2016.08.07

ARTA BMW M6 GT3 Also Holds Pole Lead to GT300 Win

Round5 Fuji Speedway : Race GT300 Review

On the afternoon of August 7, the FUJI GT 300km RACE, Round 5 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.). The winner of the GT500 class race, for the first time this season, was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R driven by Hironobu Yasuda and Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira. In the GT300 class, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 driven by Shinichi Takagi and Takashi Kobayashi won from pole without ever effectively giving up the lead.

 

 

Throughout race weekend it was hot summer weather at FUJI SPEEDWAY. The GT machines lined up behind the Shizuoka Prefectural Police motorcycles and patrol cars on time for the 2:35 start of the parade lap. After this lap promoting traffic safety, the race went into start mode with the formation lap that ended at 2:42 with the start of the race. It was the pole-starting No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) that got the hole shot with a good start, followed by the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) in 2nd place close on the tail of car No. 55.
In the early stages of the race, cars number 55 and 21 kept 1st and 2nd positions respectively and gradually began to pull away from the rest of the pack, while close behind the No. 51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Akihiro Tsuzuki) in 3rd position and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) closed to start a three-way battle for 2nd. Behind them, in 5th position came the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) led a group consisting of the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga), No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine), No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa), No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) and the No. 63 DIRECTION 108 HURACAN (Naoki Yokomizo), all running in a line. Among these, car No. 51 gradually lost ground, while car No. 61 and No. 31 moved toward the front.
Although Fujii in car No. 21 pulled up alongside the leading Takagi in car No. 55 at the TGR (first) Corner, he was unable to make the overtake. Then, car No. 61 began to close in from behind quickly. It looked as if the race would become a three-way battle for the lead. However, an accident occurred that brought out the Safety Car at the end of the 16th lap. At the TGR Corner, the No. 9 GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 (Ryohei Sakaguchi) collided with the No. 22 R’Qs SLS AMG GT3 (Hisashi Wada), causing the car’s hood to come off and land on the track. This SC run caused the leads built up by the leaders to vanish all at once.
Finally, the race was restarted on [the GT300 class] lap 23. From here, the gaps between the three leaders remained steady at just over one second through the following laps.

 

 

At the end of the 26th lap, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT was the first among the leaders to make its routine pit stop. But, after the driver change to Yuichi Nakayama, the No. 31 car failed to start and this took it out of contention for the lead.
At the end of the 30th lap the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 that had run so strongly through the first half made its pit stop. Changing drivers from Takagi to Takashi Kobayashi, some fast pit work kept the team effectively kept a solid hold on the lead. Meanwhile, Hiramine in the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 continued to run at the front until the 38th lap before pitting and turning over the wheel to teammate Manabu Orido. This strategy put the team in 4th position for the second half of the race.
When all the leaders had finished their routine pit stops on the 40th lap, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Kobayashi) was in the lead with the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons) in 2nd place five seconds behind. Behind that by just under three seconds was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi). It looked as if car No. 55 was close to victory, but its pace began to slow gradually after the 45th lap, and seeming to know this, Richard Lyons in car No. 21 put on a spurt of speed. With 10 laps left in the race the gap to No. 55 was down to about three second, and with five laps to go it was down to less than two seconds.
Then, over the last three laps car No. 21 moved on to No. 55’s tail. Here, the former GT500 champion Lyons held pace at just over one second behind the leader to prepare for a decisive move on the final lap. Coming out of the final Panasonic Corner, car 21 pulled tight into the slipstream of car No. 55. But, Kobayashi put the spurs into his BMW M6 GT3 in an all-out attempt to outrun Lyons to the goal line. When they crossed the line Kobayashi in the No. 55 car was first by 0.106 sec. After finishing a disappointing 2nd the last time at Fuji in Round 2, it was sweet revenge for No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 with a perfect pole-to-win victory. This first win of the season lifted the team’s drivers to the top of the Drivers standing.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS. Third place went to the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT for a second consecutive podium finish. Battling throughout the race in the second group, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 finished 4th. Behind the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) in 5th came the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Hoshino Kazuki >Jann Mardenborough) that had worked up from a 17th position start to finish in 6th and earn a precious five points.

 

 

 

 

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