Autobacs – SUPER GT – Round 7 – Autopolis

03 Oct, 2011

At 2:00 the formation lap of round seven of the SUPER GT started with the air temperature at 17°C. and the track surface temperature at 24°C. The 54-lap race would be run under the same cloudy skies that had persisted since morning.

The race began with a good start by the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Hiroaki Ishiura) from pole position, with the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) and the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi) also holding their grid positions in 2nd and 3rd place. Unable to hold its position, the No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 (Hideki Mutoh) dropped from 4th to 6th position, allowing the No. 35 D'STATION KeePer SC430 (Andre Couto) and No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 (Kazuya Oshima) moved up a position.

On the second lap, the ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 moved up another place into 4th and the top six stayed in that order through the early stages of the race. Meanwhile, at the back of the pack the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) was starting a furious charge to the front from its starting position of 12th. By lap five Motoyama passed the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Kohei Hirate) to move into 10th position, and by lap seven he overtook the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer) and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) in succession to move into 8th place.

No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R Perhaps due to tire wear, a number of machines began to fall off the pace, causing the No. 6 ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 to make early pit stops at the end of lap ten. Motoyama in the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R continued his charge and by lap eleven he found himself in 3rd position. From there he went on to overtake the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R on lap 22 and finally the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 on lap 26 to take the lead.

On lap 27 the leading MOTUL AUTECH GT-R and 3rd place DENSO SARD SC430 both made their pit stops. With fast pit work taking only 22 seconds, the DENSO SARD SC430 (Takuto Iguchi) was able to return to the track in front of the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R. When the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R returned to the race with Benoit Treluyer now at the wheel, it was passed momentarily by the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida), which had completed its pit stop on the previous lap. But, on the 30th lap Treluyer re-passed No. 46 and then pushed on to catch the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 on the third corner of lap 32.

No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 When the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Hirate) made its second pit stop on lap 34, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Treluyer) assumed the lead again, followed by the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Iguchi) and No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Yanagida) battling for 2nd place with only a few tenths of a second separating them. More than 20 seconds behind these two machines, the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Kazuki Nakajima) was running in 4th position followed by No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) now running on a two-pit stop strategy in 6th place.

Having made its pit stop earlier and its tires now at top condition, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Tachikawa) was gradually closing in on the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Tsukakoshi). On lap 40 Tachikawa managed to pass No. 17 to move into 5th position. Then on the third corner of lap 49 Tachikawa passed a stubborn Nakajima in the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 to take 4th position.

Extending his margin of lead to five seconds Treluyer cruised ahead in the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R while behind him the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Iguchi) and the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Yanagida) continued a close-fought battle for 2nd. Then, in a tragic turn of events with just two laps remaining, the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 began to slow rapidly with engine trouble around the first corner of lap 53. This allowed the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R to slip past and finally claim 2nd place as the unfortunate DENSO SARD SC430 came to a stop on the green beside the first corner with white smoke pouring from its engine.

With this, the victory went to the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R following its dramatic charge from the rear, while the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R claimed 2nd place to keep a lead of 16 points in the season ranking over No. 23. Finishing third came the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430, whose high pace had made up for a second pit stop.

In this way, the first Autopolis race since 2009 [2010 race cancelled] ended in a 1-2 finish by GT-R teams. It was a disappointing no-pointer for the No. 1 Weider HSV-010, which had come into this race standing 2nd in the season ranking. Likewise the 3rd ranked No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R gain only one point for its 10th-place finish. With this result, the championship title race to be played out in the final round has been narrowed down to two GT-R teams, the No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Yanagida/Quintarelli, MOLA) and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Motoyama/Treluyer, NISMO).

GT300 Class

The race began with a good start by the No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Tetsuya Yamano) from pole position. From there Yamano went on to lead the race at such a fast pace that he began to open up a substantial margin of lead over the chasing No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Takeshi Tsuchiya) and No. 86 JLOC LAMBORGHINI RG-3 (Yuya Sakamoto) despite the decided speed advantage the FIA GT machines have on the straights. In just three laps Yamano (No. 62) built up a lead of five seconds over car No. 25 (Tsuchiya) in 2nd place. Already it was beginning to have the look of a run-away victory for the Legacy. After the 10th lap, Yamano maintained a safe lead of nine to seven seconds while going easy on the tire wear.

That lead was in tact when he brought the No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 in for its routine pit stop after lap 24 at about mid-race. Although they say it was a softer tire choice, the skill of Yamano's tire management had enabled him to keep a sufficient lead of 7 seconds over car No. 25 (Tsuchiya) at the time of the pit stop. Then car No. 62 was turned over to second driver, Kota Sasaki.

No.11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458
This stop left car No. 25 (Tsuchiya) and No. 86 (Sakamoto) to contest the lead at close quarters for a while, until Sakamoto made a costly mistake and spun out on lap 28, dropping him back in the pack. This left Tsuchiya to contest with the No. 2 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 Apple Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) with a small margin between them through the middle stages of the race. Both teams were running on a strategy of holding off on their pit stops as long as possible, with Tsuchiya No. (25) returning to the pit on lap 32 and Katoh (No. 2) on lap 35.
With these two machines in the pit, No. 62 (Sasaki) assumed the lead again. Sasaki now had a lead of 15 seconds over the No. 2 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 Apple Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi). For Sasaki No. 62, who has always performed well at Autopolis, this was a sufficient margin of lead to allow him to run at a steady pace with care to minimize tire wear.
In contrast, the battle for 2nd was heating up. it had developed into a 3-car contest between No. 2 (Takahashi), No. 14 SG CHANGI IS350 (Ryo Orime > Alexandre Imperatori) and the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 (Tetsuya Tanaka > Katsuyuki Hiranaka) which had worked up from 6th position after an early pit stop. Amidst the maneuvering, Imperatori (No. 14) moved to the inside of Takahashi (No. 2) on the first corner with four laps remaining in the race. There, a slight bumping of the two machines caused them both to lose control slightly. This was all that Hiranaka in car No. 11 needed to slip past his two rivals on the inside to move into 2nd place. This was a big blessing for the No. 11 team, which stood 2nd in the season ranking and needed all the points it could get to improve its championship chances in the final round.

No.14 SG CHANGI IS350 Eventually, No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki) was the first to cross the finish line with a big margin, having led the race from pole to finish. This was the team's second win of the season following the victory in round five at Suzuka. Finishing 2nd was the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 (Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka), while the No. 14 SG CHANGI IS350 (Ryo Orime/Alexandre Imperatori) came home 3rd.

With these results, team No. 11 (Tanaka/Hiranaka) is once again the ranking leader as the series goes into the final round. The ranking leader before this race, the No. 4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi > Taku Bamba), had managed to hold its grip position of 5th into the middle stages of the race but fell off the pace in the latter half and finally finishing just in the point in 9th place. The winner of this race, No. 62 (Yamano/Sasaki), moves into 3rd place in the ranking but will not be in contention for the title due to the 21-point gap behind No. 11.

This means that the title race has come down to team No. 11 (Tanaka/Hiranaka) and team No. 4 Taniguchi/ Bamba) with just five points separating the two teams. It will be a very tight contest in which the first of the two to finish will have the best chance of winning the title.

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