The FINANCIAL — Round 7 of SUPER GT took place at Autopolis (Hita city, Oita Prefecture) on Sunday October 2nd.
Starting from a qualifying position of 12th, the #23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) stormed through to take its second victory of the season. In addition, the championship-leading #46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli) came home in 2nd place, solidifying its position at the top of the points' table while ensuring the title fight goes down to the wire.
It had been two years since SUPER GT raced at the circuit in rural Kyushu. A refreshing breeze blew under slightly cloudy skies as a massive crowd gathered for the race, made up not only of locals, but also many fans from neighbouring Kumamoto and Fukuoka prefectures.
Official qualifying was held on Saturday, the day before the race. In charge of attacking in the #23 GT-R, an over-exuberant Benoit Treluyer crashed out in Q1. Damage to the car's front splitter meant the team was unable to advance to the afternoon's Super Lap session and had to face an unenviable starting position of twelfth on the grid. However, since the previous race at Fuji Speedway, where the pair finished sixth, they have been resurgent. Coupled with the result from this race, their motivation is at an all-time high. Starting driver Motoyama made up one position on the opening lap, and had moved into tenth place by lap five, before running eighth a couple of tours later. From there, he steadily picked off his rivals, so that by lap eleven he had moved into third! Soon after, the hard-charging Motoyama was upon the pair fighting for the lead of the race, and on lap 22, passed the #46 GT-R to take second. Just four laps later he demoted the pole-starting #39 SC430 for the lead of the race. Motoyama then pitted and handed the car over to his teammate Treluyer. At exactly the same time, the #39 SC430 came in for its driver switch, getting back out ahead of the GT-R. Once his tyres had warmed sufficiently, Treluyer began his charge. On lap 32, he passed the #39 SC430, and after all cars had made their stops, the #23 GT-R was once again in the lead. From there he built up a gap, his quick but steady pace ensuring he was never headed all the way to the chequered flag, waved after 54 laps. With victory at the Fuji round in May, this is the second win for the #23 GT-R this season. In the championship rankings, the car has moved into 2nd place, and is in a perfect position to fight for the title, to be decided at the season finale in two weeks' time.
Occupying the top spot in the championship rankings, the #46 GT-R came to the race with 60kgs' success ballast onboard, the heaviest among the GT-R entries. Despite the amount of lead in the car's floor, it missed out on pole position to the #39 SC430 in the previous day's Super Lap by literally the smallest of margins, one thousandth of a second! Nevertheless, the car would start from the front row. In the race, Quintarelli took the start, maintaining his position in the opening laps as he looked after his tyres. When the lap times of the #39 SC430 gradually dropped off, he set about bringing down the gap to the leader. Meanwhile, the #23 GT-R was running with such vigor that it swapped places with the #46 machine before pitting for its driver switch to Masataka Yanagida. In his stint in the race's latter half, the Japanese driver kept the #39 SC430 in sight, waiting for his chance to pounce. He continued to pile on the pressure from behind, eventually seeing a chance to pass at the first corner on lap 53, moving him into second place. He then greeted the end of the race on lap 54. Since the car has added another haul of championship points with this latest result, it goes into the season-ender with a massive lead in the title chase. With a 16-point gap to the 2nd-ranked car, the #23 GT-R, the #46 GT-R sits in a hugely advantageous position ahead of the decider.
Although the #24 ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Bjorn Wirdheim/Hironobu Yasuda) hasn't been in the hunt for a top finish this season, starting driver Wirdheim advanced steadily from his grid position of 15th, before handing over to Yasuda for the second half, who duly brought the car home in a credible 5th place. Meanwhile, starting eighth, the #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paolo de Oliveira) was unable to advance due to a tyre choice that didn't match track conditions. The car finished the race in 10th place.
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