2023.08.06

Rd. 4 Race GT300: A decisive quick decision for an early tire change in the latter stages! The GAINER TANAX GT-R charges hard for a come-from-behind victory

The FUJI GT 450km RACE, Round 4 of the 2023 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on August 6th at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 x 100 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture. With rain falling on and off and race stoppage due to accidents, the GT500 class race saw the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) take the lead in the final stages and run on to victory. In the GT300 class, victory went to the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa/Yusuke Shiotsu) that started from 3rd position on the grid.

 

 

 

 

 

　While yesterday’s qualifying was fought in the heat with the air temperature exceeding 30℃, race day had air temperatures in the upper 20℃. range and rain falling hard around noon to create wet track conditions. In the GT300 class as well, all the cars started the race on wet-use tires.

　The race was started behind the Safety Car at 1:45 in the afternoon. But soon after the start, the rain let up and the track began to dry out rapidly. After the Safety Car left the track on the 3rd lap, the real racing began. First of all, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) that had started from 2nd position on the grid and Keishi Ishikawa in the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R who started from 3rd position both managed to pass the pole-starting No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka). After this, the sun began to show itself and the track began to dry rapidly. This enabled No. 4 to re-pass these two cars and take the lead again. What’s more, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Yuya Motojima) moved up into 2nd place.

　On the 7th lap, the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi) became the first to make an early pit stop and change to slick tires, after which the other GT300 cars also began to return to the pit to change to slick tires one after another from the following lap. When all the cars had finished their pit stops, No. 4 again ran in the lead with cars No. 8 and No. 11 in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Meanwhile, the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara) that had advanced on the wet track had now moved up to 4th position.

　After this, patches of blue sky began to appear, and the track became completely dry. When the leaders of the GT300 class entered the 28th lap of the race, the exhaust pipe came off the No. 244 HACHI-ICHI GR Supra GT (Kimiya Sato) and a fire broke out in the car. When car No. 25 came to a stop at the exit of the TGR Corner, and the FRO and the track marshals began the work of putting out the fire, the Safety Car was brought out to control the race for the second time.

 

 

 

 

 

　During the period from the 48th to the 56th lap of the race, the cars of the GT300 class made their pit stops one after another. With this they would fulfill the requirement for two pit stops in the race. Running strongly in the lead, car No. 4 made its pit stop at the end of the 54th lap and returned to the race with its lead intact. But, moving in on its tail was car No. 10, which had made its pit stop on the 51st lap. What’s more, Tomita in car No. 11 and the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara) were following close behind. Of these, the No. 65 team had announced before the race that their driver Gamou would not be entering the race because of poor health and had committed to a race where the number of laps the other drivers would run was stretched to the limit before returning to the pit to end the race.

　In the latter stages of the race, on the 62nd lap a fire broke out in the No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT (Togo Suganami/Seita Nonaka) and it came to a stop at the outside of the 13th corner. Due to the strength of the fire, it took time to put it out, which resulted in a Red Flag call that brought the race to a stop.

　The fire was eventually extinguished, but during that interval a heavy rain began to fall. Normally, work on the cars is forbidden when the Red Flag is out, but for safety’s sake an exception was made to allow for a change to rain tires, and the race was finally restarted at 4:30 in the afternoon.

　In the resulting restart in the rain, cars No. 10 and No. 11 passed the leading car No. 4 as they had at the start of the race. However, as the rain let up and the track began to dry, No. 4 was able to pick up the pace and take the lead back. Then No. 88 and No. 7 also began to close in on it rapidly. It looked as if the final stages of the race would see a three-way battle between these cars. But, because of the speed with which the track grew dryer, some teams began to think about making another pit stop to change to slick tires. Car No. 11 was the first to make that gamble. This caused No. 4 and the other cars in the top three to follow suit, by returning to the pit and changing to slick tires.

　The cars that chose to remain on wet-use tires to the end included the leading car No. 61 that was running in 2nd place and the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno). However, the pace of these two cars was clearly slowing, and Tomita in car No. 11 was closing in on them fast. Finally, with the goal fast approaching on the 92nd lap, No. 11 was able to take back the lead.

　After this, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa/Yusuke Shiotsu*) went on to take the win in this race full of upsets. In contrast, car No. 4 that had led for so much of the race miscalculated and ran off the track soon after changing to the slick tires. This accident cause No. 4 to finish out of the series points.

　What’s more, the battle for 2nd and 3rd ran in chaos until the final lap of the race. On that final lap, the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara/Masataka Yanagida) that had made the final change to slick tires took 2nd place on the last lap. Behind it, the No. 6 DOBOT Audi R8 LMS (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan/Seiya Jin) finished 3rd to take its first podium finish this season.

※Yusuke Shiotsu would not have the chance to run in this race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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