of the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R that finished 4th, while the Team Championship title went to the No. 1 NISMO team, both for the second year in a row.

 

  

 

The rain had ended before noon, but it began to fall again before the start of the race to once again wet the track just as it had started to dry out. As a result, all of the cars started the race on rain tires.
At the start, the pole-sitting No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga) got a good start to keep the lead and then began pulling away from the pack. The battle for 2nd place turned into a contest between two Mercedes Benz SLS cars, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Bjorn Wirdheim) and the No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Tatsuya Kataoka), in an intense dual that saw them running side-by-side from the start. At first, the No. 0 car was in front, but on the 10th lap the No. 11 car passed it to take 2nd position.
Soon after the start, there was a collision between the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) and No. 20 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuji Ide) that had started the race in 15th and 16th positions respectively. This sent the No. 3 car off the track, and also caused car No. 20 to return to the pit and eventually finish its race there. Also, the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi) running in its last race, due to Honda's decision to withdraw the CR-Z from SUPER GT competition as of this season, put on a magnificent display of speed by rising from its unfortunate 13th-position grid start to move into 4th place by the tenth lap of the race.
Running in the lead, the No. 31 car was turning out laps as fast as 1'55, while the cars from 2nd place down was running at a pace of about 2'00 flat. By just the tenth lap of the race, car No. 31 had built up a lead of more that 25 seconds, and that lead continued to grow with each lap. Meanwhile, its hybrid rival, car No. 55, managed to pass the No. 0 car that had dropped to 3rd place in lap 18, thus putting No. 55 in reach of a podium finish.

 

  

 

By this point in the race, the running line on the track was dry. One after another, the teams were now finding the right timing to make their routine pit stops and change tires. But, with its good pace, the No. 31 car stretch out its first stint longer than the rest. But, on the 26th lap the No. 9 PACIFIC PACIFIC McLaren with μ's (Ryohei Sakaguchi) and the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) had a collision. It resulted in heavy damage to the rear of car No. 46 that caused it to come to a stop on the track, which brought out the Safety Car. Due to the timing of this accident, the No. 31 car lost its chance to make its routine pit stop. Soon, after the Safety Car left the track again and the pit lane was opened again, car No. 31 made its pit stop. Normally, this would have resulted in a big loss of position for the leader, but due to the big lead it had built up in the first half of the race, it only dropped car No. 31 back to 4th position.
The race was restarted from the 30th lap. At this point the GT300 race leader was the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka), behind which came the No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Takashi Kobayashi). For the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Yuichi Nakayama) now in 4th position, the gap to the lead car was about seven seconds. If Nakayama were able to duplicate the car's fast pace of the first half of the race, the 19 remaining laps would allow a good possibility of catching the leader and scoring a come-from-behind win. Now with slick tires on a dry track, the other cars were running laps in the 1'52 and 1'53 range. On lap 33. Nakayama passed car No. 55 to move into 3rd position. On the next lap he passed car No. 11 in 2nd place, which had been passed by car No. 0. With a 3-second gap to the leading car No. 0 at that point, Nakayama in car No. 31 clocked the fastest lap of the race on the 37th lap, with a 1'49.434, and then went on to overtake No. 0 and retake the lead on the 38th lap.
On the last two laps of the race, No. 0 began to close the gap on the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT but it was too late to catch it before the checkered flag. This win was the second of the season for the No. 31 team, following its win at Okayama, and it had been achieved from pole position. The No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS finished the race in 2nd place and the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS took 3rd.
The final result for the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT, because the CR-Z will be withdrawn from GT competition as of this season, was a 4th place that left it just short of a podium finish.
The season's Driver Championship and Team Championship titles, clinched in the last round at AUTOPOLI, went to the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto/Katsumasa Chiyo) that finished 6th in this final race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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