2020.09.13

Rd. 4 Race GT300: MOTEGI masters No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG come from behind to win with no-tire-change strategy!

The FUJIMAKI GROUP MOTEGI GT 300km RACE, Round 4 of the 2020 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held on September 13 (Sun) at Twin Rings Motegi (one lap 4,801m x 63 laps) in Tochigi Pref. In the GT500 class, the No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) took its second runaway win of the season just as it did in Round 2 at Fuji Speedway. In the GT300 class, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) came back from a 13th grid start to take the win.

 

 

 

　With the exception of driver Katoh of the No. 2 SYNTIUM・Apple・LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh/Masataka Yanagida) team that chose to start from the pit, the remaining 29 cars of the GT300 class race started their formation lap on schedule at 1:00 p.m.

 

　When the race got underway, it was the pole-starting Takayuki Aoki in the No. 360 RUNUP RIVAUX GT-R that took the lead and began to open up a margin over the pack from the first lap. Following in 2nd position came Takamitsu Matsui in the No. 25 HOPPY Porsche Hideki Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT came next in 3rd position. Car No. 61 had failed to run in the pre-race warm-up due to machine trouble, but repairs had been performed successfully in time for the start. Behind No. 61 came the No. 31 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT (Koki Saga). Car No. 360 continued to build up a big lead in the early stages of the race, while behind it a close battle for 2nd place played out with No. 25 at the head of the pack.

 

　The first upset of the race came with the accident that occurred at the “V” corner of the 9th lap. While running in 9th position, Tsubasa Takahashi in the No. 87 T-DASH LAMBORGHINI GT3 collided with the GT500 class No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT. In the resulting spin-out, he crashed into No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra. This brought out the Safety Car to slow the race and result in a traffic jam among the GT300 class cars on the track. It was in this confusion that Hisashi Wada in the No. 22 R’Qs AMG GT3 and Tomohide Yamaguchi behind him in the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 crashed into each other. As a result of these two crashes, the Safety Car stayed on the track until the 14th lap.

 

　When the race restarted on the 15th lap, it resulted in a frenzy of battles, passing and maneuvering such as can only be seen in SUPER GT, where two different classes race at the same time. After the 20th lap of the race the cars other than the leading No. 360 began to make their routine pit stops. In the process, Togo Suganami in the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG had moved up from a 13th-position grid start to hold 10th position when he returned for the pit stop on the 21st lap. Here, the team opted for a no-tire-change strategy to save time in the pit and get the second driver, Gamou, back in the race as quickly as possible with a chance to steal the lead.

 

 

 

　In contrast, the leading car No. 360 ran on to the 31st lap before making its pit stop. The driver was changed to Shibata, but when he rejoined the race it was only so see No. 65 slip past him into the lead. From behind came four more cars locked in a battle to podium spots, No. 61 (Iguchi), No. 88 JLOC LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Takashi Kogure), No. 25 (Matsui), as well as the No. 9 PACIFIC NAC D'station Vantage GT3 (Kei Cozzolino) that had made an early pit stop.

 

 

　Later in the race, a collision between two GT500 cars on the 43rd lap left car parts spread across the track. This brought out the Safety Car for the second time in the race. The leading car No. 65 at this point had a 6-sec. lead over car No. 360 and it had looked as if all it had to do was run safely to the win while saving the stress of its unchanged tires, but with the Safety Car appearance that precious lead was now gone.

 

　After the race was restarted, Shibata in car No. 360 closed in on Gamou in No. 65, whose tires were by now badly worn. But then, on the 56th lap of the race with the checkered flag not far away an unexpected drama unfolded. Car No. 360 seemed to be struck by machine trouble and suddenly stopped.

 

　With the pressure off now, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami), which had shown its strength on this track by winning two of the three founds here at Motegi since 2017, cruised on to take the checkered flag and yet another win. And, for Suganami this was his first-ever SUPER GT win. Finishing 2nd was the No. 88 JLOC LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima), while 3rd went to the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi). As for car No. 9 that had been running in 4th position, it suddenly began to slow on the final lap of the race! This allowed the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Sena Sakaguchi) to take the checkered in 4th place. Fifth place went to the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Shintaro Kawabata/Tsubasa Kondo) that had fought all the way up from a 26th position grid start.

 

 

 

 

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