【SUPER GT Round 3 / Autopolis】

Reigning champion VivaC 86 MC scores first win from pole this year.
WedSport ADVAN LC500 extends its consecutive point finishes to 21.

SUPER GT Round 3

Date	2017/05/20-21
Venue	Autopolis
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	65Laps (1Lap = 4,674m)

• >>Report
• >>Result

Still in the afterglow of the second round at Fuji Speedway that attract a huge crowd — 92,100 during the two days during the Golden Week holidays — a fortnight ago, the third round of the 2017 Super GT series was held at Autopolis in Kumamoto prefecture. Last year, this event had to be cancelled in the aftermath of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, so the local fans were even more enthusiastic about the race after a two-year absence.

Built on a mountain slope, the circuit is very challenging for drivers, as well as aggressive toward tires because the duration that the front tires are steered are relatively long during a lap. All in all, it is a track that requires stronger tires and skillful drivers in car control.

Although it was still in the middle of May, it was rather hot like a summer day on the qualifying day, with the air temperature at 26 degrees Celsius and the track temperature at 46.

In the GT300 class, both Kenta Yamashita in Q1 and Takamitsu Matsui in Q2 set the fastest times in each session to put their VivaC 86 MC in the pole position, showing the presence of the reigning champion. “It took me a bit longer to find out a clear lap, so it wasn’t an ideal qualifying attempt, but still I am happy to wrap up with a good lap,” said Matsui.

Among the eight Yokohama shoed GT300 cars that stepped in Q2, the third place in the class was secured by Mach Syaken MC 86 GTNet. Team Mach which entered the car is based in Fukuoka, a big city in Kyushu, not far from Kumamoto. Also coming from the city, Natsu Sakaguchi got into the top 14 in Q1 and his partner, Kiyoto Fujinami, further bettered his qualifying time to secure the third grid, helped by information from Sakaguchi. It was a great feat for them, especially considering that the two drivers were rookies in Super GT.

The pole sitter of the last round, Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG, in the hands of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka had to settle for the sixth grid but they vowed to fight back in the race.

In the GT500 class, the qualifying performances of two out of three Yokohama shoed cars were somewhat lackluster this time. WedsSport ADVAN LC500 with Yuhi Sekiguchi at the wheel was only tenth in Q1, a full second behind the last one in the top eight. Daiki Sasaki in Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R also failed to advance to Q2, as he could set only 13th fastest time in Q1, partly because of a traffic on his qualifying lap.

But Hideki Muto driving Motul Mugen NSX-GT managed to get into the top eight and then Daisuke Nakajima set the fifth fastest time in Q2. After the session, one of the leading cars was given a penalty, which saw that the Muto/Nakajima pair was placed on the fourth grid, the best grid for them this year. The new comer in Yokohama camp has been struggling in the first two races but seemed to be getting some hints for car setup with the Yokohama tires, at least for qualifying.

Many expected that the cars and drivers would suffer from the relentless heat but, thanks to a slightly overcast sky, the conditions weren’t so harsh on Sunday. Actually, the temperatures at the time of race start were lower than those of the day before, with the air temperature at 22 and the track at 31.

The race got underway rather quietly. But there was an incident at the last corner of Lap 5, which involved a GT500 car and a GT300 car, and this caused a Safety Car period that lasted for eight laps.

As the Honda teams generally performed well this time, good results or even a podium finish was expected for Motul Mugen NSX-GT which started from the fourth grid. The car began the race with Muto at the wheel but he fell back to fifth on Lap 19, as his pace was not ideal, probably due to a lack of long run data with the Yokohama tires. He remained in the position, however, until the team called him in on Lap 30. After refueling and changing only two rear tires at the stop, Nakajima resumed racing.

But his stint wasn’t an easy one too because he suffered from a “pickup” that meant the small pieces of rubber, which came off from the tires of all cars and scattered on the track, stuck to the tires again and degraded tire performance. This prevented him from driving in his true pace and he had to make an unscheduled pit stop to change all four tires just ten laps to go, as Nakajima’s every effort, including a try to change the way to drive, to deal with the situation didn’t work.

After the pit stop, his pace came back but it wasn’t enough to make up the lost time during the additional stop. At the end of the day, Motul Mugen NSX-GT finished the race in 11th, just out of points.

Sekiguchi was the starting driver of WedsSport ADVAN LC500. As was the case in the qualifying session, his pace didn’t match those of his closest rivals. While he provided some interesting battles with a GT-R on his way to the driver change on Lap 31, Sekiguchi struggled throughout his stint.

Then the car was handed to Yuji Kunimoto and he continued in a similar mediocre pace, but they made no mistake during the whole race, which led to the eighth place finish. Their performance in general was below par this time, but at least the team extend their consecutive point finishes to 21 now.

Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R started with Sasaki in the driving seat. As he was blocked by the car in front and it looked almost impossible for him to find a way to get ahead of it, the team decided to make a pit stop at the earliest possible timing in regard to the driver change rules so that Joao Paulo de Oliveira would find an enough space ahead of him.

After the driver change on Lap 22, the Brazilian drove in a good pace as intended by the team, which saw him running in ninth at a time in the closing stage. Unfortunately, he was overtaken by his opponent just ten laps to go but they were classified in ninth in the official result, as one of the leading cars received a time penalty, so they made the second point finish for them this year.

In the GT300 class, Yamashita in VivaC 86 MC led the race from the pole position and gradually pulled away. The Safety Car period from Lap 5 meant his early lead came to nothing but it didn’t change his commanding position. So he kept leading the race comfortably until he changed to Matsui on Lap 29.

He briefly lost the lead position to Subaru BRZ R&D Sport and ARTA BMW M6 GT3 because these two cars made their pit stop a few laps later than VivaC 86 MC and came back on the track ahead of it. But Matsui managed to pass them one by one on their out lap and soon built a five second gap with them, as they were fighting each other for second.

However, Matsui significantly lost his speed for the final few laps due to a problem with a fuel pump and Subaru BRZ R&D Sport quickly came close to him. When they crossed the finish line, the two cars were almost abreast with each other but Matsui in VivaC 86 MC narrowly won the race only by 0.091 seconds!

Had they had one more lap to go, the reigning champion’s first win of the season would have been denied but it was clear that VivaC 86 MC was the fastest car on the track that day.

As the car that was running in fourth had a mishap and lost one of its wheels, Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller/Seiji Ara) and Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG which had been fighting for fifth gained a position each and finished the race in fourth and fifth respectively.

In the championship point standings, the Matsui/Yamashita pair became the leader and the Taniguchi/Kataoka pair moved down to third only by two-point deficit, so the Yokohama shoed cars looks promising in this year’s championship already.