The #23 Motul Autech NISMO GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarell scored an outstanding victory from pole position at the season-ending Motegi GT Grand Final at Twin Ring Motegi, ahead of the #37 KeePer TOM’s Lexus LC500 of Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy, who by finishing second this afternoon, clinched the GT500 Drivers’ Championship, and became the youngest GT500 champions in history, both drivers just 23 years of age.
There was high drama right on the drop of the green flag for the 53-lap season finale, as the #6 Wako’s 4CR LC500 of Andrea Caldarelli collided with Quintarelli’s GT-R in the final corners of the formation lap. Quintarelli drove off after suffering from a bit of tyre rub on the right rear quarterpanel, but the Wako’s LC500 suffered more significant front-end damage – which would only worsen throughout the day.
On lap 4, Cassidy, who started third in the KeePer LC500, made the decisive overtake in the championship race as he lunged past the damaged Wako’s LC500. Even as Quintarelli built up a commanding race lead before pitting on lap 24, second place for the KeePer TOM’s team would give them the championship by just two points.
Matsuda drove the Motul GT-R home to their first win of the season, and likewise, Hirakawa was trusted to drive the final 31 laps in the KeePer/Red Bull LC500, and clinched the championship with their second place finish.
The #38 ZENT Cerumo LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) quietly drove on to an impressive third place finish, and after a fierce battle for position and bragging rights, the #17 Keihin Honda NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure) outduelled the #100 Raybrig NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Takuya Izawa) for fourth place, best of the Hondas at their second home circuit.
“Considering the car’s performance issues at the start of this season, I think we did great to come back this well,” said Quintarelli. “I feel some disappointment that we didn’t get the championship title, but by getting today’s win we were able to end the season on a good note.”
Matsuda added, “We were finally able to win for the first time in this final round because the whole team came together and we worked to make progress on the machine and tire package. I want us to keep this flow going and come back next year to re-take the title.”
The NISMO driver duo made history to themselves with their victory: Tsugio Matsuda scored his 19th career GT500 race victory, moving him back into sole posession of first place for the most career premier class victories. Ronnie Quintarelli, with his 13th career win, broke a tie with Benoît Tréluyer and Ralph Firman to become the winningest foreign driver of all-time.
Even after falling just two points shy of the championship, the NISMO team of Matsuda, Quintarelli, team principal Yutaka Suzuki, and the fabled “red car” can make a definitive case for being the greatest GT500 team of all time.
In GT300, Mercedes-AMG GT3s took both the final win of the season, as well as the championship, as the #65 LEON Cvstos AMG of Haruki Kurosawa & Naoya Gamou took the lead on the penultimate lap of an intense strategic battle to win their second race of the season.
The #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG of Nobuteru Taniguchi & Tatsuya Kataoka led the first half of the race, then drove on to a comfortable third place finish – enough to clinch the third championship in seven years for Goodsmile Racing with Team UKYO, and the record-equalling third GT300 Drivers’ Championships for Taniguchi and Kataoka.
The #55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Sean Walkinshaw) looked poised to win after they pitted on lap 31 for fuel only, and came out over ten seconds to the good of the #25 VivaC Toyota 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui/Kenta Yamashita), which also pitted for fuel only. But the LEON AMG of Gamou, which took fuel and new front tyres only, would close in on Walkinshaw rapidly over the final laps – before making the pass for the win at Turn 1 with 2 laps to go.
The ARTA BMW would hang on to finish second, with the championship-winning Miku AMG third, and the VivaC 86 eventually slipping to fifth behind the #9 Gulf NAC Porsche 911 GT3-R (Jono Lester/Kyosuke Mineo) – which recovered from a bizarre crash in the morning warm-up session to finish an outstanding fourth place.
“I think that for me, today’s race was a good one,” said Gamou, reflecting on his last-gasp victory. “When I passed car No. 55, it looked like its tire condition wasn’t good and the car went wide on the last corner, so I went strongly to the in-side and pulled even and managed to get past it.”
“Naoya-san has grown into a very good driver for us and we were able to compete without mistakes on the part of us drivers or the team, and in the end we were able to get this win and finish the year ranked 2nd,” Kurosawa added. “Next season will be our second with Bridgestone and I think we will it will make us stronger.”
Images courtesy of GT Association
