The inaugural Super GT x DTM Dream Race was an event ten years in the making, from the first discussions about creating the platform that would become known as Class One, to today, when 22 of the best teams and drivers from both of the world’s fastest super silhouette racing series gathered for the first true cross-promotional exhibition race between the two series this weekend at legendary Fuji Speedway.
And the young man who made history as the winner of the first-ever Super GT x DTM Dream Race was New Zealand’s superstar in Japan, 25-year-old Nick Cassidy, who converted pole position into a victory in Saturday’s Race 1, driving the #37 KeePer TOM’s Lexus LC500!
Cassidy was meant to take the double-file start of Saturday’s 55-minute sprint race alongside Loïc Duval, the 2010 GT500 Champion who’d qualified 2nd in his #28 BMC Airfilters Audi RS5 DTM. But on his installation lap, the Frenchman hit a wet patch of asphalt on the approach to Dunlop Corner, veered left and skidded into a tyre barrier, damaging the left-front suspension! The damage was too great to repair, and Duval was scratched from the race as a DNS.
The KeePer TOM’s LC500 thus rolled off alone on the front row, ahead of Naoki Yamamoto and Ronnie Quintarelli, as the green lights illuminated to signal the start of the race. While it had rained on and off throughout the morning, most drivers started on slicks, and the only two drivers to start on wet tyres, two-time DTM Champion Marco Wittmann and Honda young driver Tadasuke Makino, pitted to switch over at the end of the first lap.
Four-time GT500 Champion Quintarelli got a good start and went past 2018 GT500 Champion Yamamoto, but the #23 Motul Autech NISMO GT-R of Quintarelli couldn’t keep up the pace. Once Yamamoto in the #1 Raybrig Honda NSX-GT got past him again for 2nd, Koudai Tsukakoshi (#17 Keihin NSX) would soon get past, then Yuhi Sekiguci (#36 au TOM’s LC500) for 4th, and then with a three-wide overtake on the front stretch, Sho Tsuboi (#19 WedsSport LC500) and reigning GT500 Champion Kenta Yamashita (#6 Wako’s 4CR LC500) went past and slugged it out for 5th ahead of a rapidly-falling Quintarelli, who dropped down to 12th at the chequered flag.
On Lap 7, Tsukakoshi pounced on Yamamoto going in too deep at Dunlop Corner to take 2nd, as Tsuboi, who was finding himself in all of the heated battles early on, passed Sekiguchi for 4th. Sekiguchi then found himself facing off against a familiar foe in Yamashita, just three weeks removed from their spectacular battle to decide the GT500 Championship at Twin Ring Motegi – and soon, the reigning two-time DTM Champion, René Rast, decided to join the fun in his #33 Audi Sport RS5!
All of this was playing right into the hands of Cassidy, who was enjoying a comfortable lead of as much as seven seconds over Tsukakoshi in second. Yamashita pitted on Lap 13, to start the round of routine pit work for a change of four tyres, a rapid-fire change for the Super GT crews. Cassidy’s pit stop wasn’t the quickest, but by the time all the front-runners completed their routine pit stops on Lap 21, the Kiwi still held a 4-second lead over Tsukakoshi, with Yamamoto 3rd and Tsuboi breathing down his neck in 4th.
Two more cars fell to the wayside in the second half of the race. Four-time Paralympic gold medal winner Alex Zanardi went to the garage, the gearbox issues that cropped up on the way to the grid came back. Tadasuke Makino, who set the fastest lap of the race, also went to the garage.
With nine minutes left on the clock, the race threatened to turn when the #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R broke down on the front stretch and came to a halt at the exit of pit lane, bringing out a Safety Car. For the Super GT regulars, this would be their first exposure to the double-file race restarts adopted by DTM. Cassidy’s 7-second lead was erased. He firmly believed that a Safety Car intervention at the Fuji 500 Miles ultimately cost him the title this year, and he wasn’t going to let it happen with just two minutes left in the first-ever Dream Race.
Cassidy held the lead on the restart, and in a three-lap dash for the cash, he held on to win the first leg of the dream race by 0.433 seconds over Tsukakoshi, trying all he could but unable to get past Cassidy in the end.
Yamamoto couldn’t get the car up to speed after the first few corners, but he still managed to hold on and secure 3rd place, putting two Hondas on the podium and making it a clean sweep of the podium for the GT500 runners.
“It’s been the perfect day,” said Cassidy after the race, “pole and victory are fantastic achievements, and I’m really pleased we could show our strengths. But the biggest thing is that we got to have this race today, and I hope we can race again in the future.” Echoing the sentiments of many who waited years for such an event to even take place.
