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Race Report
2019.09.22
Rd. 7 GT300 Race: Overcoming the sudden rain with overall team strength, ARTA NSX GT3 takes its first win of the season!

Rd. 7 GT300 Race: Overcoming the sudden rain with overall team strength, ARTA NSX GT3 takes its first win of the season!の画像

Round 7 Sportsland Sugo : Race GT300

The SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 7 of the 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at Sportsland SUGO circuit (one lap: 3,704 m x 81 laps) in Miyagi Prefecture on September 22. Despite the rain that started to fall just before the start and threw the race into confusion, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R driven by Kohei Hirate and Frederic Makowiecki emerged to win in the GT500 class race, while in the GT300 class the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 driven by Shinichi Takagi and Nirei Fukuzumi was victorious, as both teams came from behind to take their first win of the season.

 

Weather: Rain; Track: Wet; Temperature (air/track surface) 19℃/22℃ at the start; 18℃/20℃ at mid-race; 18℃/20℃ at the finish

 

Team fates decided by tire choices in the sudden pre-start rain

The teams were split in their choices on the starting grip to go with slick tires or rain tires. Among them, the pole-starting No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) opted for slick tires. But, as the track continued to get wetter after the start, No. 61 and other teams that chose slick tires, like the 3rd grid position No. 25 HOPPY 86 MC (Kimiya Sato) and the 5th grid No. 7 D'station Vantage GT3 (Joao Paulo de Oliveira) and others, began to fall back in the field.

Taking the lead in their place was the 2nd-place grid starting No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi). It was followed by the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN AUTOMOBILE TECHNICAL COLLEGE GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine) and the No. 33 Eva RT Test Type-01 Works GT-R (Shaun Thong), but moving up quickly from 5th spot on the grid was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka), which soon moved into 2nd place. Next to move up rapidly from 13th place on the grid was the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG driven Togo Suganami, who had just made his SUPER GT debut in the previous round at AUTOPOLIS. By the 20th lap, Suganami was on Kataoka’s tail.

By the middle stages, it was fully a race in the rain, with the rain falling quite heavily at times. Moving up behind the top three was the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta) that had struggled throughout the qualifying. After the 30th lap of the race, the leader was car No. 55, which had a nearly 10-sec. margin of lead over cars No. 4, No. 65 and No. 96 competing for 2nd place.

 

 

 

The Rookie Fukuzumi holds off the veteran Taniguchi to give victory to ARTA NSX GT3

By the time the GT500 class had finished the 38th lap of the race, a GT500 class car ran off the track at the second corner and became stuck in the grave. Seen as a dangerous situation, the Safety Car was brought out. Just before that, the leading car No. 55 and others made their pit stops one after another.

By the time the Safety Car was withdrawn, the rain was falling harder and the amount of water on the track had increasing. Despite these conditions, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) picked up the pace and passed the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou) and then began to close in rapidly on the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Nirei Fukuzumi) in the lead. It turned into a battle with the cars throwing up rooster tails of spray, but the rookie Fukuzumi managed to hold off the veteran 3-time champion Taniguchi and go on from there to broaden his margin of lead.

 

 

 

 

Having defended its lead, the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Nirei Fukuzumi) went on the take its first win of the season by a lead of 15.162 sec. For Fukuzumi in this his rookie season and for the Honda NSX GT3 it was the first GT300 class victory. With this win, the pair of Takagi and Fukuzumi have compiled 61.5 championship points, which means they will enter the final round of the season at MOTEGI as the leaders in the Drivers ranking. By finishing this race in 2nd place, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) team stand in 3rd place in the ranking with a shot at the title.

The final spot on the podium went to the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Sena Sakaguchi) that had shown an amazing charge in the final stages to pass the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN AUTOMOBILE TECHNICAL COLLEGE GT-R (Sacha Fenestraz) and the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou) to claim a 3rd-place finish. This means that that the Nitta/ Sakaguchi pair will go into the final round at MOTEGI rank 2nd with a chance for a come-from-behind championship title.

 

 

 

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