Finishing second in the Fuji 500, the longest race of the season, has propelled the No. 1 KeePer TOM’S LC500 of Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy into the lead of the Autobacs SUPER GT Series. It is the third podium of the season for the pairing giving them a seven- point lead over the round winners, the No. 36 au TOM’S LC500 of Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi.
“We finished second for the race,” commented Cassidy. “Pretty cool for the team with a 1-2. It’s been a good day, with a lot of points. We were able to hold station at the end to preserve the brakes and nursed the car home.”
It was a come from behind victory for Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi after starting third on the grid. The No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) started the race in the pole position and kept the top spot, leading the race in the early stages.
The No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Jann Mardenborough) took over the lead in the middle of the race, followed by MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) and No. 24 ForumEngineering ADVAN GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira/Mitsunori Takaboshi), with the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 holding the top three spots until the middle stages. Running behind them was No. 36 au TOM’S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi).
In the final stages of the race, the No. 23 and No. 24 cars began to slow. CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R cleared its final pit stop in top position. But right after that, it developed engine trouble and had to make an emergency pit stop.
With this, au TOM’S LC500 took the race lead. Previously in the last round in Thailand (Thai Round), the au TOM’S LC500 was vying for the top spot when it ran out of gas to lose the race, but this time it finished the race to take its first victory of the season.
In second place was No. 1 KeePer TOM’S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy), in 3rd No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure) who started from 14th on the grid due to trouble during the qualifying.
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