2018.10.21

KeePer TOM'S LC500 Comes from Behind for Its First Win of 2018!

Round 7 Autopolis : Race GT500

The AUTOPOLIS 300km Race, Round 7 of the 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS circuit (Oita Prefecture) on October 21. In the GT500 class, the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) climbed steadily through the field from a 5th-position grid start to take the lead in the final stages of the race and win its first victory of the season. This win also moved the Hirakawa pair to the top of the Drivers championship standings. In the GT300 class, the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Yuichi Nakayama) employed a skillful race strategy to come from 10th position on the starting grid and take the win.

 

 

 

The start saw Kazuki Nakajima in the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 take advantage of the start timing to break into the three NSX-GT cars at the front of the grid, including the pole-sitting No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa), No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure) and the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button) to move into 3rd position. On lap seven, No. 100 was also passed by the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy) to drop farther back in the pack. No. 36 continued to put the pressure on the two leaders until the second hairpin of lap ten, where it bumped with No. 17 but managed to get past it into 2nd position and then passed No. 8 on the home straight of lap 11 to take the lead. From there, No. 36 maintained its momentum and opened up a 2.991-sec. lead over 2nd place on the next lap and then went on to build a 5- to 6-sec. lead on the lap after that. Meanwhile, car No. 16 (Motul Mugen NSX-GT) that had started from 6th position on the grid also began to lose ground after a collision among other things. In this way, the early stages of the race saw a big shift in fortunes for the NSX-GT cars that had been so dominant in the qualifying.

When the leading car No. 36 reached the 19th lap, the GT300 class No. 30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT spun out and came to a stop at the edge of the track, which brought out the Safety Car to control the race on the 20th lap. The lead of approximately eight seconds that No. 36 had built up to that point was then reduced to nothing as a result. Furthermore, since more than one-third of the race distance had been covered at this point, it was possible for the teams to make their driver change as soon as the pit lane was opened again. So, when the race was restarted on the 25th lap the cars could begin their routine pit work. The first to return to the pit were the NSX-GT cars that had been unable to keep pace. Meanwhile, the No. 36 and No. 1 cars in the lead both made their pit stop at the end of the 29th lap. When these two cars returned to the race in the same order, they were still ahead of cars No. 17 and No. 8 that had finished their pit stop earlier, which meant that the two LEXUS TOM'S cars now effectively held a 1-2 lead in the race.

 

 

As the race entered its second half, all of the cars in the GT500 class had finished their pit stops by the end of the 34th lap except the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Kenta Yamashita). No. 19 had made an irregular pit stop on the 15th lap to refuel and change all four tires, but the regulation prevented them from making their required driver change at that point. Now No. 19 was running in front of the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi), the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) and the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi), in that order. True to its strategy, No. 19 had a 48-sec. lead margin when it made its second pit stop on the 41st lap and changed drivers to Yuji Kunimoto. In short, its 2-pit-stop strategy had played out well, and it was able to return to the race in 3rd position.

Then, the leader among the NSX-GT cars, No. 17was passed by the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Hiroaki Ishiura) while running in 5th position, and then by the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto). Among the GT-R cars, the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi) running in 9th places was passed by the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda). What’s more, as No. 23 push on in pursuit of the cars in front, it hit car No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) in the second hairpin, causing No. 8 to spin out. Caught in the fray, the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima) also lost ground. Finally, car No. 23 was given a drive-through penalty because of the collision.

 

 

The race for the win came down to the final stages of the race, where the slowing pace of car No. 36 enabled car No. 1 to pass it on the 60th lap of the race. This gave car No. 1 the lead, which it was able to hold unchallenged to the checkered flag and the win. For last year’s champions, the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy), this was their first win of the season. Finishing 2nd was the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi), giving the TOM’S team a 1-2 finish. It became a top-four sweep for LC5003 cars when the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto/Kenta Yamashita) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) finished 3rd and 4th respectively.
The No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Jenson Button) was the first of the NSX-GT cars to finish, taking 5th place. Of the GT-R cars, the No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira/Mitsunori Takaboshi) placed highest in 7th.

For the KeePer TOM'S LC500 it was the first win since Round 7 in Thailand in 2017. For Hirakawa it was his fifth GT500 win overall, and for Nick [Cassidy] it was his third. In the standings for the Drivers championship, the No. 100 pair of Yamamoto and Button is now tied at the top with the No. 1 pair of Hirakawa and Cassidy at 67 points each. But with the advantage in 2nd-place finishes, the Yamamoto pair have the lead. Behind these two teams, No. 36’s Sekiguchi and the 4th-ranked No. 8 pair of Nakajima and Izawa will also go into the final round of the season with a shot at the title.

 

 

 

 

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