2018.08.26

Suzuka 10 Hours: GOODSMILE AMG team of Taniguchi/Kataoka/Kobayashi start from 21st position to finish top among Japanese teams in 5th! Audi Team Hitotsuyama also finish strong in 8th

On August 26 (Sun.), the 47th Summer Endurance “Suzuka 10 Hours Race” (abbreviated name: SUZUKA 10H) took place at Suzuka Circuit. In this race, the No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team GOODSMILE (Mercedes-AMG GT3) team (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka/Kamui Kobayashi) that competes in the SUPER GT GT300 class came from 21st position on the starting grid to finish 5th the race and take 1st place in the Asia Awards*. Also, the No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama (Audi R8 LMS) team (Richard Lyons/Ryuichiro Tomita/Alessio Picariello) finished in the top ten as well with an 8th-place finish. The overall win went to the No. 888 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing (Mercedes-AMG GT3).

 

 

Fair weather graced race day at Suzuka circuit. By the Warm-up session that started at 8:00, the air temperature had already risen to over 30℃.
After the pre-race ceremony, the race began at 10:00 with a Formation Lap led by the Safety Car, with the cars running in two lines through the 130R turn. After entering the final straight, the green light came on to signal the start of what would be a hot 10-hour race.

 

The air temperature at the start was over 32℃ and the track surface temperature was already up to 44℃. In the early stages of the race it was Hironobu Yasuda in the No. 11 GAINER (NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3) that stood out, having started from the 10th grid position. Getting in front of the slow-starting PORSCHE 911 GT3 of the No. 911 Manthey-Racing team that had started from the 6th grid position, No. 11 skillfully blocked every move of the hard-charging No. 911 lap after lap. In this battle of wits holding his own against the Manthey-Racing car of the Porsche works team, Yasuda’s driving delighted the crowd.
Entering the middle stages of the race, Katsumasa Chiyo in the No. 018 KCMG (NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 2018 Model) was the standout. After having to start the race in 30th position, due in part to machine trouble, No. 018 had moved up to 14th position after three hours of racing. Putting up a good fight with the No. 07 Bentley Team M-Sport, Chiyo went through the fifth routine pit stop at mid-race without a driver change to drive consecutive stints. But, as in the qualifying trouble developed in the machine that forced the team to retire from the race after five and a half hours.
Another standout was the No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama (Audi R8 LMS), which had qualified highest among the GT300 teams to start the race in 9th position and continued to run steadily in the top ten. Also charging hard from a 21st position grid start came the No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team GOODSMILE. After three hours of racing, No. 00 had moved up to 10th position, and five hours into the race saw it climb to 7th position. As for the No. 7 D'station Racing (Porsche 911 GT3R), engine trouble brought it to a stop at trackside two and a half hours into the race.

 

 

 

Befitting its reputation as the GT300 champion car last year, the No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team GOODSMILE ran consistently up through the field with no mistakes and no machine trouble. Nobuteru Taniguchi called this success sweet revenge for the team’s miserable showing in last year’s Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours, and over the last two hours of the race teammates Kataoka and Kobayashi steadily pushed on in true endurance style to emerge in 5th-place. But in the final stint, the No. 08 Bentley Team M-Sport was also charging hard to pull up just one second behind Kataoka in No. 00. In the end, he was able to hold off the challenge and take the checkered flag in 5th place. This gave the No. 00 team the 1st place in the Asia Award ranking as well.
The next fastest Japanese team to follow after No. 00 was No. 21 Audi Team Hitotsuyama in 8th place. Despite the difficulties in adjusting to the performance of the unfamiliar control tires, the No. 21 team also managed to put together an impressive race effort. After running around 10th position for most of the race, the No. 11 GAINER team finally took the checkered flag in 14th place. Katsuyuki Hiranaka said he was disappointed with the result of this first long run that the team was forced to attempt without sufficient test time. Then he added that they wanted to do some more test in preparation and come back for another try at next year’s Suzuka 10 H and redeem the team’s reputation.
The Honda NSX GT of the No. 34 Modulo Drago CORSE team hit another car on the sixth lap of the race and was given a drive-through penalty. With more trouble in store when the car ran out of gas, the team finally finished in 21st place. Another NSX GT3 car, the No. 10 Honda Team MOTUL finished in 18th place, and the No. 777 Carguy Racing team finished 23rd. As for the No. 87/88 JLOC (LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3) teams, despite having worked up near the leaders in the middle stages of the race, in the end, No. 88 finished 15th and No. 87 finished in 17th place. Of the (GTA) Mother Chassis cars, the No. 18 TEAM UPGARAGE (86 MC) suffered transmission trouble but still managed to complete the race in 27th place. The No. 2 Cars TokaiDream28 (LOTUS EVORA MC) that had suffered a crash in the morning warm-up session, was finally able to enter the race one hour after the start and struggled on for almost eight hours before retiring from the race.

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

No.00 Mercedes-AMG Team GOOD SMILE

 

Nobuteru Taniguchi
“Although we ended up in 21st position in the qualifying, we had shown good speed, so I felt we would be able to improve our position over the course of the long 10-hour race. This optimism was due to the reliability of the Mercedes AMG GT3 and the sure working skills of the team. The 5th-place finish was the best result we could have hoped for given the situation. The (four) teams that finished ahead of us have speed that is just in a different league. In terms of redemption for last year’s Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours (where the team had to retire from the race), I don’t think this has been the real revenge we wanted, but I am relieved that we were able to give a good showing here at our home race at Suzuka.”

 

Tatsuya Kataoka
“It was really tough at the end. When it became clear that we couldn’t shake off the No. 08 Bentley behind me, I was determined at least not to let it past me. After I began to lose grip from my tires, I just had to hold on with everything I had. Because it would have been very embarrassing if I had run off my line or spun out due to a driving mistake. (On the last stint) when I began to drive and it started to get dark outside, it didn’t bother me. But at the end when it was completely dark, it became hard to see. It would have been blinding if I had seen lights flashing in my rearview mirror, so I decided to change its angle to prevent me from showing down.”

 

Kamui Kobayashi
“It was a very tough race. Having been able to finish in 5th place in such a race is the best result we could have hoped for, I believe. Our drivers didn’t make any mistakes and neither did the team, and the car had no trouble at all. We still haven’t gotten revenge for our failure at the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours, but I think we fought a good fight today. I don’t usually compete for this team, and I was just here to help out this time, so I am glad I was able to be of some help to this team.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

≫ Race Result (PDF)

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