Rounds three and four of the SRO Japan Cup series took place this weekend at Fuji Speedway as part of the “GT PowerTour” weekend, the first of two weekends featuring both Japan Cup and GT World Challenge Asia.
Qualifying was held Saturday morning, where past GT World Europe Sprint Cup and European Le Mans Series champion Hiroshi Hamaguchi won the pole for Race 1 that afternoon. His #19 The Spirit of FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 would start ahead of reigning champion Akihiro Tsuzuki in his #1 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
Hamaguchi, Tsuzuki, and Tadao Uematsu in the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren 720S GT3 went three-wide into TGR Corner (turn one) with Tsuzuki taking the lead on the opening lap ahead of Hamaguchi and Uematsu. Later in the lap, contact between the #96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Kazunori Suenaga and the #66 CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Takashi Toyoda knocked the Lexus out of the race, and brought out a safety car.
20 minutes into the race, a great lead battle between Tsuzuki and Hamaguchi was spoiled when Hamaguchi tried an overtake into turn one and made contact with Tsuzuki. Both cars suffered terminal damage, and Uematsu inherited the lead, followed by Yusaku Shibata in the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Both cars came to the pits where they served their success penalties from the previous race at Sugo. With that, Jake Parsons in the #27 AWD Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II took the net lead, but the Australian-born driver would have to fend off strong competition behind him to keep that advantage.
Reigning SUPER GT GT500 Champion Kenta Yamashita in the #88 McLaren caught and passed Parsons into Coca-Cola Corner (turn three) for the lead of the race, and Yuya Motojima in the #24 Mercedes-AMG overtook the Audi with less than 20 minutes to go to grab second place.
They ran in that order until the finish: Uematsu and Yamashita picked up their first win as a pairing in the #88 Miracolo McLaren, 3.775 seconds ahead Max Racing’s Shibata and Motojima, then AWD Racing’s Parsons and Jesse Swinimer in third.
Norikazu “Norik” Shibata and Taku Bamba finished fourth in the #181 Norik Racing Ferrari 296, followed by the #9 Bingo Racing with LM Corsa Porsche 911 GT3 R (Shinji Takei/Ukyo Sasahara) and the #97 K-tunes Ferrari (Betty Chen Yinyu/Shinichi Takagi).
GT3 Am honours went to the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Yorikatsu Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki. This will be the team’s full-season plan going forward after Kei Cozzolino’s departure from the organisation was confirmed last month.
The reigning champions at Hitotsuyama Racing were determined to make up for Saturday’s misfortunes, and lucky for them, Shintaro Kawabata would start on pole in the #1 Ferrari. Next to it was a surprise front-row starter, Natsu Sakaguchi in the #935 Galah Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
Ukyo Sasahara overtook Sakaguchi for second place on the opening lap, putting the #9 Bingo/LM corsa Porsche up to second place behind polesitter Sasahara. Contact between the #27 Audi of Parsons and #181 Ferrari of Bamba led to a safety car to clear debris, and a drive-through penalty for Parsons.
On the subsequent restart, the #1 Ferrari had trouble getting up to speed, allowing Sasahara to drive past Kawabata to the lead. The #935 Nissan of Sakaguchi, and the #88 McLaren of Race 1 winner Yamashita, would also get by, dropping Kawabata to fourth place – while Sasahara and Sakaguchi ran first and second.
After the pit window closed, Shinji Takei took over the #9 Porsche and the lead of the race. “Galah,” the woman who is both the namesake and Bronze driver of the #935 Nissan, initially took over second place but fell down the order and eventually out of the overall top ten.
The #1 Ferrari, now in the hands of Akihiro Tsuzuki, moved up to second. Kazunori Suenaga ran third in the #96 Lexus, which looked as if it would avenge the Race 1 retirement – before it had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for a short pit stop, a bummer for Suenaga, and for Toyota factory ace Nirei Fukuzumi.
With 15 minutes to go, Tsuzuki caught and passed Takei for the race lead. The #9 Porsche of Takei and the #24 Mercedes-AMG of Yusaku Shibata then battled for second, with Shibata winning out with a little over three minutes left.
The #1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari took the win, its second of the year, 5.790 seconds ahead of the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG. Two runner-up finishes for Shibata and Motojima have given Max Racing the GT3 championship lead after four rounds.
In third place was the #9 Bingo/LM corsa Porsche of Takei and Sasahara, while the #88 Miracolo McLaren of Uematsu/Yamashita finished fourth. The Miracolo Tokyo team is just five points behind Shibata/Motojima for the lead in the GT3 standings, Takei/Sasahara are 10 points behind, and Tsuzuki/Kawabata trail by 12 points in what is a very tight battle at the top.
Fifth place overall and top honours in GT3 Am went to Hamaguchi and Mineki Okura in the #19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini, which also bounced back from its disappointment in Race 1. The #45 PONOS Ferrari was second in class, sixth overall.
In a three-car GT4 class, the only Pro-Am entry was the #82 Zenko RS Garage with Sunrise Blvd. Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport. Yoshitomo Makino and Takeshi Suehiro took GT4 victories in both races, and now leads the standings by 45 points over its only full-time competition, the #44 Team Pop Race Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Kelvin Ho and Maaya Orido.
SRO Japan Cup travels to Okayama International Circuit next month for its third double-header round on 28–30 August.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
