2017.05.04

ZENT CERUMO LC500 Runs to Victory from Pole Position!

Round 2 Fuji Speedway : Race GT500 class

The FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.) on May 4th. The GT500 class race winner running from pole position was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 driven by Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura. It was the first win for a Lexus team on their home track of Fuji Speedway since 2013. The GT300 class race win went to the No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 driven by Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi. It is the first victory for the Lexus RC F GT3 and gave Lexus teams victory in both classes.

 

 

 

 

Race day, May 4th, brought fair skies to Fuji Speedway for a beautiful spring day. The FUJI 500km RACE, round 2 of the series, is the second longest race of the SUPER GT season, running for more than three hours. For this reason, all teams are required to make two routine pit stops during the race with driver changes. Unlike the opening round of the season marked by upsets, this would be a clean race free of any Safety Car action despite its length and not one car had to retire from the race in either class.
When the green light came on at 2:18 in the afternoon, the long 110-lap race was underway. Just after the start, the pole-position No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa) and 2nd-position starter, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) led the race and began to pull away from the pack, running nose to tail. Following the two leaders came five LC500 machines.
It was on the sixth lap that this situation began to change. As No. 38 gradually began to pull away from No. 23, the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (James Rossiter) and the No. 1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen) both passed No. 23 in succession to put three LC500 machines in the lead. As the race proceeded, the gaps between these three leaders also began to widen.
After the end of the 26th lap, the NSX-GT cars, first the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) and then on the next lap the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri), began to make their routine pit stops. It was at this point that the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette) began to slow down due to a puncture in its left rear tire and returned to the pit.
Other than this, there were no significant incidents, and by the time all of the cars had finished their first routing pit stop on the 38th lap, the race was led by the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Hiroki Ishiura), followed in order by the No. 1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Kohei Hirate), No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Daisuke Ito), No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda), No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima replaced by Andrea Caldarelli) and the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto replaced by Takuya Izawa.

 

 

The big tumult in the middle stages of the race came on the final turn of lap 52. There was a collision between car No. 1 and car No. 36 as they battled for 2nd place. Car No. 36 succeeded in moving into 2nd place, but car No. 1 spun out. Car No. 1 quickly recovered and resumed the race in 3rd position, but soon it was passed by car No. 6 and car No. 37 to fall back in the order. Meanwhile, car No. 36 was given a drive-through penalty for the collision, and this dropped it out of contention for a place at the front.
After the end of the 68th lap of the race, the teams began to make their second routine pit stops. In the teams&rsquo pit work here at the end of the second stint, there were again no significant differences in the pit time and car No. 38 stayed in the lead, followed in order by No. 6 and No. 37 as the top three.
As the race entered its final stages, cars behind began to pick away at the big margin of over ten seconds of lead that car No. 38 had enjoyed until that point, but when that lead was down to about six or seven seconds, Tachikawa in the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 began to pick up the pace again. From there, Tachikawa held a firm lead of about seven seconds over the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima) in 2nd place. From there, maintaining the lead it had held from the start of the race, car No. 38 was first to take the checkered and the win at the end of the 110 laps at 5:10.

 

 

After having extended his own record for most GT500 class pole positions to 22 the day before, this victory put Tachikawa in a tie for the record of most GT500 class wins at 18. Fuji Speedway is the home track of the Lexus and Toyota teams of the Toyota group. But, the last time a Toyota group team had won a race here was the victory by the ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate) in round 6 of the 2013 season. That is why the big goal of the Lexus team that developed the new LC500 was to win here at Fuji. At the same time, today&rsquos win was a big boost for the pride of Tachikawa, as he redeemed his reputation as the "Fuji Meister" and his record for most wins here.
Finishing today&rsquos race in 2nd place was the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500, and 3rd place went to the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy to Hirakawa and then Cassidy in the last stint), that had worked up through the field from a 7th-position grid start; and this gave the Lexus LC500 camp a sweep of the podium for a second straight round. The highest finisher of the Nissan GT-R camp in 4th place was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Quintarelli to Tsugio Matsuda and then Quintarelli again), while the highest Honda NSX-GT finisher in 6th place was the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Yamamoto to Izawa to Yamamoto).

 

 

 

 

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