2024.10.20

Rd.　7 Race GT300： In a race full of upsets and confusion the win goes to the 15th-position grid-starting VENTENY Lamborghini GT3, its second of the season!

　The AUTOPOLIS GT 3Hours RACE, Round 7 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit (one lap 4.674 km x 3 hrs.) in Oita Prefecture on October 20. (Sun.). In a race full of upsets, including four Safety Car interventions, the GT500 class race saw the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) come from a 10th position grid start to take its first win of the season. In the GT300 class, the #No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) move up from a 15th position grid start to claim its second win of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

　The 3-Hour Race kicks off at 1：26 in the afternoon. In the opening lap of the race, the pole-sitting No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) was passed by the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charlie Fagg) that emerges as the leader. At the same time a fierce battle develops between No. 6 and the 2nd and 3rd position starters, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) and the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi).

　In the early going, car No. 777 move ahead to expand its lead, but on the 7th lap car No. 96 in 2nd place begins to rapidly close in on No. 777. What’s more, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa) that started the race from 7th position also began to close in on No. 56. Then, on the 11th lap, car No. 96 succeeded in taking the lead, while the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Kazuto Kotaka/Jin Nakamura/Yuki Nemoto) that had started from 11th position was also moving up rapidly to take 2nd place on the 19th lap.

　When it looked as if the leading car No. 96 was in position to begin expanding its lead over the pack, as the GT500 class race entered its 24th lap, one of the GT500 cars suddenly pulled of the track and came to a stop. This brought on a FCY (Full Course Yellow) call, and on the next lap, the Safety Car was called in to control the race, thus causing all of the gaps between the cars to be reset.

　The race was restarted on what was the 27th lap of the race for the GT300 class. As the race was approaching the one-hour point, the leading cars in the GT300 class began to make their pit stops one after another. Meanwhile, at the GT500 class race entered its 38th lap, there was a collision between two GT500 cars and one of them went on to crash. This brought out the Safety Car for the second time.

　At this point, the leader was the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) that had made an early pit stop on the 9th lap of the race, and by forgoing a tire change had succeeded in moving up in position. Following No. 2 came the No. 87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi) that had not yet made a pit stop, and behind it in 3rd position came the No. 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO (Yusuke Shiotsu/Kiyoto Fujinami), which had also foregone a tire change. These were followed by cars No. 31 and No. 777.

　After the restart, the leading car No. 2 began to increase its lead over the pack, and behind it came car No. 5 and a string of about 10 cars that were constantly involved in head-to-head battled around the track. Emerging from this group to stage a fierce 3-way battle for 2nd place would be car No. 31 and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi), and Motojima in the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) that had started the race from 15th position and steadily moved up though the pack.

 

 

 

 

 

　After the mid-point in the 3-hour race, the teams competing for the lead in the GT300 class were the one that had foregone a tire change and ones that had evenly divided their three pit stops over the tree hours. At this point, car No. 2 was leading with a 10-sec. margin over car No. 31 in 2nd place, but due to a violation during a Safety Car intervention, it was given a drive-through penalty. As the GT500 class race entered its 62nd lap, there was crash by a GT500 machine at the third corner. This brought the third SC intervention run of the race.

　At this point, the top 10 cars in the GT300 class race included ones that had not completed their second pit stop, ones that had completed the second pit stop and the leading car No. 2 that had not yet done its drive-through penalty. Besides these ten, there was Kogure in car No. 88 that had completed its second pit stop just before the SC intervention and now stood in the tentative lead and was charging forward at a blazing pace.

　After the SC withdrew, the cars in the lead group that had not completed their second pit stop returned to their pits, which left car No. 88 in the lead and car No. 6 in 2nd place. As for car No. 2 that was expected to lose position due to its penalty, it actually completed the drive-through quite quickly after the SC withdrew and was now charging forward at a very fast pace, with which it was able to recover to 3rd place in the final stages of the race.

　After passing the point where 30 minutes remained in the 3-hour race, the car No. 6 in 2nd place began to fall off the pace. It appeared that its tire had lost grip and there was no choice but to return to the pit. This moved car No. 2 up into 2nd place, from which it would have to push at a fast pace to make up for the 20-sec. lead enjoyed by No. 88. But Kogure in No. 88 also increased his pace, No. 2 was not able to close the gap as hoped.

　After the time remaining in the race was down to less than 17 sec., car No. 61 running in 5th position was unable to stop before the 2nd Hairpin and crashed after entering the corner. This resulted in the fourth SC run of the race. In the end, the 3-hour race time limit was passed before the SC withdrew on the last corner of the final lap.

　This gave the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) a stunning come-from-behind victory after having started the race from 15th position on the grid, and it would be the team’s second win of the season following the one in Round 2 at FUJI. This also moved the driver pair of Kogure and Motojima up to 3rd place in the point standing.

　Finishing 2nd after having started the race in 14th position and running a skillful race was the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira), which also kept them in 2nd place in the point standing just 5 points behind the standing leader, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa), which finished this race in 6th position to keep its lead in the standing.

　Third place went to the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/ Shinichi Takagi) that had the lead in the early stages of the race. This was the first podium finish for this driver pair in 14 years, since Round 6 at SUZUKA in 2010 (then as the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya).

 

 

 

 

 

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