2017.08.27

Clever race strategy gives LEON CVSTOS AMG a come-from-behind GT300 win

Round 6 Suzuka Circuit : Race GT300

On August 27, the “46th INTERNATIONAL SUZUKA 1000km”, Round 6 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. In this, the last running of the race as the SUZUKA 1000km, the winner of the GT500 race was the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT driven by Kosuke Matsuura and Bertrand Baguette. In the GT300 class, the winner was the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG driven by Haruki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou.

 

 

 

Due to machine trouble just before the start, the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara) was relegated to a pit start.
The first lap of the race began with the pole-starting No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Kenta Yamashita) leading the pack into the first turn. Following to form the lead group of three GT300 Mother Chassis cars came the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuhki Nakayama) and the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET (Natsu Sakaguchi). Behind them came the No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Yuichi Nakayama) that had succeeded in passing the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) to lead the second group.
It was at this early point in the race that the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa) made a surprising move. At the end of the opening lap, No. 65 headed straight for its pit. There, the team changed drivers to Naoya Gamou and sent him back on the track with no refueling or tire changes. By using the pit timing this way, they were able to get Gamou on a clear stretch of track with no other cars around and the opportunity to pick up the pace unrestricted. In effect, this amounted to a 4-pit stop, 5-stint race strategy (while still abiding by the 5-pit stop requirement. It was a strategy that the other teams had probably considered as well. Although it was not in the first lap, other machines in the top group, including the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET (Natsu Sakaguchi>Kiyoto Fujinami) and the previous round’s winner, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Sean Walkinshaw>Shinichi Takagi) also made their first pit stop before the tenth lap.
On the other hand, of the two machines remaining in the top group, the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 made its first routine pit stop on the 27th lap and the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC made its on the 31st lap, changing drivers to Nakayama to Shintaro Kawabata and Yamashita to Takamitsu Matsui respectively. In contrast, their strategy was to take advantage of the lightness of the Mother Chassis to run two stints with just one tire change.

 

 

Perhaps because of the heat and the tough conditions, there were few accidents, but the Safety Car did come out twice, once when the GT300 class leaders were on the 42nd lap and again on the 88th lap, and these interventions would affect the development of the race. During the first Safety Car run began when the GT300 leader, car No. 18 (Shintaro Kawabata), was on its 40th lap. When the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) tried to make its pit stop, it was hit [from behind] by the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino). This caused No. 55 to spin and crash into the in-side guardrail and come to a stop on the track unable to move. The resulting Safety Car intervention caused the leading Mother Chassis cars to lose their margin of lead. Then, when car No. 18 (Kawabata) was in the lead on lap 89, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga) running in 16th position crashed on the 130R curve. This brought the Safety Car out for a second time. Just after that, car No. 18 developed trouble in its steering. Knowing that it would result in a penalty, No. 18 was forced to return to the pit when it was closed for the Safety Car run. When that SC run ended, No. 18 naturally received its penalty, which dropped it out of contention for the win.
In the latter stages of the race, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG and No. 25 VivaC 86 MC changed places in the lead when each pit stop was made. But car No. 25 was able to maintain a lead of about 15 seconds by shortening its pit time by not making tire changes.
The stage was set for the final showdown when the effective leader, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Yamashita>Takamitsu Matsui), made its fifth and final pit stop on the 127th lap and the 2nd-place running No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Kurosawa>Naoya Gamou) finished its last pit stop on the 131st lap. At this point the pace of car No. 25 had dropped, perhaps because its tires were no longer a good match for the track conditions with the cooling track temperature. Meanwhile, Gamou in car No. 65 was pushing the pace as hard as he could and closing visibly on car No. 25.

 

 

With about 10 laps remaining, the two cars were battling nose to tail. With the momentum on his side, Gamou in the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG passed the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Matsui) in the first turn of the 150th lap. Finally No. 65 had taken the lead. Eventually, the No. 65. LEON CVSTOS AMG went on to victory that way, claiming its first victory since the opening round of last year’s season at Okayama. On the other hand, while it looked as if No. 25 was going to finish 2nd, it ran off the track in the “reverse bank” curve with four laps remaining in the race. In the resulting crash, the machine was left lying upside-down, thus losing 2nd place and 18 series points.
Behind the battle at the front by these two machines, the two JLOC Lamborghinis were battling for a podium finish. Eventually it was the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido/Kazuki Hiramine/Koji Yamanishi) hat came home first and, due to No. 25’s crash, took 2nd place. Third place and the last spot on the podium went to the No. 87 SHOP CHANNEL LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Shinya Hosokawa/Kimiya Sato/Yuya Motojima).
In the drivers ranking, the winner of this race, No. 65 drivers Kurosawa and Gamou moved to the top of the standings with 52 points. Two points behind in 2nd place in the standing is the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG drivers Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka. Ten points behind in third place in the standings is now the No. 25 pair of Matsui and Yamashita, who came away from this race with just the one point for pole position.

 

 

 

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