Nissan took first blood at the opening round of the 2016 Super GT season at Okayama, winning the GT500. The #1 MOTUL AUTECH Nissan GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli showed their champion prowess in coming from 3rd on the grid to take a well-earned victory. In the GT300 class, the #65 Leon CVSTOS Mercedes AMG-GT of Hiroki Kurosawa and Naoya
The #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F successfully cleared the first turn of the race in the lead, followed by the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F (Andrea Caldarelli) and the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli). In an attempt to stage a repeat of the team’s win here last year at Okayama, James Rossiter was quick on the through the opening lap in hopes of opening up a margin of lead. On the second lap, his margin grew to 1.6 seconds and on lap three to 2.2 sec.
Meanwhile, behind the leaders, in the group including the #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda), #39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Kohei Hirate) and the #38 ZENT CERUMO RC F battle for 5th position the #19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuhi Sekiguchi) was thrilling the crowd with his bold overtakes. Having started from eighth position on the grid, Sekiguchi managed to move up to 6th position by the 11th lap.
In the early going, the battle for the lead among the top three was in a stale-mate, but after the 21st lap the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R running in 3rd position began to close the gap on the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F in 2nd place. By the 22nd lap the gap was down to 0.4 sec. and soon the two cars were running nose to tail. This battle between the two Italian drivers continued until the hairpin of the 28th lap, where Quintarelli finally passed Caldarelli. This put the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R in 2nd position.
With that momentum, #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R charged on until the 34th lap, gradually closing the gap to the leading #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F. From there, just when it looked as if a battle for the lead was about to begin, the #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F pulled in for its routine pit stop on the 35th lap while still holding the lead. In the driver change, Ryo Hirakawa took over from Rossiter for the second half of the race.
Meanwhile, with the #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F now in the pit, Quintarelli ran on hard to build up a margin of lead for the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R before bringing it into the pit at the end of the 38th lap. Tsugio Matsuda replaced Quintarelli at the wheel, as the NISMO crew, known for their fast pit work, completed the it in just 40.8 of stationary time before sending the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R back out to the track.
All attention was now focused on what the respective positions of the #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F and the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R would be when the latter returned to the track after its pit stop. Then, with the pace slowed on the 40th lap, the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R emerged in the lead. What’s more it came out with a lead of about eight seconds.
The #1 team had taken the lead with a strategy truly worthy of champions.
As the race entered its second half, the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Matsuda) held the lead with the KeePer TOM’S RC F (Hirakawa) in second, and in 3rd came the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F (Kazuya Oshima) that had finished its pit stop on the 37th lap, followed by the #46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R 4th, with Katsumasa Chiyo now having replaced Satoshi Motoyama at the wheel.
With Chiyo – who had driven the #46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R so impressively in the previous day’s Q1 qualifying session – now among the leaders, he began his second-half charge with a bold overtake. On the 45th lap, having closed the gap on the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F in 3rd place, Chiyo pulled along side it on the 50th lap and ran through hairpin, the Revolver Corner and Piper Corner in a side-by-side battle. Oshima in the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F held on stubbornly, but in the same section of the track on the 52nd lap, Chiyo managed o pull his #46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R past Oshima and move into 3rd position.
Keeping the momentum going, the #46 KeePer TOM’S RC F began to close the gap on the #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F running in 2nd position. As the tyre performance on both cars gradually worsened, the two young drivers Hirakawa and Chiyo would fight a nose-to-tail battle over nearly the final ten laps of the race.
In front of these two, the #1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli > Tsugio Matsuda) kept the lead and ran on to the checkers with a 15.334-sec. margin of victory at the finish! The 2015 champion pair had won the first round of the 2016 season. This win also made Tsugio Matsuda sole holder of the record for most GT500 class career wins, with 17.
In the battle for 2nd that continued down to the wire, the #37 KeePer TOM’S RC F (Ryo Hirakawa/James Rossiter) managed to hold off the #46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R and finish 2nd. The #46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama > Katsumasa Chiyo) finished 3rd, enabling Chiyo to mount the podium in his GT500 debut race. His teammate and three-time champion Motoyama had to acknowledge the accomplishment with the comment, “Chiyo was amazing this weekend.”
Finishing 4th after starting from second position on the grid was the #6 WAKO’S 4CR RC F (Kazuya Oshima and Andrea Caldarelli), and 5th place went to the #CALSONICIMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda and Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) that had succeeded in overtaking the #38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa) on the 61st lap. Among the Honda NSX-GT CONCEPT teams, the #100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naomi Yamamoto and Takuya Izawa) race stubbornly to finish 10th and earn one series point.
In GT300 with the pole-starting #25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) at the front, the other machines of the top four qualifiers, the #65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa), #7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller) and the #61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi), followed in that order, while the #55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) came into 5th position by the end of the first lap after moving up slightly from the start.
As the GT300 cars began to be lapped by the GT500 cars from the fifth lap after the start, the gaps between them fluctuated some, but there were no major changes in the running order and the race proceeded without mishap. Once the #11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Bjorn Wirdheim) and No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) that had been overtaken by car #55 at the start had re-passed it, the race settled once again into its original order. It wasn’t until after the 15th lap of the race that positions began to change. Kurosawa in car #65 began to close in gradually behind Tsuchiya in car #25. This didn’t result in an overtake, and eventually the gap opened up again, but it was an exchange that would be indicative of the developments coming in the second half of the race.
At the end of the 30th lap the race order stood unchanged in the top three, with the #25 VivaC 86 MC in the lead followed by the #65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT and #7 Studie BMW M6, while behind them the always strong #11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) and #4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) were moving up in the order.
A nip and tuck battle continued between the two leaders, but seeing that no overtake could be easily made, the #65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT made its routine pit stop earlier than planned at the end of the 31st lap and changed drivers to Naoya Gamou.
In this stop, the team carried through on a strategy they had tested from the official practice of changing only the two left-side tires. As for the leading #25 VivaC 86 MC, it made its pit stop four laps later, changing drivers from Tsuchiya to Takamitsu Matsui, but on the first lap back in the race, with his tyres still not warmed up thoroughly, Matsui was easily passed by Gamou in the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT on the third corner.
In the #25 VivaC 86 MC, Matsui continued to have trouble picking up the pace after that, and in the double hairpins of lap 42, he was passed by the veteran Nobuteru Taniguchi in the #11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3, thus giving up 2nd place. After that, Matsui continued to drop in position but managed to hold on for an eventual 6th-place finish at the checkers.
Meanwhile, after moving into 2nd place, Taniguchi now had the #7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara) and #11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) that had subsequently passed Matsui. With this, the leading group now consisted of the new FIA-GT3 regulation cars. Then the #51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3, having changed drivers from Akihiro Tsuzuki to the veteran Morio Nitta, also passed Matsui to give the top five places to FIA GT3 cars.
Among the JAF-GT300 MC cars, the #25 VivaC 86 MC’s 6th place was the top finish. Besides that, the 12-place finish of the #31 TOYOTA PRIUS GT (Koki Saga and Yuichi Nakayama) was the next best result for a JAF-GT300 regulation car.
