Race GT500: Come-from-Behind Win on the Final Lap

The MOTEGI GT 300km RACE, Round 7 of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series took place on the afternoon of November 7 (Sun.) at Twin Ring Motegi (one lap 4,801m x 63 laps) in Tochigi Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) pulled off a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the final lap of the race to score their second straight win of the series. In the GT300 class, the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Shintaro Kawabata/Takuro Shinohara) came from a 5th- position start to claim victory.

 

■Matsushita jumps ahead with fantastic start in CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R

 Twin Ring Motegi circuit enjoyed the same warm conditions and clear autumn skies as the previous day’s qualifying. The race’s Formation Lap was started at 1:00 in the afternoon. In the pre-noon warm-up run, the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) suffered damage to its rear end when hit from behind by a GT300 car, but repairs were completed with spare parts in time for it to start as scheduled from eighth position on the grid. Also, due to the fact that the cumulative Driving Moral Hazard Prevention score of driver Hiroki Otsu of the No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT scheduled to start from the 11th grid position had reach the violation limit of six, he was penalized by having his team’s starting position was moved back four places to the very end of the GT500 class grid.

 

 At the start of the race, the pole position-sitting No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra managed to keep its lead. But during the opening lap, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Nobuharu Matsushita) that had jumped up from a 4th-position grid start moved in on No. 19’s tail. Holding 3rd and 4th positions respectively came No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi) and the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT. Meanwhile, the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN GT-R that had started from the 2nd grid spot found itself back in 5th position. After this, through the early stages of the race the top three cars ran on ahead with a roughly 1-sec. gap between each of them and gradually opened up a lead over the second group from 4th position back.

 On the 9th lap of the race, a GT300 car ran off the track, and to solve the problem an FCY (Full course yellow) was declared from the 10th lap. Then on the 14th lap of the race, there was another accident as two GT300 cars collided with each other and ran off the track, thus brining on a second FCY. Helped perhaps by this confusion, car No. 12 was able to close in on the tail of the leading car No. 19. With this momentum, No. 12 successfully overtook No. 19 on the 21st lap to take the lead.

 As the race approached the mid-way point on the 22nd lap, the leading No. 12 was the first to make its routine pit stop. At the same time, car No. 8 running in 3rd place also made its pit stop, while the next lap saw No. 19 returned to the pit. After that all of the GT500 cars finished their routine pit stops by the 31st lap.

 

 

■The latter stages see a fierce, prolonged battle between Hiramine in car No. 12 and Nojiri in No. 8

 At this point, the No. 12 (Kazuki Hiramine) was back in the lead, followed by Tomoki Nojiri in car No. 8 about 3 seconds behind. Behind them came car No. 19 in 3rd place. During the middle stages of the race, No. 12 gradually opened up its lead over No. 8, and it looked as if it might run on that way to the win.

 However, from just after the 40th lap or so, the margin between the two cars began to narrow, and with 14 laps remaining in the race that margin was down to less than one second. In the final stages of the race, the pace of Nojiri in car No. 8 was a bit faster, so it became a question of whether Hiramine in No. 12 could hold off this attack and maintain his lead to the finish. Before the final lap of the race, Nojiri was able to pull even on the inside of car No. 12, but each time Hiramine was able to block him successfully with no mistakes.

 Then, as the two entered the main straight on the final lap, car No. 12 began to run out of gas. There was no way that Nojiri in car No. 8 could miss this opportunity. The speed of car No. 12 dropped drastically after the third corner, allowing No. 8 to pass it in an instant and go on to reach the goal first. As for Hiramine in No. 12, he used every means possible to preserve his remaining gas and make it across the finish line. But, before he could cross the goal line, he was passed on the main straight by car No. 19, which had close what at one point had been a 20-sec. gap from the leader. With this, No. 12 finished the race in 3rd place.

 

 The win went to the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi), giving the team its second consecutive win after the one in the previous round at AUTOPOLIS. With these results, the No. 8 pair moved to within five points of the ranking leader, Naoki Yamamoto of the No. 1 team, as the two teams enter the final round of the series at Fuji Speedway. As with Round 4 at Motegi, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Ritomo Miyata) finished 2nd. Third place went to the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine/Nobuharu Matsushita), which despite failing to win this race will still have a shot at the season title in the final round of the series.

 Although the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) failed to win any series points this time by finishing 12th, the team will still go into the final round as the ranking leader. A total of six teams will join No. 1 in the final battle for the title in the last round.

