Daisuke Yamawaki and Shinichi Takagi completed a perfect weekend at Fuji Speedway with a dominant Japan Cup Race 2 victory on Sunday afternoon.
The #98 K-tunes Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 struggled at the start, on a damp track, Takagi was the only driver who started on slicks. He got away fine when the Safety Car pulled in after the second formation lap, but lagged to the back of the pack once he had to put the power down.
His long-time co-driver Morio Nitta took the early lead in the #96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3, while Ryuichiro Oyagi settled into second in the #81 GTNET MotorSports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
But within 15 minutes the track began to dry, and Takagi quickly carved his way through the rest of the GT3 field. By the time the pit window opened, Takagi was lapping as much as 5-6 seconds quicker than the cars around him.
Oyagi caught up to Nitta and took the lead at the 24-minute mark but never held it over the line – Takagi passed him soon after and then began building the margin, out to 30 seconds before the rest of the field came in for new slick tyres.
When Yamawaki left the pits, he was over 50 seconds ahead of the field, and he cruised to victory by over a minute.
Second place went down to the wire though – Tadao Uematsu held off Yorikatsu Tsujiko by two-tenths of a second, as the #55 Macchina Racing McLaren 720S GT3 beat the #7 Comet Racing Ferrari of Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki.
The #96 K-tunes Lexus of Nitta and Kazunori Suenaga finished fourth, ahead of the #9 Bingo Racing Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R (Motoki Takami/Shinji Takei) in fifth, despite a spin from Takami.
Rounding out the GT3 running order was the #360 Tomei Sports Nissan (Masaaki Nishikawa/Atsushi Tanaka), then the #47 D’station Racing Aston Martin (Tatsuya Hoshino/Kenji Hama), and the #81 GTNET Nissan (Noboyuki Oyagi/Ryuichiro Oyagi) – which slumped down the order after Oyagi the elder spun out at 100R.
Yamawaki and Takagi took the lead in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship over Takei with two Japan Cup meetings still to run, at Suzuka and Okayama.
A dramatic last lap in the GT4 class saw Sunrise BLVD take its first win of the season – after Yoshitomo Makino overtook Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia’s Haridarma Manoppo on the last lap.
Manoppo was handed a 25-second lead by Kazuhisa Urabe after the pit stops but the #39 TGR-ID GR Supra GT4 struggled as the track dried out.
Manoppo, Makino, and the #50 Y’Z Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Yuki Fujii were tail-to-nose to start the final lap, and both Makino and Fujii got past before the chequered flag.
It’s the first win for the #82 Sunrise BLVD Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 of Makino and Daiki Fujiwara, just ahead of Fujii and Masaki Kano in the second-placed BMW. Manoppo and Urabe finished third, but the Indonesian Bronze driver will retain his lead in the GT4 Drivers’ standings.
The #38 Wakayama Toyota/Hojust Racing GR Supra (Noriyuki Higuchi/Takeshi Suehiro) finished fourth, with the #97 K-tunes GR Supra (Yoshichika Nagai/Masahiko Kageyama) in fifth.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group Asia
