2018.06.22

[Round 4 Preview] Climax of the first half of the season! Grab the glorious victory of overseas battle in Thailand!!

Round 4 Chang International Circuit (Thailand) : Preview

SUPER GT's overseas event "Chang SUPER GT RACE" is arriving to Buriram, Thailand on June 30 and July 1. The overseas event was held as Round 7 in October last year, but it is moved to Round 4 this year as a closing event of the first half of the season. Event host Chang International Circuit is know to be a very technical track. Drastic change in weather is a norm in tropical Thailand, but it was not easy to adapt for the teams traveling from the land of rising sun last year. So who will conquer this tough battle and catch the flow of the title contention?ss

 

 

NSX-GT fleet is looking strong this season with two wins in three races where No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure) winning the season opener at Okayama and No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takuya Izawa) conquering the Round 3 Suzuka. Although the fleet has never won nor clinched pole position in the past four races held at Chang International Circuit, the track is not a trouble to them either. A win can sure bring in the flow to NSX-GT, and any teams with victory or a higher-rank here would gain a significant advantage towards the crown. Since the two NSX-GTs that have scored a win this season and the current point leader, No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button), have to carry heavy handicap weight, they would first want to try to pick up as many points as they can.
In terms of who will be strategically going after the win, No.16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima) and No.64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette / Kosuke Matsuura) would come into the picture.

 

 

Winningest machine at Chang is LEXUS with three wins. The track is a lucky place for the squad where KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy) won and pulled the championship pretty much into their hands last year. Being winless, LC500 would want to bring back the flow by winning the race here.
Winning two years in a row would be a perfect scenario for No.1 KeePer TOM'S LC500, but the handicap weight may be too heavy on the car. Meanwhile, No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto /Kenta Yamashita) and No.36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima / Yuhi Sekiguchi) are not mandated with heavy handicap weight, thus they can be considered as candidates for the win.

 

 

No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) brought in a win to the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 squad at the Round 2 Fuji, but other three cars of the squad are yet to get a result that would meet their demand this season. No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough) should be strongly motivated this year as they take on the race at Chang after falling short last year despite leading the race until the midpoint. No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo) can rely on Motoyama's winning experience at the track. One of these cars may be a victorious candidate. Securing points could be the strategy No.23 car will take considering heavy handicap weight though.

 

 

 

23 cars are regular in the GT300 class, but the upcoming event will see a single-race participation by debuting No.32 est cola by AAS Motorsport (Maxime Jousse / Kantadhee Kusiri) with a Bentley Continental GT3. With Marco Mapelli absenting, No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 will have Andrea Caldarelli, who was competing in the GT500 class until last year, substituting to partner with Kazuki Hiramine.

Technical and flat layout of Chang International Circuit is favorable to mother-chassis cars. Despite still winless this year, No.25 HOPPY 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui / Sho Tsuboi) should be aiming to utilize the advantage at the round and the same applies to season-opener winner No.18 UPGARAGE 86 MC (Yuhki Nakayama / Takashi Kobayashi). The chance can be also high for NISSAN GT-R G3 with two wins out of four races, the highest number of wins, at Chang. No.10 GAINER TANAX triple a GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Hiroki Yoshida) driven by Kazuki Hoshino, the very driver scoring the two wins, as well as No.11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Hironobu Yasuda) well deserve attention in that sense.

 

   

 

Out of the FIA GT3 cars, No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) and No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) fielding Mercedes AMG GT3 with good cornering performance would want to generate a good result here. Defending winner LEXUS RC F GT3 including No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Yuichi Nakayama) is also a car that comes to the mind. BMW M6 GT3 has been performing well at Chang, actually, thus, No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw) may find its way up to the top group.
Any rain like last year would give a chance to the cars with good traction and balance. No.7 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller) and No.21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons / Ryuichiro Tomita) that showed strong performance on wet surface last year could see a great chance at the event.

 

   

 

 

Thai event is shifted to Round 4, which is the turning point of 8-race season. Whoever coming out with a good result here would gain advantage for the second half of the season and be in a better position in terms of title contention. Moreover, with the handicap weight getting heavier towards the middle of the season, the battle on the field should get more intense than any other races up to this point as teams can be fighting more aggressively to be ahead of their rival. No matter being in a different time of the year, the battle in Thailand would be a decisive race of the season once again this year.

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