 

2021.11.12. 10:32, Petra

Sportsland Sugo- photos

2021.09.17. 10:33, Petra

Super GT 2021 - Suzuka- Photos

2021.08.23. 10:20, Petra

Kovalainen fears pre-season testing form was an "illusion"

Heikki Kovalainen admits he's concerned the SARD Toyota's strong SUPER GT pre-season testing form may have been an "illusion" after managing just one point for 10th last weekend at Motegi.

Prior to the season, ex-Formula 1 racer Kovalainen was buoyed by a winter he described as the best he and SARD had had since their 2016 title success, praising the progress the team had made under the leadership of new-for-2020 team director Juichi Wakisaka.

But the first three rounds of the season haven't gone according to plan for Kovalainen and his teammate in the #39 Toyota GR Supra, Yuichi Nakayama, who finished fourth in the Okayama season opener before slipping to sixth at Fuji and then 10th in Sunday's Motegi round.

"We didn’t have enough pace, it’s as simple as that," Kovalainen told Motorsport.com. "We didn’t deserve any more than one point, and we wouldn’t have even got that if some cars didn’t have problems.

"The car balance all weekend didn’t feel as good as it did in previous events. I wasn’t able to go forwards in the race, I was stuck in the group at the back and didn’t have the legs to make any real progress. We stopped a bit late as well and we probably lost some positions from that.

"I think I was the only one on the soft tyre and it didn’t feel that great. It was consistent but in these conditions the grip level wasn’t high. The hard tyre seemed better, but I don’t know if that’s the main reason we struggled or not. 

"We didn’t finish that far behind the group from sixth position, behind the #3 [NDDP/B-Max] Nissan. We just didn’t have the pace to get ahead of anyone in that queue, and it was very hard to pass."

After Nakayama qualified down in 12th place on Saturday, Kovalainen was unable to make any real progress in the opening stint before coming on lap 29 of 63 to hand over to Nakayama.

The duo were on course to finish outside of the points before gaining positions when both the Nakajima Racing and Real Racing Hondas hit problems, causing both to drop out of the race.

Following qualifying, Kovalainen said SARD had experimented with a set-up more in line with Nakayama's preferences, complaining of a lack of running on fresh tyres, but said the team had returned to a "baseline" set-up for the race.

"It’s a strange situation," he added. "The TOM’S cars are where we should be, and we don’t seem to be able to make that step. At times during the winter we felt close, but in all three races we haven’t been able to capitalise on that promise that was there in the winter.

"Whether it was a real promise or an illusion, I don’t know. At the moment it looks like it was an illusion."

Kovalainen and Nakayama now sit seventh out of the 15 GT500 crews in the points table, and fifth among the six Toyota GR Supra squads.

Their tally of 14 points mean they will carry a 28kg success handicap for next month's fourth round of the season at Suzuka.

"The margins are still small," said Kovalainen. "We don’t need to find a second per lap, just a few tenths. But in SUPER GT the margins are so tight, and if we could qualify in the top four the race would be very different.

"I don’t like this trend of always being behind and having to wait for the top cars to have fuel restrictors before we can finish ahead of them. I want to see us there on merit. We have to keep working to find a bit more speed."

www.motorsport.com

2021.07.20. 15:51, Petra

Twin Ring Motegi - PHOTOS+ RESULT

   

GT500 race results:

Pos.

No.

Drivers

Team

Car

Tyre

Gap

1

1

Japan Naoki Yamamoto

Japan Tadasuke Makino

Kunimitsu

Honda

B

63 laps

2

19

Japan Yuji Kunimoto

Japan Ritomo Miyata

Racing Project Bandoh

Toyota

Y

3.221

3

36

Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi

Japan Sho Tsuboi

TOM’S

Toyota

B

11.880

4

16

Japan Ukyo Sasahara

Japan Toshiki Oyu

Mugen

Honda

D

29.226

5

8

Japan Tomoki Nojiri

Japan Nirei Fukuzumi

ARTA

Honda

B

30.521

6

3

Japan Kohei Hirate

Japan Katsumasa Chiyo

NDDP/B-Max

Nissan

M

54.164

7

37

Japan Ryo Hirakawa

Japan Sena Sakaguchi

TOM'S

Toyota

B

56.742

8

38

Japan Yuji Tachikawa

Japan Hiroaki Ishiura

Cerumo

Toyota

B

57.272

9

23

Italy Ronnie Quintarelli

Japan Tsugio Matsuda

NISMO

Nissan

M

57.773

10

39

Finland Heikki Kovalainen

Japan Yuichi Nakayama

SARD

Toyota

B

58.320

 

2021.07.20. 12:33, Petra
 

 

 
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