News

Race Report
2019.09.08
Rd. 6 GT300 Race: Fast charge in the closing stages gives SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3a come-from-behind victory!

Rd. 6 GT300 Race: Fast charge in the closing stages gives SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3a come-from-behind victory!の画像

Round 6 Autopolis : Race GT300

The AUTOPOLIS 300km RACE, Round 6 of the 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit (one lap 4,674 m x 65 laps) in Oita Prefecture on September 8. With rain falling part way through the race and the lead changing hands numerous times, the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen/Yuichi Nakayama) won the GT500 class race, while in the GT300 class, the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Ritomo Miyata) grabbed a dramatic come-from-behind win.

 

Race  Weather: cloudy/rain; Track: dry/wet; Temperature (air/track surface) 27℃/33℃ at the start; 28℃/34℃ at mid-race; 25℃/28℃ at the finish

 

 

 

Lead changes hands numerous times in the rainy middle stages of the race

Starting from pole position, the No. 25 HOPPY 86 MC (Kimiya Sato) opened up a lead with the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB MARK X MC (Shigekazu Wakisaka) in chase. Starting in 3rd position, the No. 7 D'station Vantage GT3 (Joao Paulo de Oliveira) lost ground in positioning and gave up 3rd place to the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi). Following in 4th place was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) and in 5th place was the No. 7 D'station Vantage GT3.

An accident by a GT500 car brought out the Safety Car (SC) early on in lap 3, and during the SC run, car No. 61 began to slow down and drop out of the race for the lead. After the restart, car No. 25 was in the lead with cars No. 52, No. 4, No. 7 and the No. 33 Eva RT Test Type-01 X Works GT-R (Shaun Thong) all battling in a line. On lap 12, car No. 52 moved into the lead, but on lap 17 it was passed by cars No. 4 and No. 7. This put car No. 4 in the lead. Chasing it were car No. 7 and the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) that had been moving up through the pack.

From about the 18th lap, rain began to fall in a area just around the first corner. It became a situation that different areas of the track were wet and others dry. After that, the rain at the first corner stopped for a while, but around the 28th lap rain started to fall again across the entire track. On the 33rd lap, the last round’s winner, the 3No. 87 T-DASH Lamborghini GT3 (Andre Couto) came to a stop beside the track, which brought out the SC for the second time and started a number of GT500 and GT300 cars returning to make their pit stops. The 2nd-place running car No. 7 made its stop just before the SC and it was followed by the No. 55 car running in 3rd place, but as it was leaving the pit it collided with another car in the pit lane. Just after that, the No. 22 R'Qs AMG GT3 (Hisashi Wada) crashed on the first hairpin turn. This caused the second SC run. During this time, almost the entire track was wet and it produced a situation where the teams that couldn’t make their pit stop before the SC run had to keep running on slick tires, while those making their pit stops chose either to stay with slick tires or changed to wet-use tires. After the race was restarted, next there was an accident in which the No. 9 PACIFIC MIRAI AKARI NAC PORSCHE (Naoki Yokomizo) ran off the track. This brought the SC out for a third time.

 

 

 

As the track dries in the final stage the SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT’s slick tires turn into a big advantage!

At this time, rain was still falling hard on sections 2 and 3 of the course, making most of the track wet, which gave the advantage to the cars to those that had changed to wet-use tire before the second SC run. The No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Niei Fukuzumi) took the lead, followed by the No. 88 Manepa Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure), the No. 720 McLaren 720S (Alex Palou) and the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta). In contrast, the teams that had bet on the track drying out again and chose slick tires were now losing pace. As for the car 55, it was given a penalty for the collision in the pit lane and dropped out of contention for the lead.

Entering the last stages of the race, car No. 88 in the lead was being caught by No. 720, and it developed into a match race between the two. On lap 58, with only a short distance remaining in the race, Palou in car No. 720 passed Kogure in car No. 88 on the second hairpin turn.

 

 

 

 

But the race wasn’t over yet. Charging hard from behind and closing in on the leaders came the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Hiroki Yoshimoto), and with four laps remaining in the race No. 60 passed No. 720. Having struggled to handle the wet track on slick tires all this time, Yoshimoto was able to pick up the pace all at once as the track dried again.

This being Yoshimoto’s momentous 100th SUPER GT race, he raced on to victory in the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Ritomo Miyata). This was the first win for the LM corsa team that had been working alone on the development of the LEXUS RC F GT3 car since 2014, and this hard-fought win brought tears to Yoshimoto’s eyes. For Miyata it was his first SUPER GT win as well. Finishing 2nd was the No. 720 McLaren 720S (Seiji Ara/Alex Palou), which brought a first podium finish for the present GT300 team. Finishing 3rd came the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima).

 

 

 

 

Page Top