2024.08.04

Rd. 4 Race GT300: The LEON PYRAMID AMG come through with a perfect race! A stunning win from Pole Position

The FUJI 350km RACE, Round 4 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on August 4th (Sun.) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 x 77 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In both classes there were outstanding wins from pole position. In the GT500 class, the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) got the first win for the new CIVIC TYPE R-GT in just its fourth race. In the GT300 class, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa) got its first win of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

　Race day for Round 4 of the season at Fuji Speedway saw the air temperature and track surface temperature climb steadily from morning, with the air temperature eventually reaching 35℃. Under such mid-summer conditions, the race began at 2:30 in the afternoon with the 42 participating SUPER GT cars led through a traffic safety promotion parade lap by spearheaded by nine Shizuoka Prefectural Police motorcycles and four patrol cars for one lap. This led directly into a formation lap and finally the start of the hot race action.

　At the start, the first to enter the TGR (first) Corner was the pole-starting Shinohara in the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa) holding the lead. He was followed by the No. 87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi) from the 2nd grid position, while the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charlie Fagg) all maintained their grid positions.

　Meanwhile, farther back in the pack, accidents occurred. There was a collision between the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) and the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) on corner 13. Car No. 61 suffered considerable damage in its rear that forced it to return quickly to the pit. Also, machine trouble caused the No. 9 PACIFIC VSPO NAC AMG (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yuta Fujiwara) to come to a stop at the entrance to the pit lane. What’s more, the No. 50 ANEST IWATA Racing RC F GT3 (Igor Omura Fraga/Yuga Furutani) began to slow down and had to return to the pit as well.

　At this point, the leading car No. 65 was expanding its lead, and by the 10th lap it had a lead of more than 4 sec. over car No. 87. Behind them, came a group of four cars led by car No. 4 battling at close quarters.

　For all of the teams, it was their first time running in a 350km race, and as they were searching for the best timing to make their pit stops, things changed when the No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT (Togo Suganami/Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato) came to a stop on the Escape Zone of the Dunlop Corner on the 24th lap of the race. Seeing this, car No. 65 quickly made its pit stop. Just after that, an FCY (Full Course Yellow) was called to enable the recovery of car No. 25, which meant that the pits would be closed for the duration of the FCY. This would end up giving car No. 65’s driver for the second half of the race, Naoya Gamou, a great time advantage.

　Meanwhile, the teams from 2nd position downward had to decide on strategies to deal with the situation. Car No. 87 in 2nd position and the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) in 5th position made the decision to change only their two rear tires. Furthermore, the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Kazuto Kotaka/Jin Nakamura/Yuki Nemoto) and the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) opted for a strategy of not changing any of their tires. On the other hand, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira), No. 777 and the ranking leader, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira), each decided to change all four tires.

 

 

 

 

 

　By the time car No. 2 finally made its pit stop after holding off until the 43rd lap, No. 65 once again reclaimed its position as the race leader. At this point, car No. 4 was in 2nd position about 51 sec. behind the leader, which now had a massive lead. And behind No. 4, car No. 56 was closing in. Vying for 4th position here were two cars that already had one win this season, namely cars No. 88 and No. 777, and seven seconds behind them came the car No. 87.

　With his big lead in the race, Gamou in car No. 65 went on to finish the race with a comfortable lead of 31.647 sec. over 2nd place. This meant that it had won its first victory of the season after holding on from pole position. For Gamou it was his sixth victory overall and his first since Rd. 4 of the 2020 season. For Shinohara, it was his second victory overall and his first since Rd. 3 of the 2021 season. The team’s third driver, Kurosawa, ended up not driving in the race (thus receiving no series points).

　Meanwhile, the battles for 2nd place and 4th place and the efforts to finish in the points went on until the end of the race. Eventually, car No. 56 held off a fierce attack by the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) to finish 2nd. And the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) got its first podium finish of the season by finishing 3rd.

　Finishing in 4th place was car No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charlie Fagg), after passing the eventual 5th place finisher, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) late in the race. The leaders of the Drivers ranking as of Round 3, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) managed to finish the race in 8th position after fighting through the field from an 18th position grid start, thus winning a valuable three series points. With this, No. 2 managed to keep its position at the top of the standings as on Round 4.

 

 

 

 

 

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