2019.05.04

In a hard-fought race with the lead changing hands time and again, ZENT CERUMO LC500 emerges victorious!

Round 2 Fuji Speedway : Race GT500

The FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture on May 4th. Rain began to fall just before the race’s start and then stronger rain in the early going caused the race to be halted for a time. When the weather improved to allow a restart, what followed was exciting racing throughout that finally ended with a GT500 class victory for the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura). In the GT300 class, the win went to the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda).

 

 

 

There was fine weather from morning on race day for Round 2 at Fuji Speedway. But during the warm-up period just before the start of the race, ominous clouds gathered overhead. Under the heavy cloud cover thunder could be heard in the distance, and as the end of the teams’ warm-up laps drew near, rain started to fall, but the track was still dry when the warm-up time ended.

 

 

When it came time for the start of the race, rain began to fall on the main straight just as the Grid Walk was going on, and before long the track was completely wet. With this sudden rainfall, the track was now in rain conditions for the first time since the start of race weekend, and the decision was announced that the race would be started behind the safety car.

The race started on schedule at 2:30 in the afternoon with the Safety Car setting the pace. On the 3rd lap, the Safety Car finally left the track and the race was underway. The pole-starting No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) led the field, followed by the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy), while the No. 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh) that had started from 4th position passed the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki). Then on the Dunlop Corner, No. 37 passed the leading No. 23 to move into the lead. Behind them, car No. 16 ran off the track. This allowed the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa) to move up to 3rd position. As the rain grew heavier, the cars began to throw up a mist of spray behind them, and on the 7th lap, No. 23 took back the lead, until it was passed by No. 38 on the home straight of the 13th lap. In this way, the increased rain led to rapid changes in the running order.

As the rooster tails thrown up by the cars grew denser, and with the increasing fear of lightning striking the circuit, the Safety Car was brought out again at 2:53. At the end of the 15th lap, at 3:04, the Red Flag was finally shown to halt the race.

Luckily, the weather began to improve during this stop in the race, and at 3:33 the Safety Car led the restart of the race on what was to be the 19th lap. The track was still wet but the amount of water on it was decreasing, and in these conditions, the race order began to change again dramatically. First, car No. 37 moved up into 2nd position to give the LC500 cars a 1-2 lead. On the 24th lap, No. 37 caught and passed No. 38 at the GR SUPRA Corner to take the lead. When it began to look as if the two LC500 cars would continue to lead the race this way, car No. 23 came charging back after having dropped to 5th position at one point, and on the 30th lap it took back the lead.

By this time the track was beginning to dry out and the race order began to change based conditions of the cars’ tires. On the 37th lap, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Sho Tsuboi) was the first of the GT500 class cars to return to the pit for its routine stop. And by the time all of the cars had finished their pit stops, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) was still in the lead, followed by the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Hiroaki Ishiura). In 3rd place came the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Frederic Makowiecki), followed by the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button).

 

 

Entering the second half of the race, No. 38 passed No. 23 at the Coca Cola Corner on the 59th lap to take the lead. Meanwhile, some distance back from the leaders, car No. 3 was running alone in 3rd place, while a battle for 4th was going on between No. 1 and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Yuichi Nakayama).

Then, at the end of the 75th lap, No. 3 was the first to make its second and final routine pit stop. At the end of the 78th lap, the leading car No. 38 made its pit stop, followed by car 23 at the end of the 79th lap. Then, thanks to quick pit work by the NISMO team, No. 23 (Quintarelli) was able to return to the race with the lead again over the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa) now running in 2nd place. This order continued for some laps with the margin between the two leaders hovering between 2 and 4 seconds.

It looked as if No. 23 was going to be able to run on that way to the win, but as the race entered the last 20 laps the gap between the two leaders began to narrow until the two cars were finally battling nose-to-tail. Meanwhile, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate) running in 3rd place began to fall off the pace. Like No. 23, No. 3 was also running on Michelin Tires and it looked as if their tire performance was lacking. It wasn’t long before the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen) had taken over 3rd place, followed by the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) in 4th.

Finally, on the TGR Corner of the 99th lap of the race, Tachikawa in car No. 38 slipped through on the inside of No. 23 to take the lead. Now in 2nd place, car No. 23 quickly slowed to turn attention on holding 2nd place. Behind it, the battle for 3rd place was heating up. No. 39 now had No. 1 right on its tail with five laps remaining in the race. And at the TGR Corner of the 105th lap, No. 1 moved ahead into 3rd place.

 

 

In the end, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) was the first to cross the finish line on the on the 110th lap. Following in 2nd and 3rd places respectively were the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) and the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Jenson Button), thus giving one car of each of the three makers a podium finish.

For the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500, it was their first win since the 2017 Round 2 race at FUJI. For Yuji Tachikawa it was his 19th career win, and for Hiroaki Ishiura it was his sixth. With these results the Driver Championship standing leaders are the No. 23 pair of Matsuda and Quintarelli with two consecutive 2nd-place finishes.

 

 

 

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