“I grew up racing in Europe, and always looked up to the manufacturers and drivers competing in DTM. I really loved the style of this weekend, qualifying and racing on the same day is a lot of fun, and it’s not often we get to race on our own. I really enjoyed that, too. With more experience, the two championships can get closer, I really hope we get to do this again after this weekend.”
Meanwhile, Tsukakoshi and Yamamoto, who will also run tomorrow’s races – brought some pride to Honda in what will be the final weekend for a mid-engined GT500 car before the front-engined NSX-GT debuts in 2020.
Tsukakoshi reflected on his 2nd place finish: “Before the race, we weren’t sure if it would stay wet or dry out, so we compromised on our set-up to cover both options. It’s always difficult to attack in the wet; I started sixth and wanted to do as much as I could, I got up to second and tried to attack Nick, but it was impossible.”
“Although we practised the Indy Car restart behind the Safety Car during practice, I still felt worried about it and was determined not to make a mistake at the first corner. It was a really good race, I really enjoyed it, it would be great if the SUPER GT field could go overseas next time for us to race against DTM again.”
“First of all, I would like to thank Super GT, GTA and the DTM for this opportunity, which has been really fantastic,” said third-place finisher Yamamoto. “It was great to battle with the DTM. Unfortunately, Loïc crashed before the start, so we weren’t able to race with him, which was disappointing as I was looking forward to that battle.”
“I really enjoyed this race, but, of course, we can and will use everything we learned today, including the set-up, to prepare for tomorrow.”
Just off the podium, Yamashita went from 11th on the grid to come home in 4th place, after overtaking Tsuboi with two laps to go. That was the setup to an incredible final sprint from another familiar face and a previous GT500 Champion: Three-time Le Mans winner Benoȋt Tréluyer.
Tréluyer took the final restart all the way back in 14th place, but muscled his way past seven cars, including contact with fellow Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller that sent his #99 Akrapoviç RS5 DTM spinning, in the final sector to jump to 7th and right on the tail of Sekiguchi, as Sekiguchi was catching Tsuboi!
Tréluyer got the up-and-under pass on Sekiguchi through Coca-Cola Corner into 100R, where they almost made it three-wide through the tricky right-hander on the last lap!
Tsuboi held on to finish fifth, and Tréluyer went from 16th on the grid to finish sixth, in his first Super GT race since stepping away in 2011, and his first time racing at Fuji Speedway since 2016.
“I had a lot of fun; I really enjoyed it in the car!” Tréluyer exclaimed. “I made some mistakes, at the start, I got pushed by [Yuji] Tachikawa, but I was touching him a little bit as well, that’s racing. Anyway, after that, I caught up, then we lost a lot of time during the pit-stop, I guess that was because we didn’t practice during the week. I wasn’t ready and most of it was my fault. Then after the stop, I was able to catch up and could manage the second set of tyres a little bit better.”
“I also had a good restart. Then there was the situation with Rocky: I couldn’t move, couldn’t escape the guys who were inside. They didn’t see me. It’s a shame that he spun because of me, I was really sorry for that, but it was part of the race. It was good to have a solid pace during the race, to come back after three years was really cool!”
His was the best result for a DTM car in the race in the end. Sekiguchi ended up in 7th, Rast came home in 8th, ahead of Super GT’s “Fuji-meister” Tachikawa in 9th, and then in 10th, after starting from the very back after a heavy Friday practice crash and a grid penalty, was the #16 Motul Mugen NSX-GT of Hideki Mutoh, a fine job considering the circumstances, just over 24 hours after the car was nearly written off at the same spot that Duval’s race came to a premature end today.
In the end, the best of the Nissan runners was former Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Frédéric Makowiecki (#3 CraftSports Motul GT-R) in 11th, and the best of the BMWs was reigning Daytona 24 Hours champion Kamui Kobayashi (#00 BMW Team RBM M4) in 14th.
Tomorrow, they’ll do it all over again, another 20-minute qualifying session in the morning, and another 55 minutes of racing, with the green flag at 2:30 PM JST / 6:30 AM CET, in what will be the last races for the Lexus LC500 and the midship NSX, potentially the last races for sponsors like Calsonic and Keihin, and for a few drivers, perhaps their last Super GT starts in the premier class.
Could the DTM faction level the series, or will the GT500 cars sweep the weekend?
Images courtesy of Pierre-Laurent Ribault
