2014.06.01

Taking the lead with fast pit work, ARTA CR-Z GT grabs the GT300 class win

 

Round3 Autopolis : Race GT300

The SUPER GT IN KYUSHU 300 km, Round 3 of the 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held at the AUTOPOLIS (Oita Prefecture) on the afternoon of June 1. In the GT500 class, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driven by Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli ran a perfect race from pole position to win. In the GT300 class, the winner was the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT with drivers Shinichi Takagi and Takashi Kobayashi.

 

 

A match race develops between the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT and ARTA CR-Z GT early on

The GT300 class race also saw a good start by the pole-sitting No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Kota Sasaki) to lead with the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi), No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Lucas Ordonez) and the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Bjorn Wirdheim) in trail.
Sasaki in car No. 61gradually proceeded to widen his margin of lead over Takagi in car No. 55, and by the 14th lap, the margin between them was opened to four seconds. But, as Sasaki’s pace began to slow slightly from that point, it was now Takagi who began to shave the margin down. After the 25th lap, the gap between the fleeing SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT and the pursuing ARTA CR-Z GT was down to just over one second. Meanwhile, Ordonez in car No. 3 and Wirdheim in No. 11 were locked in a tight battle for 3rd position. When Wirdheim got in front on lap 19 and was ready to start chasing the two leaders, the gap had already opened to nearly 20 seconds. In the first half of the race it outcome had already been narrowed down in this way to a contest between the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT and the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT.

 

 

Using its mileage advantage, ARTA CR-Z GT takes the lead with fast pit work

At mid-race, the leading SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT was first to make its routine pit stop after the 29th lap. Then, the ARTA CR-Z GT headed into the pit on the 32nd lap. While the pit work of the two teams’ crews appeared to be equally fast, the hybrid CR-Z advantage in fuel economy enabled the pit work to be completed in 42 seconds, which was two seconds faster than the BRZ. This enabled the CR-Z’s second-stint driver, Takashi Kobayashi to return to the race in front of the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, now driven by Takuto Iguchi. Iguchi charged hard to try to catch Kobayashi on the first lap out of the pit but, with some interference from back markers coming into play as well, he was unable to catch and pass No. 55. Kobayashi showed good speed on that first lap out of the pit, recording a lap time of 1’47.886. By the 41st lap he had earned a lead of nearly 9 seconds over the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT.
It was at this point, however, that the No. 30 IWASAKI apr GT-R (Yuki Iwasaki) ran off the track at the first turn while running in 6th position. With his machine out of control, Iwasaki crashed into the tire barrier, went over it and all the way to the service road in a major crash. Fortunately, Iwasaki suffered no serious injuries, but as a precaution he was transported to the hospital by the medical helicopter for tests. Shortly after, conditions worsened as a GT500 car began belching smoke and came to a stop at the end of the straight. As an emergency measure, the Safety Car came out to control the race for the next seven laps.

 

 

This eliminated the margin of lead that the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT had earned prior to the accidents. In the remaining nine laps that would decide the race after the restart, Kobayashi in car No. 55 recorded the fastest lap of 1’46.943 to run away into a lead of nearly three seconds. With three laps remaining, Iguchi in car No. 61 also ran a fastest lap of 1’46.625, but Kobayashi was also running successive laps in the 1’46 range as he raced on to take the victory checkered.
This intense battle between two young drivers of the same generation ended with Kobayashi as the victor. For the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT, this was the team’s first win since round 4 of last year’s series. The No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT finished the race in 2nd place. The battle for 3rd had been a match race between the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) and No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) over the second half of the race as well. Barely managing to outrun its rival, the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS finished 3rd to take the last spot on the podium.
As for the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKUZ4 (Tatsuya Kataoka > Nobuteru Taniguchi) coming off consecutive wins in the first two rounds of the season, it suffered a collision with a GT500 car, and although it was able to restart immediately, the collision had cause a puncture in its left rear tire that forced it to return to the pit. This accident dropped it to the very back of the pack and a disappointing 16th-place finish.
With this result, the No. 4 pair of Taniguchi/Kataoka no-pointed but managed to remain in the lead in the series standings with the 40 points from their two wins. But, the 2nd-ranked No. 11 pair of Hiranaka/Wirdheim have closed the gap to just three points. As winners of this race, the No. 55 team of /Kobayashi have also raised their point total to 25 and now rank 3rd.

 

 

 

 

 

Page Top