【SUPER GT Round 3 / Motegi】

Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R scores its second victory this year.
Excellence Porsche and Manepa Lamborghini GT3 get on GT300 podium.

SUPER GT Round 3

Date	2016/11/11-13
Venue	Twinring Motegi
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	53Laps (1Lap = 4,801m)

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The third round of 2016 Super GT series was originally scheduled to be held at Autopolis in May but it had to be cancelled because the circuit had some facility damage in the aftermath of a severe earthquake in the Kumamoto area.

To fill up the void in the series, a substitution race was incorporated into the final round at Motegi, as a part of Motegi GT Grand Final. It remained to be designated as “the round three,” having a qualifying session and race on Saturday, but, in accordance with the rules, the weight handicaps of the car that had taken part in all of the previous six rounds were reduced by half, as it was the seventh race of the series in fact.

The winner of the last round in Thailand, WedsSport ADVAN RC F, benefited from the rules because it could race with only 41kg handicap weight, instead of 82kg, which meant the car didn’t have a race with its heaviest shape. Prospects were also good for Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R, as the car had done a stunning race at Motegi two years ago and finished in fourth, in spite of starting the race from the 14th grid.

So both of two Yokohama shoed cars headed to the qualifying session, aiming at their second win of the season to keep their championship hopes alive.

In the GT300 class, after a Yokohama one-two finish in Thailand by VivaC 86 MC and B-Max NDDP GT-R, these two cars were also in first and second in the championship point standings.

The weather was getting better on Saturday, after a rain soaked Friday, there was even bright sunshine but the track surface was still very wet. Under such conditions, the fastest Yokohama shoed GT300 driver in the qualifying session was Kimiya Sato in Triple A Lamborghini GT3, whose time was ranked in sixth overall, and Takeshi Tsuchiya at the wheel of VivaC 86 MC followed. Morio Nitta in JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3, which had been soundly repaired after a heavy crash on Friday, was classified in eighth.

Daiki Sasaki drove Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R in the qualifying session for GT500 cars, while Yuhi Sekiguchi played the same role for WedsSport ADVAN RC F, and the former was one of the stars in the session. Sasaki set the interim fastest time soon after the session got underway and then had a big battle against an ex-Grand Prix driver, Heikki Kovalainen, for the top slot.

Ultimately, the Japanese lost out by just 0.065 seconds but the second grid was still the highest position to start the race for him and his team this year, so the expectations got even higher.

On the other hand, Sekiguchi had a somewhat hard time and ended the session in eighth. But the team decided not to change the car setup drastically and to try to move up through the field by using some clever strategies, including a possibility of using only one set of tires during the race.

After only less than four hours from the end of the qualifying session, the race starting procedures began. Sasaki was the starting driver for Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R and Sekiguchi for WedsSport ADVAN RC F.

Sasaki lost a position immediately after the start but he was comfortably running in third before and after the Safety Car period due to a GT300 car’s accident. So, he was likely to have a shot at a victory, as long as he could remain in the position, and the opportunity actually came before reaching the halfway point of the 53 lap race.< /p>

As the two cars ahead of him made early pit stops, Sasaki was handed the lead position on Lap 21. He just kept driving in a good pace to build a significant gap with the rest of the field until Lap 34 when he finally came in to the pit. After changing to Masataka Yanagida and refueling, but without changing tires, Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R rejoined to the race and Yanagida found himself still in the lead, retaining a five second gap with Kovalainen who was at the wheel of the car in second.

So, it was really a return match of the battle in the qualifying session. The Finn managed to reduce the gap to almost zero for the final two laps but Yanagida skillfuly defended the lead until the checkered flag fell to secure the second win for Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R this year.

WedsSport ADVAN RC F also had an encouraging race. After overtaking two cars during the first lap, Sekiguchi gained one more position on Lap 2 to move up to fifth and he kept that position until he made a pit stop on Lap 29 to change to Yuji Kunimoto. Thanks to the team’s decision not to change tires to save valuable time again, Kunimoto was running in fourth when he went out on the track.

He had to give way to one of his opponents on Lap 40 because he had slight difficulty with worn tires then but otherwise he cleanly drove over the remaining distance and finished in fifth. For WedsSport ADVAN RC F, a second straight win was out of reach this time but its consecutive point finish record was now extended to 17 races.

In the GT300 class, there was a real dogfight for second place in the closing stage between Excellence Porsche and Manepa Lamborghini GT3, which really entertained the spectators. It continued until the final lap and was ultimately won by Jorg Bergmeister in the Porsche, as he made a move against Kazuki Hiramine in the Lamborghini at the exit of the last corner on the penultimate lap and got ahead of the Japanese when they entered into Turn 1.

Unfortunately, the eventual race winner was already too far ahead of them to catch up but the crews of Excellence Porsche and Manepa Lamborghini GT3 concluded the race in second and third, celebrating the results on the podium.