【SUPER GT Round 2 / Fuji】

WedsSport ADVAN LC500 extends its consecutive point finish record to 20!
D’station Porsche comes from behind to make podium finish.

SUPER GT Round 2

Date	2017/05/03-04
Venue	Fuji Speedway
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	110Laps (1Lap = 4,563m)

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• >>Result

The second round of the eight race Super GT series was held in the midst of Golden Week, a traditional holiday period in Japan during early May, at Fuji Speedway. As the meeting always draws large clouds of race fans, the Yokohama shoed teams both in GT500 and GT300 classes wanted to impress them by having good results.

The first round at Okayama International Circuit was totally dominated by the Lexus teams, which saw the Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto pair’s six place finish with WedsSport ADVAN LC500. With this result, they extended the team’s consecutive point finish record to 19 which incidentally matched with their car number.

The new comer for the Yokohama camp, Motul Mugen NSX-GT with Hideki Muto and Daisuke Nakajima at the wheel, also finished the race in ninth as the only survivor of the Honda teams.

Additionally, Daiki Sasaki and Joan Paulo de Oliveira in Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R finished the same race in tenth, which meant all of three Yokohama equipped cars in GT500 class made point finishes in the season opener.

On the other hand, Yokohama made a very good start of the season in GT300 class, as Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG with Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka won the race in Okayama for the first time in three years. The Japanese manufacturer narrowly missed a podium sweep there but many expected they would be dominant in the class in the next rounds.

The race distance of this Fuji round was 500km, around 200km longer than other regular races, with two mandatory driver change pit stops. In recent years, this long distance round in May has often been quite eventful, so different tire strategies employed by teams could have been one of the decisive factors.

The track was dry throughout the qualifying session. In the GT300 class, Kataoka in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG was second fastest in Q1, with other eight Yokohama shoed cars making their way into Q2. Then Taniguchi at the wheel of the Goodsmile car set the fastest time in his only second timing lap in Q2 and kept improving it lap by lap to secure the pole position.

This was Taniguchi’s first pole position in Super GT since the final round in 2011! He said, “the tires Yokohama provided us performed really well at corners. I got a long absent pole position, not by my driving skill, just thanks to the tires!” And Kataoka added, “I really wanted to drive in Q2 but Taniguchi-san stole it! I’ve been around in Super GT for quite a while but this will be my first time to start the race from the pole position.” So both of them looked amused.

The second grid went to Kyosuke Mineo, partnered by Jono Lester, in Gulf NAC Porsche 911. Sven Muller who shared D’station Porsche with Tomonobu Fujii set the third fastest time but it was deleted from the result because the German had exceeded track limits during his qualifying lap and was penalized for it. As a result, they had to start the race from the 14th grid.

In the GT500 class, Sekiguchi in WedsSport ADVAN LC500 was forth in Q1. Then Kenta Yamashita, standing in for Kunimoto who had a duty to drive in a FIA World Endurance Championship race on the same weekend, performed up to the team’s expectation and secured the sixth grid in Q2. However, Muto in Motul Mugen NSX-GT and Oliveira in Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R had to settle for 13th and 14th in Q1 respectively, failing to go on to the next session.

The sky was clear on the race day and the magnificent Mt. Fuji was clearly visible, so the weather conditions were perfect. The grandstands on the pit straight and at Turn 1 were fully filled with race fans, which naturally motivated the drivers even more.

Sekiguchi was the starting driver of WedsSport ADVAN LC500 again this time. He kept the position where he began the race until Lap 4 when he was passed by an opponent. And because his pace after that wasn’t very good, the team opted to make a pit stop earlier and change to Yamashita on Lap 28. This stop cost them a few more positions and the replacement for Kunimoto found himself in 11th after Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R overtook him. Despite this was his first time to race in a GT500 car, however, Yamashita drove steadily for his stint and changed to Sekiguchi at the end of Lap 67.

But the car’s pace was still below expectations, so Sekiguchi had to endure a tough race. Nevertheless, he gained a position with 12 laps to go and finished the race in 10th. This meant the team added a valuable championship point to their tally at the end of the day, extending their consecutive point finish record to 20 races now.

Starting from the 13th grid, Motul Mugen NSX-GT with Muto at the wheel was expected to move up the field gradually but he was forced to bring the car back to the pit on Lap 18 due to a technical glitch on the engine. As it took for a while to fix the problem, a good result was already out of the question for them but the team sent the car back on the track to collect data for the next races. But the same problem occurred again about 10 laps to go, so they decided to end the race at that point.

Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R in the hands of Oliveira was involved in some hot and interesting battles with opponents, especially in the early stage of the Brazilian’s stint. He handed the car to Sasaki on Lap 35 and the Japanese moved up to 10th by overtaking WedsSport ADVAN LC500 as mentioned above.

His pace was quite consistent and, after the pit stop on Lap 77, Oliveira joined to the race again, hoping to gain one or two positions in the last stint. But things just got worse. He was given a drive through penalty for ignoring the blue flags and he had to serve another drive through for speeding during the first one… As a result, the car finished the race in 12th, two laps down from the winner, and failed to add any points.

In the GT300 class, Kataoka in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG made a very good start and already had one second margin to the rest of the field when he completed the opening lap. He was leading the race so comfortably that he could even control his pace, watching the gap with his direct opponents.

On Lap 29, Kataoka made a pit stop earlier than most of his rivals to change to Taniguchi. This caused them to lose the lead position for a while but, when all GT300 cars had done their first stop, Taniguchi was leading again by a large margin. He looked unstoppable and many thought the Hatsune Miku car would claim its second consecutive win.

However, Taniguchi was forced to make unscheduled pit stop because he had a problem on his left front tire on Lap 61. After the tire change, Kataoka rejoined the race but, just five laps to go when he was still running in fourth, he was hit by the same problem again and had to settle for finishing the race in a disappointing 11th.

Meanwhile, D’station Porsche did a spectacular race, as if to make up the fall of the Goodsmile backed car. Despite starting from the lowly 14th grid because of a penalty, Fujii in the driving seat of D’station Porsche regained some positions quickly soon after the start. On Lap 9, however, he went off the track at the last corner before the pit straight when he tried to avoid collision with a car that blocked his way. Although Fujii could continue, he fell back to 22nd in the class, so it seemed to be almost impossible for them to come back to top 10.

But he didn’t give up and pushed really hard to fight back. On top of this, Muller who drove from Lap 35 to Lap 70 also did a great job, despite he had never driven in Fuji Speedway before this race week! Consequently, when Fujii resumed racing after their second driver change, he was already running in fourth. Then the Porsche driver passed Kataoka on Lap 76 to move up to third where he finished the race.

Following D’station Porsche, the trio of Shinya Hosokawa, Kimiya Sato, and Yuya Motojima, driving Shop Channel Lamborghini GT3 came to fourth. And the Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi pair in B-Max NDDP GT-R also came up through the field after starting from the 11th grid and ended the race in 6th.