【SUPER GT Round 3 / Autopolis】

New June slot offers better conditions for Autopolis round.
WedsSport ADVAN RC F scores second point finish in a row!!

SUPER GT Round 3

Date	2014/05/31-06/01
Venue	Autopolis
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	65Laps (1Lap = 4,674ｍ)

• >>Report
• >>Result

The 3rd round of 2014 Super GT series, Super GT in Kyushu 300km race, was held on May 31st-June 1st, much earlier than the traditional autumn slot because of the modification of the calendar this year.

The series visits the Kyushu area, the southernmost of the four main Japanese islands, only once a year for this round. The autumn slot in the past often meant the mountainous circuit saw the title battle showdowns but, at the same time, the chances of rain or fog were high in that season of year due to the meteorological conditions in the area. During this new date, the weather stayed fine with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, for the race weekend.

With the totally new cars for the GT500 class this year, more or less faster lap times were expected for the qualifying session on Saturday. As for the Yokohama shoed cars, Yuhi Sekiguchi drove Weds Sport ADVAN RC F in Q1 but the team had to settle for the 14th in the session with 1’41”401 because Sekiguchi went off the track in the final part of his qualifying attempt. Michael Krumm in D’station ADVAN GT-R set 1’36”089 before the session was stopped by the red flag and his time was good enough to make the way to Q2. Then Daiki Sasaki drove the GT-R in Q2 and qualified in 8th with 1’36”840.

Even in the GT300 class, the top qualifiers were about 1.5 seconds faster than the existing course record. Hiroki Yoshimoto in TWS LM Corsa BMW Z4, which was updated to the latest 2014 spec from this race, was the fastest Yokohama equipped driver and 3rd in the class in Q1. Being led by Yoshimoto, 9 out of 13 cars that went into Q2 ran on the Yokohama Tire’s products.

But this didn’t include the winner of the first 2 races this year and the championship leading car, Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Z4. As the car had to carry an 80kg weight handicap for this race, the 16th fastest time was the best Tatsuya Kataoka could do in Q1 on this heavily undulating track, despite his all-out effort.

In the Q2 session, Kazuki Hoshino in B-Max NDDP GT-R set 1’46”511, which was the fastest at the time. But, after he had come back to the pit, and before the session ended, two other drivers clocked the faster lap times than that of Hoshino, so the GT-R was qualified in 3rd in the class, followed by TWS LM Corsa BMW Z4 with Akira Iida at the wheel in Q2.

The 65 lap race began under a clear sky, with 14 out of 15 GT500 cars on the grids, since Eneos Sustina RC F was forced to join the race from the pit lane in the aftermath of mechanical problem suffered during the warm-up session.

D’station ADVAN GT-R and WedsSport ADVAN RC F started the race with Krumm and Sekiguchi on board. Whereas the German kept his position at the end of Lap 1, Sekiguchi gained a position during the lap and moved up to 12th by overtaking Weider Modulo NSX Concept-GT on Lap 3. Then he was involved in a close battle with the NSX for a while.

On Lap 4, D’station ADVAN GT-R made contact with Petronas Tom’s RC F after they exited Turn 1 and fell back to 10th because the RC F and ARTA NSX Concept-GT passed by the GT-R during the incident. And WedsSport ADVAN RC F also fell into a similar misfortune on Lap 10. Sekiguchi tried to overtake Denso Kobelco Sard RC F at the 2nd hairpin corner but he hit the Denso backed car and sent it into a spin. For this incident, the WedsSport car was given a drive-through penalty later and dropped to 11th when it served the penalty. The dramas didn’t end here. Probably as a consequence of earlier contact, the right-hand side rear tire of D’station ADVAN GT-R broke up on Lap 21, which required an unscheduled pit stop. The team gave the car a new set of tires but Krumm didn’t change to Sasaki because the rules prescribe the minimum number of laps for a driver during the race and it was a bit too early to do so.

The last misfortune for the Yokohama shoed cars fell on the GT-R. After the driver change to Sasaki, the car caught fire on Lap 47 and he had to stop the car on the run off area before Turn 1. So it didn’t receive the checkered flag but was still classified in 13th in the final result.

On the other hand, WedsSport ADVAN RC F came up to 10th, as one of the opponents made a pit stop when a GT300 car had a huge accident at Turn 1 and the Safety Car came out. With Juichi Wakisaka at the wheel now, the WedsSport car passed Epson NSX Concept-GT at the restart on Lap 57 and, then, overtook Eneos Sustina RC F on the pit straight with 3 laps to go. At the end of the day, Weds Sport ADVAN RC F finished the race in 8th and scored valuable 3 points, thanks to Wakisaka’s solid drive.

In the GT300 class, Lucas Ordonez in B-Max NDDP GT-R made a good start but stayed in 3rd. TMS LM Corsa BMW Z4 with Iida on board lost a position at the start and began racing from 5th in the class.

There was no position change among the leaders for a while but, in the middle of the field, Kataoka in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Z4 already moved up to 11th on Lap 4 from the 16th grid. So expectations for the championship leader’s great recovery were high but, unfortunately, he became an innocent victim of a GT500 car’s spin on Lap 8 and had to come back to the pit to replace a damaged wheel. Of course, the Hatsune Miku car lost a lot of ground for this unscheduled stop.

Although Ordonez fell down to 4th on Lap 20, he was able to follow the car in front closely until coming in the pit on Lap 29 to change to Hoshino. When all cars completed mandatory pit stops, Hoshino’s GT-R was still running in 4th. He was followed by Yoshimoto, now at the wheel of TMS LM Corsa BMW Z4, in 5th and the BMW looked promising, as its pace was really good.

On Lap 43, Yuki Iwasaki in Iwasaki apr GT-R had a frightening accident at Turn 1, due to a breakup of a wheel hub, and his car was flipped and went over the guard rails there. Because of this, the Safety Car led the field for 7 laps. As a procedure during a Safety Car period, remaining cars once stopped on the starting grids but Yoshimoto took too long to restart his engine before joining the Safety Car run, so he found himself running in 13th when racing resumed.

Hoshino in B-Max NDDP GT-R pushed as much as he could throughout the remaining laps to regain the third place but he had to settle for 4th. Crystal Croco Lamborghini GT3, driven by Shinya Hosokawa/Koji Yamanishi pair, finished the race in 6th. Yoshimoto brought TMS LM Corsa BMW Z4 home in 7th after his remarkable effort for recovery.