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Race Report
2018.11.11
LEON CVSTOS AMG Wins the GT300 Race and a Come-From-Behind Season title as Well!

LEON CVSTOS AMG Wins the GT300 Race and a Come-From-Behind Season title as Well!の画像

Round 8 Twin Ring Motegi : Race GT300

The MOTEGI GT 250km RACE GRAND FINAL, Round 8 (final round) of the 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on November 11 at the Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Pref.). In the GT500 class, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa won its second pole-to-finish victory of the season, while the season championship title went to the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Jenson Button) that finished this day’s race in 3rd place.
In the GT300 class race, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG driven by Haruki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou won their first victory of the season that also gave them a dramatic come-from-behind GT300 class season title.

 

 

 

Runaway leader MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 struck by machine trouble. Title race comes down the a pit-work race

Staring well from the GT300 pole position, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Marco Mapelli) lead the race into the first corner. Then the 3rd-position starting No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) passed the 2nd-grid starting No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa) by taking the inside on the first corner. Now in a difficult position, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG also let the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) and No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda) get past. Then it had its title rival, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Kohei Hirate) putting pressure on it from behind.
Meanwhile, the leading car No. 88 was quickly opening up a big margin over the rest of the pack. As for car No. 0 in 2nd place, which would need a victory here to get a come-from-behind title win, it found cars No. 61 and No. 11 closing in from behind. And the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) that came into this round as the ranking leader but only managed to qualify in 10th position, it was able to move up to 9th position on the sixth laps and then on the 13th lap passed the No. 25 HOPPY 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) to rise to 8th position. From there it continued to watch its rivals movements as it pressed forward.

Running alone in the lead, No. 88 suddenly suffered a tire puncture on the 19th lap. Fortunately it happened on the downhill straight, which enabled it to quickly pull into the pit for replacement and the routine pit work and driver change to teammate Marco Mapelli. But it was eventually to suffer another tire puncture that took it far out of the race for the win.
At the same time as these developments, the lead group was making their routine pit stops. Car No. 65 that had lost ground in the early going also made its pit stop early, after the 19th lap and adopted a no-tire-change race strategy. Next, No. 0 made its pit stop and opted to change just its left-side tires. Also, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R made its routine pit stop on the 24th lap and car No. 31 made its on the 31st lap. They also opted to go without a tire change.
After the pit stops by the lead group, the effective leader was the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Naoya Gamou) that chosen in perfect timing to go without a tire change. It was followed in 2nd by the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga), but soon the No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) was closing in on No. 31. This meant that the second half of the race would be a fierce contest between three cars that needed a win to keep their championship hopes alive.

 

 

Hampered by no tire change, Gamou in the LEON CVSTOS AMG holds on to the end!

Desparate to move as far to the front as possible for a chance to win the season title, No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3made its pit stop at the end of the 32nd lap and changed drivers from Takagi to Sean Walkinshaw. No. 55 returned to the race in front of the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi), but unable to hole a fast pace on its first lap out of the pit, it was soon passed by No. 61. And during the pass, the two machines bumped each other and No. 55 lost its right-hand rearview mirror. Now handicapped and struggling, No. 55 was also passed by the No. 7 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii) on lap 41, dropping it to 8th position. This meant that if car No. 65went on to win the race, there would be no hope of title for No. 55.

 

 

In contrast, Gamou in the lead in car No. 65 had a lead of almost 10 seconds over car No. 31 chasing him. However, in the last six laps of the race the pace of No. 65 began to slow rapidly, which naturally caused concern. In the end, however, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG managed to hang on to a 2.409 sec. lead as it took the checkered flag and the win. It was the team’s second consecutive victory at Motegi in the final round. As for the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 that had led the season ranking coming into this round, I finished the race in 9th place, which meant that the 2018 Drivers championship title went to the No. 65 pair of Kurosawa and Gamou.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga/Kohei Hirate), while 3rd place went to the No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), which meant there was no consecutive title for Taniguchi and Kataoka.

 

 

 

 

 

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