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2019.08.25
[SUZUKA 10H] Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile 10th Overall and winner of the SUPER GT Award! Tsugio Matsuda fast in the GT-R to finish 6th overall and 1st in the Asia Award

[SUZUKA 10H] Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile 10th Overall and winner of the SUPER GT Award! Tsugio Matsuda fast in the GT-R to finish 6th overall and 1st in the Asia Award の画像

The 48th SUMMER ENDURANCE 2019 “BH AUCTION SMBC SUZUKA 10 HOURS” (SUZUKA 10H) race was held at Suzuka Circuit on Aug 25. After rain for most of Friday, the first day of the even, and then fair skies for Qualifying day, race day dawned with strong sunlight from morning that made for a very hot day.
At the end of the long and grueling 10-hour race, the winner of the GT300 machines competing for the SUPER GT Award and 10th overall was the No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile (Mercedes-AMG GT3: Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka/Kamui Kobayashi). Finishing 6th overall and taking the Asia Award was the GT500 driver GT500 Tsugio Matsuda and his No. 35 KCMG team (Katsumasa Chiyo/Joshua Burdon/Matsuda).

 

 

 

 

Pre-race sees lively Pit Walk and the Opening Ceremony with VIP appearances

Before the race, the Pit Walk event was held from 7:15. Despite the early morning hour, crowds of fans turned out to enjoy the event and get autographs and pictures with the participating drivers.

At 9:00, an hour before the scheduled start of the race, the 36 racecars left the pits to line up on the starting grid. In the pre-race ceremony, the “Flag Kids” bearing the flags of the participating nation marched out, followed by soprano Mako Nishimoto, CEO Shinji Takei of the title sponsor BHJ, Chairman Masaaki Bandoh of GTA, CEO Stephane Ratel of SRO and the other VIPs for the singing of the national anthem in front of the racecars.

 

 

 

 

No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile runs in 3rd place at one point in the race

In preparation for the start of the 10-hour race, all the participating racecars left the grid to follow in order behind the Pagani Zonda Official Car driven by former GT500 champ and current No. 60 LM corsa team manager, Akira Iida, and the Honda NSX Pace Car. Then, at 10:03 and 48 sec. the green light went on to start the 2019 SUZUKA 10H race with all the racecars leaping out at once at full throttle.

The early stages of the race saw some trouble around the track with thing like cars bumping each other that caused the full course to come under the Full Course Yellow, but there was there were no serious problems as the race progressed. Among the SUPER GT teams, the 6th-position grid starting No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile (Mercedes-AMG GT3: Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka/Kamui Kobayashi) ran strongly in the lead group in the early stages of the race, holding the 3rd-place spot for a while. Another notable team that ran strongly in the early going was the No. 11 PLANEX SMACAM RACING (McLaren 720S GT3: Mika Hakkinen/Katsuaki Kubota/Hiroaki Ishiura). Also, the Honda NSX GT3 cars ran consistently in the top 20. Meanwhile, of the two cars entered by JLOC, the No. 88 JLOC (LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3:Andrea Caldarelli/Marco Mapelli/Dennis Lind) had a collision with another car in the Spoon Curve of the 40th lap. After that it continued to race, but was eventually determined to be the cause of the accident and received a 30-second penalty stop and after returning to the pit on the 49th lap, its race ended.

 

 

 

 

The Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile, TEAM UPGARAGE and JLOC car No. 87 mount the SUPER GT Prize podium

A collision with the No. 999 Mercedes-AMG GT3 that had made a forced attempt to pass it in the Hitachi Auto Systems Chicane car No. 00 ran off the track. And although it didn’t spin out and was quickly able to return to the race, No. 00 failed to hold its previous pace, perhaps due to damage from the collision or possibly from the loss of compatibility of the machine set-up as the temperature rose. Nonetheless, it continued to hold a position between 9th and 11th place in the pack.

As the race progressed into its second half, there were still no serious setbacks. Having continued to run among the leaders throughout the race, the No. 35 KCMG (NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3: Katsumasa Chiyo/Joshua Burdon/Tsugio Matsuda) entered the final nighttime stint with Matsuda as the wheel. He reached the final goal after passing one machine and skillfully holding off the ones behind him to finish in 6th place overall. This made No. 35 that highest finisher of the teams with two or more Asian drivers and thus the 1st-place winner of the Asia Prize.

Thanks to the strong performances of its three drivers, the No. 00 Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile managed to hold on and finish in 10th place overall. This gave the team 1st place in the SUPER GT Prize competition for GT300 cars. Winning 2nd place in the SUPER GT Prize by finishing 14th overall was the No. 18 TEAM UPGARAGE (Honda NSX GT3 Evo: Takashi Kobayashi/Kosuke Matsuura/Tadasuke Makino), while 3rd place went to No. 87 JLOC (LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3: Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima/Yuhi Sekiguchi) that finished 16th overall.

The overall win of the SUZUKA 10H went to the No. 25 Audi Sport Team WRT (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo : Kelvin van der Linde/Dries Vanthoor/Frederic Vervisch), which had taken the lead in the early stages of the race and ran on alone to a runaway victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUPER GT AWARD WINNER driver comments

 

No.00 Mercedes-AMG Team Goodsmile

 

Nobuteru Taniguchi
“We definitely lacked some of the necessary speed”
Our rivals out there were very strong. Although we ran the whole race steadily without any real trouble or accidents, we failed to make good use of the timing of the first Safety Car run. The KCMG (No. 35) team was able to use it skillfully to move up in position. But, all in all we still were lacking in speed. We finished 10th overall and I think that was an accurate reflection of our potential this time. I have to admit that we felt we didn’t give it all that we could have. This time, Kamui [Kobayashi] said we should race without cool suits on because that would save us 10 kg, so we did, but that made it really tough out there in the heat. Because I’m middle-aged now (wry smile).

 

Tatsuya Kataoka
“To tell the truth, I feel we didn’t have what it took”
Our rivals had greater depth in their driver teams this time, and while last year we were able to finish high in the order because of accidents and machine trouble among the leaders, this year it didn’t work that way (laughs). This time we qualified in 6th place and were in 5th place by the end of the first stint, so I though we were doing pretty well. But as the temperature rose we weren’t able to keep a fast enough pace. The engine water temperature was high at times and, honestly, compared to the feeling, the times were not keeping pace, so to tell the truth, I feel we didn’t just have what it took.

 

Kamui Kobayashi
“If I get the chance, I want to take on this challenge again”
It just wasn’t a good race for us. After Kataoka-san’s stint, when Taniguchi-san started his stint, it became clear that the car wasn’t running well at all. In my stint it wasn’t good and when Kataoka-san got in it again it was still no good. We still don’t know what was wrong, but overall we just couldn’t get a fast enough pace going so we couldn’t hold on to our former position. If I get the chance, I want to take on this challenge [of the SUZUKA 10H] again. But then we will have to do better preparation in the tests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Race Result (PDF)

 


 

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

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