Reigning SRO Japan Cup champions Akihiro Tsuzuki and Shintaro Kawabata won’t give up their crown without a fight. The drivers of the #1 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 took the win in Race 1 at Suzuka Circuit to keep the championship battle alive until tomorrow morning’s final race.
Hitotsuyama Racing undercut the polesitting #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Yusaku Shibata and Yuya Motojima in the pit window to take the net lead of the race, and drove away over the second half to win the race by 2.754 seconds. Shibata and Motojima, who entered today’s race with a chance to clinch the GT3 championship early, finished second and maintain a 13-point lead in the overall and Pro-Am points table.
Shibata took the lead around the outside of turns one and two on the first green flag lap of the race, while behind him, Jesse Swinimer in the #27 AWD Racing Audi was turned around by Yusaku Maezawa in the #555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari, which triggered an early Safety Car intervention.
When racing resumed, Shibata was at the head of a three-car train ahead of fellow Bronze drivers Yorikatsu Tsujiko in the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari and Mineki Okura in the #19 Spirit of FFF Racing Lamborghini. Just before the pit window opened, Shibata ran wide through Spoon Curve, opening the door for Tsujiko to barge his way past. The contact between them inflicted light damage to the #24 Max Racing AMG which may have prevented Motojima from closing the gap in the second half of the race.
From as low as fifth during Tsuzuki’s stint, the #1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari had a perfectly timed and executed pit stop which allowed Kawabata to eventually take the team’s third win of the year, moving them up to second in the standings, 13 points behind Max Racing.
The #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren 720S GT3 of Tadao Uematsu and Kenta Yamashita completed the podium in third place, only 0.558 seconds behind the #24 Max Racing AMG.
A similar undercut strategy empowered the #19 Spirit of FFF Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Okura and Hiroshi Hamaguchi to fourth place overall and the GT3 Am win. Okura and Hamaguchi have taken a three-point lead in the Am standings over the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari of Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki.
The #9 Bingo Racing with LM corsa Porsche 911 GT3 R (Shinji Takei/Ukyo Sasahara) clings to its title hopes with a fifth-place finish, followed by the #96 K-tunes Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Kazunori Suenaga/Sena Sakaguchi), which took the chequered flag with no major issues in sixth.
Takei and Sasahara are now 21 points back from the championship lead, while Uematsu and Yamashita trail by 25 points and can conceivably win the championship on countback.
PONOS Racing’s Ferrari was seventh, while Jake Parsons salvaged an eighth place finish for the #27 AWD Racing Audi after Swinimer’s incident, one spot ahead of Maezawa and Naoki Yokomizo in the #555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari.
The #82 Zenko RS Garage with Sunrise Blvd Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport of Yoshitomo Makino and Takeshi Suehiro took another GT4 class win, over 30 seconds ahead of the #29 E-Needs Racing Toyota of Kota Murase and Tatsuya Osaki.
To preserve its challenge for the Suzuka 1000km, Norikazu “Norik” Shibata and Taku Bamba’s #81 Norik Racing Ferrari withdrew from the remainder of the Japan Cup weekend.
Sunday’s final race starts at 9:10 AM JST.
