It may have been the greatest stint in the history of GT World Challenge Asia competition. Running on slick tyres on a damp track, Kei Cozzolino gained twelve places and tore through a 60 second deficit aboard the #777 CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, to give he and co-driver Takeshi Kimura the win in Race 1 at Suzuka Circuit on Saturday.
If the start of Saturday’s race had gone differently, we would perhaps be talking of a different Ferrari claiming the overall victory. The #27 Yogibo Racing Ferrari started on pole with Naoki Yokomizo at the wheel for the opening stint, alongside the #18 EBM Giga Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R of Kanthadee Kusiri. The two Silver Cup class cars plunged into turns one and two, side-by-side in the wet conditions. But it took only the lightest of contact between Kusiri and Yokomizo to disturb the bright blue Ferrari and send it spinning into the barriers at the exit of turn two.
Yokomizo, the 2012 SUPER GT GT300 Drivers’ Champion, was uninjured – but his and 2020 GT300 Champion Kiyoto Fujinami’s car was done for the day, and the Safety Car was deployed.
Kusiri led from the ensuing restart, but behind them at Dunlop Curve, the #777 CarGuy Ferrari of Kimura was hit from behind by the B-Max Racing Team-operated #19 Reap Fueling Ambitions Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Hiroshi Hamaguchi. Kimura spun off and got going again, resuming from 12th overall. The race was soon neutralised under a second Safety Car when the #8 EBM Giga Racing Porsche of Setiawan Santoso spun off at Degner I.
Finally, the race restarted and proper racing resumed with just over 35 minutes left in the race, in time for the mandatory pit window to open. Silver-rated Thai driver Kusiri was still leading, with Bronze-rated Hamaguchi right behind him in second.
After pit stops were completed, Kusiri handed off the #18 EBM Giga Racing Porsche to co-driver Tanart Sathienthirakul, who resumed with the lead. Mineki Okura took over for the second stint aboard the #19 Lamborghini, but Hamaguchi’s avoidable contact with Kimura in the first stint resulted in Okura picking up a stop-go penalty, which dropped him out of the lead battle.
All the while, race leader Sathienthirakul was being pursued by the #30 Porsche Centre Okazaki 911 GT3-R of Yuta Kamimura, and the #99 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Nick Foster. With ten minutes left, Kamimura had caught the back of Sathienthirakul and the two ran tail-to-nose for the race lead, and soon enough, Foster could see the Porsche pair clearly in front of him. And with just under seven minutes left, what looked to be the race winning move was done when Kamimura went up and under through the Degner Curves to take the overall lead.
But the story of the race was Cozzolino aboard the #777 CarGuy Ferrari, who began his closing stint from 13th in the order, second to last of all the GT3 cars. With seemingly nothing to lose, Kimura insisted that his co-driver switch to slick tyres on a damp track during the pit window.
At times, Cozzolino was as many as eight, nine, even ten seconds quicker than the rest of the field in front of him on rain tyres – he was up to eighth place with less than ten minutes left. At the going rate, the thought of a podium finish went from a possibility to a near certainty. With just over two laps remaining, Cozzolino passed Sathienthirakul for third overall going into the Triangle Chicane. Seconds later, Cozzolino was past 2018 Suzuka 10 Hours pole winner Foster for second.
And as the white flag waved, Cozzolino completed this remarkable come-from-behind drive by storming past Kamimura at the final corner before the start/finish line, allowing the fluorescent yellow Ferrari through with a clear track ahead of it for the final lap. The Japanese-Italian driver, now regarded as one of the most talented GT drivers from the Asian continent, made up a one-minute deficit in less than 30 minutes of racing at the wheel.
He won the race by 8.075 seconds, completing 23 laps with a best lap of 2’08.392. In contrast, the second-fastest lap of the race was a 2’15.234 set by Kamimura.
The honour of the inaugural Fanatec Japan Cup race victory falls to the CarGuy duo of Kimura and Cozzolino, the hero of the race – who thanked his gentleman co-driver for the decision to gamble on slicks.
“After the first three laps, I thought I was betrayed,” Cozzolino said of his initial start to his stint. “But once the tyres had heat in them, well… it was the right choice, then. Really, I have to thank [Kimura], and the team for such hard work, great team work, and judgment.”
“I was pushed by car #19, I spun and hit the barriers. I was running at a good pace, but we lost the race at that moment when we hit the barriers,” said Kimura. “So the only way to come back, was to gamble, to go on slicks. And we had a problem with the tyre guns, we lost almost 30 seconds. But despite that, we were just incredibly fast.”
It’s the first overall victory for CarGuy Racing in GT World Challenge Asia since Race 1 of the 2017 round at Fuji Speedway, which had Cozzolino as one-half of their driver lineup alongside Yokomizo.
Second overall was a fantastic return for the #30 Porsche Center Okazaki 911 GT3-R of Kamimura and Hiroaki Nagai, the local automotive dealership group president who always excels around his ‘home track’ at Suzuka.
Sepang Race 1 winners Foster and Prince Jefri Ibrahim finished third overall aboard their #99 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes, to round off an all-Pro-Am podium.
Taking maximum points as the Silver Cup winners, the #18 EBM Giga Porsche of Kusiri and Sathienthirakul – who stepped in admirably in place of Sepang Race 2 winners Adrian Henry D’Silva and Earl Bamber.
The rest of the overall top ten features the #60 LMcorsa Ferrari (Kei Nakanishi/Shigekazu Wakisaka) in fifth, edging out the #5 PLUS with BMW Team Studie M4 GT3 (Tomohide Yamaguchi/Seiji Ara) by half a second, in sixth. Audi Sport Asia Team X Works’ sole remaining #22 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II (David Pun/Sandy Stuvik) was seventh, ahead of the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii) in eighth, with the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes (Prince Abu Ibrahim/Jazeman Jaafar) in ninth.
Finishing tenth overall and winning the Am Cup, were Andrew MacPherson and William Ben Porter in the 2017-spec #51 AMAC Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R, just three-tenths ahead of the #19 B-Max Lamborghini of Hamaguchi and Okura for the class victory.
GT4 was a more processional but still masterfully-driven affair for the class winners Jun Tashiro and Tatsuya Tanigawa in the #55 Team Scala Mercedes-AMG GT4, who won from pole position. A masterfully-driven opening stint from the long time Super Trofeo and Super Taikyu veteran Tashiro under the circumstances, set former Toyota GT500 and Cusco Racing GT300 driver Tanigawa up to take the car home to the chequered flag, winning by six seconds.
The #14 GTO Racing Team Mercedes of Brian Lee and Hideto Yasuoka finished second in the GT4 category, followed by the #12 Koshido Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Motoharu Sato and Katsuyuki Hiranaka in third.
Trophies and Yogibo beanbag chairs were given to all of the podium finishers after the race, but the action starts right back up again tomorrow with Race 2, where Cozzolino will be starting on pole, going for the clean sweep of the weekend.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
