【SUPER GT Round 7 / Autopolis】

B-Max NDDP GT-R scores second victory of season after first win in Thailand.
WedsSport ADVAN RC F marks seventh consecutive point finish despite final lap mishap.

SUPER GT Round 7

Date	2015/10/31-11/01
Venue	Autopolis
Weather	Cloudy / Rain
Surface	Dry / Wet
Race Lap	65Laps (1Lap = 4,674ｍ)

• >>Report
• >>Result

It is well into autumn in Japan’s mainland but the weather in Autopolis in the Kumamoto prefecture felt like winter because it is located more than 800 meters above sea level. The seventh round of 2015 Super GT Series, Super GT in Kyushu 300km, was held at the race track in Kyushu Island.

Similar to Sportsland Sugo which had hosted the previous round, Autopolis is known as a technical track with a lot of elevation changes. Particularly, the track’s third and last sector is steep uphill with long corners, which means cars tend to have understeering behavior and put its tires in substantial strain in this sector.

The tire manufacturers held a testing session at Autopolis in early October. Since D’Station ADVAN GT-R had been the fastest overall in the session, the Yokohama equipped teams headed to Kyushu with high hopes but the question was whether the tires would perform in the race weekend as good as they had been because the temepatures should be much lower than those in the testing days.

In the qualifying session for GT300 cars, the JAF-GT cars had a clear advantage. And, among the Yokohama shoed drivers, Kazuho Takahashi who is known as the fastest gentleman driver put up a remakable performance. Driving Syntium Apple Lotus, he easily set the third fastest lap time in Q1 against the professional drivers and handed over the baton to Hiroki Katoh for Q2. To reward Takahashi’s great effort, Katoh did everything he could and secured the pole position, beating Toyota Prius apr GT by just a thousandth of a second. It was their second pole position of the season and first since Suzuka round and the 12th for the longtime driving team.

This time, as many as 10 Yokohama equipped cars made their way into Q2, which was a season high. And, despite the dominance of JAF-GT cars as mentioned above, Tatsuya Kataoka in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku SLS set the fifth fastest time in Q2 and become the top FIA-GT car driver, while Takeshi Tsuchiya, aiming for back-to-back win in VivaC 86 MC, secured the sixth grid. As his regular partner Takamitsu Matsui had been injured in a Super Taikyu race in the previous weekend, a stand-in Tatsuya Tanigawa, who drove the car only for the second time since the fifth round, filled Matsui’s absence doing a great job.

As for the GT500 class, D’Station ADVAN GT-R was the fastest again in the official practice session and kept the momentum into Q1. After Daiki Sasaki beat everybody else by a perfectly timed qualifying attempt just before the end of Q1, Michael Krumm went for the team’s first ever pole position in Q2. But the German ended the session with the fourth fastest time in a very close fight for the top.

Nevertheless, it was the highest grid position of the season for them, so the team manager Masahiko Kondo expressed his confidence for the race, saying “In hindsight, we should have sent out Michael first and then Daiki for Q2. But we have always been stronger in the races, so we really want to get on the highest place on the podium on Sunday.”

WedsSport ADVAN RC F came in fourth in Q1 with Yuhi Sekiguchi behind the wheel and Juichi Wakisaka lost two places in Q2 but the sixth was still the highest qualifying position for them this year. So one could expect both of the two Yokohama shoed cars to join the fight for a victory.

Although the temperatures were quite low, the sky was clear until Saturday. But the weather changed drastically on the race day with thick clouds over the track and the forecast said the chances of rain during the race was high… But the track was dry at least when the race got underway. Krumm in D’Station ADVAN GT-R and Sekiguchi in WedsSport ADVAN RC F started from the outside grids on the second and third row respectively. And, soon after the start, the Japanese moved up to fifth, while the German remained in fourth.

However, against all expectations, D’Station ADVAN GT-R clearly lost its speed, particularly after ten laps, and eventually dropped down to the tail end. Having no choice but to make an unsheduled pit stop, Krumm came in on Lap 22 and Sasaki rejoined the race with a fresh set of tires after the driver change and refuelling.

Then the Japanese began to play catch-up in an impressive pace that was faster than the race leader, only to came into the pit on Lap 45 due to an electorical problem this time. The team managed to send him back to the track after a quick fix but it lasted only eight laps, so the team had to put the car into the garage and ended the race there.

In the meantime, Sekiguchi in WedsSport ADVAN RC F kept fifth place until Lap 38 when he made a stop to change to Wakisaka. Although he once fell back to seventh in a hectic situation, the veteran performed at his best in difficult track conditions when the sprinkle of rain that began to fall in half way point of the race became heavier. On Lap 60, Wakisaka moved up to sixth and was still trying to better his position in the remaining five laps.

But, alas, he went off the track at Turn 1 on the final lap and couldn’t continue! Therefore, the car didn’t receive the checkered flag but was still classified in ninth, which meant WedsSport ADVAN RC F has kept scoring at least one championship point in every round this year, as the only GT500 car to do so. And, of course, its performance at Autopolis raised expectatios for much better result in the season finale.

The pole sitter of the GT300 class, Katoh in Syntium Apple Lotus, made a perfect getaway and led the field at Turn 1. The fact that his closest rival, Toyota Prius apr GT, had been forced to start the race from the pit lane must have eased Katoh’s tension to some extent at least and, when the opening lap was completed, he already had a three second gap with the rest of the field and started to pull away further.

Behind him, the fight for the second between six cars was very competitive. The group included Kazuki Hoshino in B-Max NDDP GT-R (qualified in eighth), Tomonobu Fujii in Audi R8 LMS ultra (seventh), Hiroki Yoshida in Runnp Group & DOES GT-R (13th) , and Kataoka in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku SLS. All of them bettered their positions from the starting order but Hoshino was the first to make further action to beat the others in the pack because he felt the car could go faster than the three cars in front of him, had the way ahead been cleared.

So his team instructed him to came into the pit on Lap 20 and change to Mitsunori Takaboshi. When all of their direct opponents, except for the race leader Katoh, had done their pit stop, the team’s judgment was proved to be right and Takaboshi found himself running in second.

On Lap 42, Syntium Apple Lotus visited the pit lane when Katoh’s long stint finally came to an end. But when Takahashi rejoined the race, Takaboshi was already just behind him and B-Max NDDP GT-R moved ahead of Takahashi’s Lotus on the pit straight on the next lap. While the new race leader immediately began to extend his lead, Takahashi’s pace was good enough to keep him in second and, therefore, an one-two finish by the Yokohama shoed cars looked quite possible.

However, on Lap 50, he had a puncuture on his left rear tire because he ran over debris on the track, resulting in a disappointing retirement.

This promoted Jorg Muller in Studie BMW Z4 to third. And, when the rain became heavier in the closing stage of the race, Kyosuke Mineo at the wheel of K’s Frontier Direction 458 began to show an overwhelming pace. Starting from the 15th grid, he gradually came up through the field and was in eighth on Lap 50. But, after that, Mineo swiftly gained three more positions before overtaking Richard Lyons in Audi R8 LMS ultra on the final lap.

Without much trouble, B-Max NDDP GT-R continued leading the race and won it. The Hoshino/Takaboshi pair got on the highest place on the podium for the second time this year since the third round in Thailand. Muller and Seiji Ara who drove Studie BMW Z4 joined them as the third place finisher. Mineo was just one place shy of the podium but, instead, he was welcomed by his team mate Naoki Yokomizo and everybody in the team with big smiles in the pit lane, which was a heartwarming moment for all.