2019.04.14

NSX-GT runs strongly in heavy rain! ARTA NSX-GT GT300 grabs the win

Round 1 Okayama International Circuit : Race GT500

The Okayama GT 300 Km Race, opening round of the 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3,703 m x 82 laps) on April 14. The race was held in tough conditions due to heavy rain and two race stoppages due to accidents, and with no improvement expected in the weather, the race was finally concluded after just 31 laps. As a result, the GT500 class win went to the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa), and the GT300 class win went to the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3. Because the race did not reach the required minimum lap limit, only half the normal series points are awarded.

 

 

 

 

Weather had been good on qualifying day of the season opener at Okayama International Circuit, but race day began under heavy cloud cover. Then, as the morning schedule proceeded, the rain that had been predicted began to fall lightly. The second round race of the FIA-F4 championship series that started at 8:20 in the morning was run under a Wet track declaration, and rain began to fall lightly again just before the Pit Walk event. At the end of the driver introduction that began at 10:35, rain suddenly began to fall harder, making the track completely wet. When the warm-up for the race began at 1:35 in the afternoon, the rain was heavy enough that the cars were throwing up rooster tails of water off the track. With the rain growing lighter at times, it was hard to predict the weather and what the race conditions would be.

 

 

When the race was scheduled to, start the rain was falling steadily and the track was wet. It was announced that the race would begin behind the Safety Car. At 2:30, the 44 cars got in start formation and set out behind the Safety Car with a no-passing restriction. The field ran like that for three laps with the Safety Car setting the pace.
At 2:37, the Safety Car left the track and on the fourth lap the Green Flag was waved and all the cars began to accelerate with the pole-starting No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) in the lead. On the back straight the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) running in 2nd position was caught and passed by the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-G T (Naoki Yamamoto), but no sooner than No. 1 had moved up into 2nd place there was a GT300 car crash and the Safety Car came out to slow the race again.

 

At the end of the 10th lap the race was restarted. Car No. 1 was now putting the pressure on the leading car No. 23 and finally succeeded in passing it at the second corner of lap 11 to take over the lead. Having thus dropped to 2nd place, car No. 23 was then caught on the back straight by two cars in succession, car No. 12 and the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi), with No. 17 finally moving into 2nd position. Running on regular rain tires rather than heavy wet tires, both of the GT-Rs were gradually losing ground in the field, with the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) now putting the pressure on from behind in the battle for third, while the two leaders pulled away from the pack.
Car No. 8 soon passed No. 12 and moved into 4th position, but then on the Moss S Corner of the 13th lap, a multiple car GT300 class crash occurred. Once again the Safety Car came out and the Red Flag was shown to stop the race. The 15 GT500 class cars and the GT300 class cars all lined up stopped on the home straight. Many of the drivers got out of their cars once and returned to the pit. The race was stopped that way for about 45 minutes, and at 15:40 the “5 min. to start” boards was shown, and at 15:45 the race was restarted behind the Safety Car. After running that way through the 19th lap, the race was started again.

 

 

Once again throwing up rooster tails behind them, the cars ran the course at high speeds. Car No. 23 was unfortunately unable to beat the heavier rain, and after being passed by car No. 8, there were now three Honda NSX-GT machines in the lead. GT-R cars followed, continuing to hold 4th to 7th positions.
The gap between the top two cars was gradually closing, and at the end of the home straight of the 24th lap the chasing car No. 17 lightly bumped car No. 1 from behind. This caused No. 1 to spin out and bring out the Safety Car for the fourth time in the race. During this SC run another GT300 car crashed. Some teams were getting ready in the pits for the driver changes, but this crash and the heavier rain caused the Red Flag to come out again and stop the race once more.

 

 

With the race stopped the organizers called a team manager meeting at 4:45 where it was decided that the race should be called off for safety reasons. With this, the GTA Chairman, Masaaki Bandoh, went out to tell the fans who were waiting for a 5:00 restart that the race had to be concluded as it was. Then all the drivers and team managers went out on the track to line up in front of the grandstand and thank the fans for turning out in the rain to give them such passionate support. Then the cars were lined up on the home straight and the track was opened to the fans.

 

Although the race had ended with the Red Flag on the 31st lap, according to the Sporting Regulations the finish order was officially decided by the cars’ positions at the end of the 30th lap. This put car No. 17 in first place, but it was decided by the officials that its collision with car No. 1 constituted an act of dangerous driving and the resulting penalty took 34 sec. off No. 17’s time, which dropped it back to 14th place.
The win thus went to the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa). Second and third places went to two NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/James Rossiter). Among the LEXUS LC500 cars, the top finisher was the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto/Sho Tsuboi) in 6th place (driven by Tsuboi). Because the race had not covered 75% of the original race distance, the regulation dictates that only half the normal series points were to be awarded.

 

 

 

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