2020.08.09

GT500: First-half battle between two NSX-GT teams ends in runaway victory for KEIHIN NSX-GT!

The Takanokono Hotel FUJI GT 300km RACE, Round 2 of the 2020 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m×66 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture on August 9 (Sun). In the GT500 class, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) starting from 2nd position on the front row of the grid took the lead and continued to run far ahead of the pack to win the race. It was the first win of the new season for the Honda NSX-GT. In the GT300 class, the SYNTIUM・Apple・LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh/Masataka Yanagida) won their first team victory in 10 years.

 

 

 

　At the start of the race, the first car through the TGR (first) Corner of the first lap was Fukuzumi in the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi). Following in 2nd position was Baguette in the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette), while Hiramine in the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Kazuki Hiramine) had risen to 3rd position. With that, Nakayama in the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuichi Nakayama/Kenta Yamashita) had dropped into 4th position after starting from the 3rd grid spot, and then dropped further to 5th position after being passed by Fenestraz in the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz). Continuing its momentum, No. 36 would go on to pass No. 12 at the TGR Corner of the 24th lap of the race to move into the 3rd spot.

 

　After that a fierce battle for 7th position developed between Cassidy in the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) and Oshima in the No. 14 WAKO'S 4CR GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Sho Tsuboi). Soon Makino in the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) also joined in that contest to make it a 3-way fight for a while. While holding off its two pursuers, No. 37 caught and passed Quintarelli in the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) to move into 6th position. Next it was Oshima and Makino that passed No. 23 in succession to move into 7th and 8th positions respectively.

　The leading car No. 8 managed to build up a lead of 1 sec. by the end of the first lap of the race, but No. 17 gave chase and reduced that lead to 0.7 sec. by the end of the fifth lap. These two lead machines continued to maintain a margin of between 0.5 and 0.6 sec. over the ensuing laps. Finally, at the Coca Cola Corner of the 15th lap of the race, Baguette in car No. 17 caught and passed No. 8 to move into the lead.

 

 

　After grabbing the lead, No. 17 continued to steadily increase that lead over No. 8 from 2 sec. at the end of the 20th lap to more than 4 sec. after the 25th lap before returning to the pit for its routine stop on the 30th lap. Now the lead car was in the hands of Tsukakoshi for the second half of the race. Also making their routine pit stops on this lap were the 3rd-place car No. 36 and 4th-place car No. 12. This put car No. 8 tentatively in the lead again until it made its pit stop on the 35th lap. After the driver change, Nojiri was able to return car No. 8 to the track still in the lead, but car No. 17 was closing in fast with its tires already warmed up. After the two cars entered the Dunlop Corner running nose-to-tail, Nojiri made a costly mistake coming out of the second turn that caused his car to spin out and come to a stop on the outside of the track. Tsukakoshi just managed to avoid the stopped No. 8 car and then pulled away easily in car No. 17 to regain the lead position. After standing stopped for a while at trackside, No. 8 was able to return to the race a lap behind the leader and now completely out of the competition for the win. With this, No. 17 stood clear in the lead with a 20-sec. margin over No. 36 (Sekiguchi) in 2nd place.

 

　Some distance behind No. 36, a fierce battle for 3rd had developed between cars No. 12 (Sasaki) and No. 14 (Tsuboi). At the Dunlop Corner of lap 42, No. 14 caught and passed No. 12 to move into 3rd position, after which a fast-coming Hirakawa in car No. 37 also passed No. 12 to move up to 4rd position. Struggling to keep pace, No. 12 was later passed by car No. 100 (Yamamoto). What’s more, No. 12 would collide with a GT300 car in the latter stages of the race. This resulted in a 40-sec. time penalty for “Dangerous Driving” action that dropped No. 12 back from an initial 6th-place finish to 11th place.

 

 

　Despite late-race gains on the leader by car No. 36, Tsukakoshi in car No. 17 was able to run on to victory with a big 16-sec. lead at the finish. With this, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) team brought a first win to the new front-engine Honda NSX-GT. For the KEIHIN REAL RACING team and for Tsukakoshi this was their third win and first since the 2018 Opening Round at Okayama. For Baguette, this was his second win, following one in 2017 in Round 6 at Suzuka (with the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT team).

　Finishing in 2nd place for the second time in a row following this season’s opening round was the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz). This result moves the driver pair of Sekiguchi/Fenestraz to the top of the Drivers standings and TGR TEAM au TOM'S to the top of the Team standings. Finishing in 3rd place came the No. 14 WAKO'S 4CR GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Sho Tsuboi). The winner of the first round of the season, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) finish this second round in 4th place. Among the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 teams, the top finishers were the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo) and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) in 8th and 9th places respectively.

 

 

 

Page Top