2017.10.09

KeePer TOM'S LC500 take second win of the season! 1st place in the ranking, too

Round 7 Chang International Circuit : Race GT500

The Chang SUPER GT RACE, Round 7 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was run at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand on the afternoon of October 8th. In the GT500 class race, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 driven by Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won its second pole-to-win victory of the season. In the GT300 class, the No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 driven by Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi also took its second win of the season.

 

 

 

Race day for Round 7 of the SUPER GT series in Thailand saw the final race run over 66 laps of the CHANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT starting at 3:00 (local time) in the afternoon. Unlike the previous day of qualifying that saw rain falling off and on from morning, race day dawned with fine weather, and all three of the one-make races that took place before the SUPER GT race were run in dry conditions. But, before the start of the final race, dark clouds began to cover the circuit and soon raindrops began to fall. Then, twice the rain fell in heavy squalls. This left the track completely wet. The teams quickly changed to rain tires. But the heavy rain stopped completely, as quickly as it had begun, and soon patches of blue appeared in the skies overhead. As the sun began to break through and shine on the track, it came time for the cars to start out from the grid.
Among the machines, however, the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) on the 10th grid position failed to move and had to be pushed back to its pit. There was mechanical trouble in its drive train, and by the time it was remedied, the race was already half over when it finally was able to return to the track. After starting, it would run on equal footing with the other cars and eventually finished the race, but with too few complete laps to be place among the finishers.
Meanwhile, with the sun now shining in the early stages of the race, it was very difficult to judge whether the rain-soaked track would dry out completely or not. In the GT500 class, three machines, the 7th-grid-starting No. 1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Kohei Hirate), the 11th-grid-starting No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) and the 15th-grid-starting No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto) had started the race on slick tires.
Since the track had suddenly become wet just before the start, the officials elected for a controlled start led by the Safety Car for three laps before the green signal came on. With the track still wet enough for the tires to throw up a spray of mist, the three cars on slick tires were suffering badly, only managing speeds about 20 seconds per lap slower than those on rain tires. The rain itself had stopped and the air temperature had risen to 30 degrees Celsius, the track gradually began to dry from the running lines. By the time that the lap times of the cars on rain tires and those on slick tires began to even out around the ninth lap of the race, some of the cars on rain tires began to make pit stops to change to slick tires, with the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) being the first. By this point in the race there were already big gaps between machines and the cars that started on slick tires had been able to start bringing their lap times down from about the sixth lap of the race. As the cars that started on rain tires began returning to the pit to change to slicks, two NSX-GT cars, the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette) and No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri), chose stay out to keep running and eventually assume a one-two lead in GT500 class. But the leading car No. 64 was now suffering from a floating front hood. And, from the 20th lap car No. 8, and from lap 23, car No. 64 began to gradually fall off the pace and lose ground. So, when the race reached the 1/3rd point (the limit to begin driver changes) both cars returned to the pit. In addition to the tire change, No. 64 got its front hood taped firmly down again before returning to the race.
By this time, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy) had taken over the lead again. And, it was now followed by the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Jann Mardenborough), the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Andrea Caldarelli) and the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi).

 

 

As the race passed the halfway point, the teams began their routine pit work. The No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa) made its routine pit stop at the end of the 26th lap to start the driver changes. The other cars soon followed suit. Car No. 37, which had continued to run at a fast pace in the lead, made its routine stop at the halfway point in the race on the 34th lap and changed drivers the Ryo Hirakawa. After that, car No. 23 holding 5th position made its stop and only changed drivers to gain time by eliminating the tire change.

 

 

By the time all of the GT500 cars were back on the track after their routine stops, car No. 37 remained in the lead, followed by cars No. 6, No. 12 and No. 17 in that order. With considerable gaps separating all the cars at this point, there were rarely any battles for position to be seen as the race entered its final stages. With about ten laps remaining in the race, the gaps between the cars were getting smaller and some battles like the one for 10th and 11th places between the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takashi Kobayashi), No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) and the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Katsumasa Chiyo) and another that saw the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) catch up with the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Kosuke Matsuura) were seen as each team tried to finish in as high a place as possible.
On the 64th lap, with just two laps remaining in the race, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda) running in 3rd place began to slow down due to engine trouble and finally pulled off by the side of the track and stopped.
At this point, the leading No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) took the checkered flag to win the race, its second victory of the season, following one in the opening round of the series. This win brought their driver championship points to the top of the ranking with 69. This means it will go into the final race of the series at Motegi as the point leader. The 2nd-place finishing No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima/Andrea Caldarelli) moved up to 2nd place in the standings, six points behind No. 37. Finishing 3rd was the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-G T (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure). The only teams that will have a chance for the driver championship title at Motegi based on the standings after Round 7 are these three teams and the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (in the ranking is James Rossiter only) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) who currently occupy 4th and 5th place respectively in the ranking.

 

 

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