2017.05.21

VivaC 86 MC Runs From Pole to GT300 Victory!

Round 3 Autopolis : Race GT300

The SUPER GT in KYUSHU 300 km, Round 3 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS (Oita Prefecture) on May 21. In the GT500 race the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/James Rossiter) came from seventh position at the start to take their first win of the season. It was the third straight victory of the season for a Lexus LC500 machine. In the GT300 class, the 2016 champion No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui/Kenta Yamashita) ran from pole position to take the win by the slightest of margins.

 

 

 

 

At the start, the pole-sitting No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Kenta Yamashita) and 2nd grid-starting No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) pulled away safely to a one-two lead. Behind them the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) had moved up one position into 3rd, and following it came the local Kyushu-based team’s No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET (Natsu Sakaguchi).
No. 61 continued to chase the leading car No. 25 at a distance of about one sec., but just as it looked as if this battle for the lead might start to heat up on the 4th lap, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT spun out at the 17th turn (the stadium turn before the last turn) and came to a stop in the middle of the track. The No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Rintaro Kubo) was unable to avoid hitting it, and then the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Shintaro Kawabata) also hit No. 31 on its left side. This caused so much damage to the front of car No. 31 that it had to retire from the race. Car No. 18 also returned to the pit and dropped out of the race. This crash brought out the Safety Car to stop the racing temporarily.
After the re-start, this left just a one-sec. gap between Yamashita in No. 25 and Yamauchi in No. 61, who both happened to be former F3 champions last year and in 2008 respectively, and this nose-to-tail chase continued until No. 25 made its pit stop on lap 30.

 

 

Running in the lead temporarily after No. 25 made its pit stop, car No. 61 also made its pit stop on lap 32. Returning to the race, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT with Takuto Iguchi now at the wheel found itself in front of the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) for a moment, but Matsui (No. 25) was able to pass Iguchi (No. 61) and reclaim the lead before his tires warmed up.
Unlike the two leaders, who had made their pit stops at roughly mid-race, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 running in 3rd position stretched out its first stint until the 35th lap before making its stop. Also, the No. 55 team changed only the two left-side tires to save time and enable the new driver, Sean Walkinshaw, to return to the track in front of car No. 25.
Waiting on its pit stop until the 42nd lap was the winner of the last round, the No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Yuichi Nakayama changing to Sho Tsuboi), and when it finally pulled into the pit, it left car No. 55 in the lead about one sec. ahead of No. 25, with No. 61 about another two sec. back in third place. Compared to No. 55, which had only changed two tires, the pace of the two cars behind it was obviously faster. Eventually, No. 55 would be passed by both No. 25 and No. 61 to drop into 3rd place.

 

 

In the final stages of the race, Matsui in car No. 25 made a strong spurt. With ten laps remaining, he opened up a gap of nearly four sec. over car No. 61. But, Fukuoka native Iguchi in car No. 61 held on and continued to narrow the gap. Then, with five laps remaining, the pace of car No. 25 began to slow. It turned out to be trouble with No. 25’s fuel pump, and it was now clear that No. 61 was quickly closing the gap on No. 25, and with two laps remaining in the race it dropped to less than a sec. With this, Iguchi put the spurs to his BRZ even harder and by the third sector of the last lap he was right on No. 25’s tail.
The two cars drew even dashing out of the final turn, and at the goal line there was only a 0.091 sec. gap between the noses of the two machines. Matsui in the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC had succeeded in holding out by the narrowest of margins to claim the team’s win from pole to the checkers, their first victory of the season. After no-pointers in Round 1 and Round 2, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT got its first points of the season by finishing 2nd. Finishing 3rd came the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3, while another BMW M6 GT3, the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara to Jorg Muller) came home 4th.
These were followed by, the winner of the opening round at Okayama, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataokato to Nobuteru Taniguchi) in 5th was and in 6th the Round 2 winning No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3.

 

 

 

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