The opening round of the Super Taikyu Endurance Series saw dreadful weather at Twin Ring Motegi last weekend with the #24 Kondo Racing “ThreeBond Nissan Technical College” Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 # of Tomonobu Fujii / GAMISAN / Daiki Sasaki taking pole position for the 5 hour race.
The pole setter led from the start until Fujii out braked himself on Lap four and was left to play catch-up from 7th position with the #32 K’s Frontier DR Audi R8 LMS now in the lead.
The Nissan though had far better pace and would all too soon be back with the leader and through to take advantage once again, the lead stretching to a full lap by the checkered flag.
The Audi though had ceded second position too, to the #9 Faust Racing BMW Z4 of Sakamoto/ Schuchi/ Yamano, the #9 car having come out on top not only with the battling Audi but also bettering the race long efforts of ST-1 class rival Diamango Racing in their similar #51 BMW.
In the ST-2 class Koji Matsuda in the #59 STURM MOTUL ED Subaru Impreza qualified on pole but ceded the class lead early on to the #20 RS Ogawa ADVAN Mitsubishi Lancer of Sakaguchi Ryohei.
The Lancer though hit head gasket trouble at its first stop putting the Impreza back to the class lead which it would keep to the end.
“ThreeBond Nissan Technical College GT-R” was started two years ago through the continued cooperation of the Nissan Technical College and this year 39 students from the Tochigi school were responsible for pit support. A further 5 students from the Yokohama school served as staff for sponsor relations while 70 high school students were invited to Twin Ring Motegi as a form of open campus.
