2018.05.20

ARTA NSX-GT runs from Pole Position to first win of the season!

Round 3 Suzuka Circuit : Race GT500

The SUZUKA 300km - FAN FESTIVAL - race, Round 3 of the 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the Suzuka Circuit (Mie Prefecture) on May 20. In the GT500 class race, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa went from pole position to take its first win of the season with out effectively giving up the lead once throughout the race. In the GT300 class race, the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 driven by Morio Nitta and Yuichi Nakayama also won the race from pole position. With this victory, Nitta ties for most GT300 wins at 19.

 

 

 

With the winds of the previous day died down, blue skies covered Suzuka Circuit on the morning of race day. Just before the start of the warn-up session that was to immediately precede the race, however, trouble developed in the Suzuka Circuit control system. In order to correct the trouble, the schedule had to be pushed back 40 minutes, so the warm-up started at 1:45. During this 20-minute session, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) recorded the fastest time of 1’50.202.

Before the start of the race a column of four police bikes and three patrol cars of the Mie Prefectural Police lead one parade lap to promote traffic safety. Next the cars entered the formation lap. Then at 3:28 the green light came on to signal the start of the 52-lap race.
Starting from pole position, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) got a good start to lead the field. The other car starting from the front row, the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button) kept its position in 2nd place but couldn’t keep pace with the leading No. 8 and to fall behind. Behind No. 100 came the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy) that had moved up one position on the opening lap. Following it in the battle for 3rd were the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure), No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Jann Mardenborough) and the No. 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh).
From the sixth lap, the GT500 lead cars began to come up on the GT300 class back markers, this caused the margin of lead to grow even bigger between the fast ARTA NSX-GT and the RAYBRIG NSX-GT in 2nd place. By the 13th lap that lead had grown to about 10 sec. Then, on the 13th lap the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen) spun out on the Degner Curve and crashed. When the car came to a stop it was still halfway on the track, so the Safety Car had to come out to control the race. This resulted in the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT losing the margin of lead it had built up. The Safety Car run lasted for five laps until the car No. 39 could be recovered.

 

 

One third of the 52-lap race was over when the Safety Car run was finished. The teams that had plan early routine pit stops began to return to the pits as soon as the race was restarted. Among the leaders, the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) and the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) made their pit stop at the end of the 19th lap, and at the end of the 24thlap the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri), No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) made their pit stops and returned to the race.
However, car No. 1 and No. 12 were passed on their first lap out of the pit by the No. 100 car that had made its pit stop earlier. No. 100 then pulled up behind car No. 8 running in front of it, but No. 8 was able to hold it off and complete its vulnerable first lap out of the pit without being passed to keep its lead in the race.
As No. 8 and No. 100 worked their way through the back markers, they continued to be separated by a gap of 0.5 to 1 sec. for several laps. The gap between these lead cars and car No. 1 behind them was 4 to 6 sec. and then it was another big gap back to the group in 4th place and downward.

 

 

With 10 laps remaining in the race, car No. 100 began to fall off the pace and No. 8 began to increase its lead gradually. In the battle for 4th raging behind them, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) had to take a drive-through penalty for colliding with another car that dropped it out of contention. For a while, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) ran alone, but the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima > Yuhi Sekiguchi) that had made its pit stop later began charging hard in the closing stages of the race. By the end of lap 49, it had moved up to 5th position. In the Chicane of the last lap of the race, it tried to pass car No. 12 ahead of it, but was unable to stop fast enough to keep from hitting No. 12, thus failing to make the pass. No. 36 finished the race that way in 5th position.
After running alone in the lead during the final stages of the race, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa) went on to take the win unchallenged from pole position. For No. 8’s Nojiri this was his first win since Round 5 at Fuji the season before. For Izawa, this was his first win since Round 6 at SUGO in the 2015 season. Finishing in 2nd place this day was the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Jenson Button), which gave the NSX-GT a one-two finish here at Honda’s home track of Suzuka. Finishing 3rd was the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy). With these results, the Yamamoto/Button pair moved to the top of the season ranking, 1 point ahead of the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R pair of Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli that finished 6th this day.

 

 

 

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