2017.08.06

ARTA NSX-GTG Grabs First win of the Season!

Round 5 Fuji Speedway : Race GT500

The FUJI GT 300km RACE, Round 5 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.) on August 6. In the GT500 class the ARTA NSX-GT driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takashi Kobayashi, while the GT300 class winner was the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Sean Walkinshaw) of the same team, with both cars racing from pole position to their first win of the season in their respective classes, a first in SUPER GT history.

 

 

 

 

Despite cloudy skies on race day, the sun shone through at times for Round 5 of the series at Fuji Speedway. During the 20-minute warm-up session just before the race and the Grid Walk event, strong sunshine poured down on the course. But after that the cloud cover spread, so that throughout the race there was a thin cloud cover over the entire course.

The race began with a parade lap led by nine motorcycles and four patrol cars of the Shizuoka Police at 3:25 in the afternoon, and the green signal to start the racing came on at 3:33. The pole position-starting No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) grabbed the holeshot and from there began to open up a lead over the rest of the field. In 2nd place, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) was also running alone, free from the pack, and from 3rd place back the field was gradually forming a number of groups. Past the 20th lap, the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (James Rossiter) running in 3rd caught up with car No. 23 and a fierce battle for 2nd ensued, while behind them an equally tight battle for 4th place developed between the No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Joao Paulo De Oliveira) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa) that had moved up from a 6th-position start. With one eye on these battles behind him, Nojiri in car No. 8 would continue to build his lead over car No. 23 in 2nd place to as much as 12 seconds.
At the end of the 23rd lap with one-third of the race distance covered, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure) that had dropped two positions from the start was the first of the GT500 cars to make its routine pit stop.
Meanwhile, car No. 38 passed two cars in succession on lap 24 and lap 27 to move into 3rd position. At the end of lap 30, car No. 23 in second and No. 38 in 3rd position both made their pit stops, and the leading car No. 8 did the same on the next lap. At this point car No. 8 had a comfortable 16-sec. lead over the rest of the field when it entered the pit, and with some very quick pit work, it was able to return to the track after just 37 seconds.

 

 

At the end of the 33rd lap, as the race reached its halfway point, all of the GT500 cars had finished their routine it stops. At this point, the margin between the leading No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takashi Kobayashi) and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) in 2nd place was more than eight seconds, and the battle for 2nd with the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Hiroaki Ishiura) was turning into a long and hot contest with the two machines running nose-to-tail. What’s more, the battle for 4th position between the two TEAM TOM'S cars, the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima) and the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) was also a fierce one that continued lap after lap.
As the race entered the latter stages, the battle for 2nd still found Ishiura unable to get past Matsuda. The fight for 4th also remained a deadlock between car No. 36 and No. 37.
As for the leading car No. 8, factors like having to get through back markers had reduced its lead over the two cars battling for 2nd position to about three seconds at one point, and there were incidents like a slide by Kobayashi that sent his car off the track, but in the end he managed to keep a margin of lead over his pursuers and drive his ARTA NSX-GT steadily toward the waiting goal. And finally, it was the ARTA NSX-GT that took the checkered flag first.

 

 

It was the pair of Tomoki Nojiri and Takashi Kobayashi in the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT that finally brought the LC500’s winning streak this season to an end, and for both drivers it was a felicitous first GT500 victory. For the ARTA team, it was the first win since 2013, and with another victory in this race by the team’s GT300 class car, it became a momentous double win.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), and 3rd place went to the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura). Finishing 4th was the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/James Rossiter) that emerged the better in the long bought between No. 36 and No. 37. The No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) finished 6th after being passed in the last lap by the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Jann Mardenborough) that had worked its way doggedly from a 10th-position grid start to take 5th.
With the season now in its second half, only three races remain in the 2017 SUPER GT series. In the Drivers Championship ranking, James Rossiter (No. 36 LEXUS TEAM au TOM'S) takes the lead with 44 points after finishing 3rd in this race. He is followed by Kazuya Oshima and Andrea Caldarelli (No. 6 LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S) with 43 points and Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Casssidy (No. 37 LEXUS TEAM KeePer TOM'S) with 42 points and following them with 41 points are Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura (No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500) and Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli (No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R).

 

 

 

 

 

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