Round 6 of the SUPER GT, the International SUZUKA 1000km, was held at Suzuka Circuit on August 31st (Sun) and the #23 “MOTUL AUTECH GT-R&Rdquo; (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) carried out a tenacious run to grab the 2nd step on the podium and launch them up the top of the series rankings.
The final race began at 12:24pm. Starting in the #23 GT-R, from 3rd place on the grid, Quintarelli ticked off laps and waited for an opportunity while ensuring that the competition did not pull away. He was briefly overtaken by the #8 NSX-CONCEPT GT, which dropped him down to 4th, but his steadfast driving ensured their eventual return back to 3rd. In their first stop of the race the crew carried out a blisteringly fast pit to even further improve their time. With their machine’s power being limited by a fuel restrictor (which limits power by restricting the flow of fuel), Matsuda took the wheel and made the most of a bad situation. He did this by taking advantage of the car’s increased fuel efficiency and brought them up to 2nd when the #36 entered the pits. At lap 68 he handed the GT-R back over to Quintarelli in 2nd place. When the top vehicle went into the pits, Quintarelli temporarily took the lead. At lap 104 the reins were handed back to Matsuda who went on to make an attempt at overtaking the leading #36 RC F when it lost pace during its out-lap. Unfortunately, though his path was blocked and his attempt at a turnover was kept at bay. With the road surface becoming more than a little unruly, it was judged that recklessly attempting to overtake would be too dangerous and Matsuda therefore proceeded to focus on maintaining 2nd place. In the end the car was handed back to Quintarelli who securely maintained their position to cross the finish line in 2nd. This being their second consecutive 2nd place finish, they have come away with 18 driver’s championship points and this has put them at the top of the rankings with a lead of 4 points.
Starting from 4th on the grid in the #46 “S Road MOLA GT-R&Rdquo; (Satoshi Motoyama/Masataka Yanagida), Motoyama proceeded to engage in a fierce battle with Oliveira in the #12 “CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R&Rdquo; (Hironobu Yasuda/Joao Paulo De Oliveira) who had jumped up to 5th from a 6th place qualification. The thrilling fight between the two cars was a delight for the fans but unfortunately it was ended prematurely when the #46 suddenly lost speed. The #46 was then forced to retire due to engine trouble. With its fuel flow restricted in the same manner as the #23, the #12 GT-R was still able to drive at an impressive pace and headed into the middle stages of the race in 4th. Unfortunately, though, at lap 76, during Oliveira’s 2nd stint, the #12 made contact with another vehicle and sent it into a spin which resulted in the team getting handed a 15 second pit stop penalty. This seemed to interrupt their rhythm and at lap 106 he pitted complaining of technical issues. Yasuda took the wheel after some repairs were made to the electrical system but he made a braking error during his out-lap which saw him go off the track. After this he managed to get back on pace but would ultimately end the race in 10th with an 8 lap deficit. The #24 “D’station ADVAN GT-R&Rdquo; (Michael Krumm/Daiki Sasaki) started from 10th on the grid but was unfortunate enough to experience 2 tire punctures that would leave them finishing 5 laps behind in 9th.
In the GT300 class, the #3 “B-MAX NDDP GT-R&Rdquo; (Kazuki Hoshino/Lucas Ordonez/Wolfgang Reip) started from a 5th place qualification and Ordonez immediately jumped up to 4th in the opening lap, which raised the team’s hopes for success. However, after Hoshino handed the car over to no. 3 driver, Wolfgang Reip, these hopes were dashed by a blow out in the rear tire. This caused damage to the body panel that required approximately 1 hour to repair and left them finishing outside of the points sphere in 19th. The highest finishing NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 was the #30 “IWASAKI apr GT-R&Rdquo; (Yuki Iwasaki/Masami Kageyama/Tohjiro Azuma) which ended the race in 11th.
Comment from NISMO team principal, Yutaka Suzuki
“It’s too bad that we once again missed out on first place. However, in the end we got our hands on something even more important, the lead in the championship. This time around we went into the race with the aim of setting up a car that could still be competitive even with its fuel flow restricted and the drivers utilized this with a tenacity to be proud of. At the next round in Thailand, weight will only be assigned on the number of points attained so I think we have a good chance. As always the cheers of the fans really spurred us on today and I want to send out a thank you to all of them.&Rdquo;
Comment from #23 driver, Tsugio Matsuda
“We employed a different method to other teams and went for a strategy aimed at reducing the number of stints. To be honest though, we had to focus on saving fuel, which made this a pretty tough race. Still, when you consider the fact that we had a handicap weight of 84kg I think today’s result is pretty darn good. We got a place on the podium and the lead in the point rankings. At the next round at Thailand I want to have a solid race, grab more points and further improve our fight for the championship.
Comment from #23 driver, Ronnie Quintarelli
“I really wanted to take pole in qualification but unfortunately we couldn’t manage it and ended up starting in 3rd. I really want to thank everyone in the team for making it possible for us to finish 2nd in the race. We’ll definitely be aiming for the podium at the next race.”