KEIHIN HSV-010 MASTERS SUGO'S ROUND 6 SUPER GT
2010-07-27 16:42:11 Author: admin Source:
Another exciting Super GT championship round took place at the Sportsland Sugo last weekend for Round 5 of the series where the Honda HSV-010 machines dominated the order of the day. The GT500 class victory went to Keihin HSV-010 team of Toshihiro Kaneishi and Koudai Tsukakoshi (above right), while Weider HSV duo of Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval captured the second step of the podium with Eneos SC430's Daisuke Ito and Bjorn Wirdheim a distant third place. In the GT300 class, Apple·K-ONE·Shiden's Hiroki Katoh and Hiroshi Hamaguchi stormed to another win in the current season.
The 81-lap race became somewhat of a gift to Honda when the GT-Rs, clearly the favorites, were marred by unfortunate incidents in the last quarter of race. Round 4 winners Calsonic Impul GT-R at the Sepang International Circuit finished fourth to lead the GT-R contingent of HIS Advan Kondo and Motul Autech in fifth and sixth respectively.
The blue GT-R started with 66kgs’ ballast as starting driver Tsugio Matsuda had managed to climb to 4th following an accident in the lead pack, and eventually went up to the highest rank of 2nd position despite the additional weight. After the customary stop, Ronnie Quintarelli took over and joined the track in fifth which later became fourth as Motul Autech, the race leader, was demoted to sixth due to electrical faults.
Motul Autech was the clear favorites for the race, having started from pole, with starting driver Benoit Treluyer leading for his 50-lap efforts before the baton was handed to team mate Satoshi Motoyama who drove at an amazing pace lap after lap. But, misfortune soon hit the former Super GT champ on the 74th lap when the car's electrical components faulted, demoting Motoyama to an eventual 6th place finish.
Motoyama said in post-race, "The engine’s main power just stopped suddenly and I had to turn on the switch a while later to prevent further problems, but when the power came back on and the car had restarted, we already dropped a few places from the lead pack. Better luck next time!"
Elsewhere, Eneos SC430 opened up a lead to the Weider HSV-010 team at the start, but had Weider and eventual winners Keihin HSV-010 hot on its tracks in the first ten laps. The two HSV-010s easily picked off the SC430 to assume second and third in the early stint of the race with the order Weider and Keihin. As the two HSVs maneuvered between the GT300 class backmarkers, Keihin's Tsukakoshi pulled up even with Weider's Kogure several times, and on each occasion, Kogure fended off Tsukakoshi's charge.
On the last lap, a gap had opened up between the two Hondas and it looked as if Kogure was going to be able to hold his lead to the finish. But, Tsukakoshi did not give up as he hunted down Kogure into the last turn towards the finish. A backmarker hindered Kogure's options, and that was when Tsukakoshi pounced as he pulled up alongside Kogure on the outside, and the two accelerated at full speed out of the very final corner (above). As they crossed the finish line, the nose cone of Tsukakoshi's car was just ahead of Kogure's in a photo finish procedure. Keihin had edged out Weider by just 0.025 of a second. The move was ultimately declared the best overtaking move of the season.
Keihin, thus, secured their first victory and podium finish of the season, and Tsukakoshi also scored his first victory in the GT500 category.
Third place finishers Eneos SC430 takes over the lead in the championship with only a point advantage to Weider's Kogure and Duval.
The next race ascends on the awesome Suzuka Circuit for Round 6 of the series.
Results
1 KEIHIN HSV-010 Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi 1:50'27.577
2 Weider HSV-010 Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval 0'00.025
3 ENEOS SC430 Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim 0'12.633
4 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli 0'16.466
5 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R J.P.Lima de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda 0'37.837
6 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer 0'56.119
7 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer 1'14.303
8 RAYBRIG HSV-010 Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto 1'14.474
9 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons 1Lap
10 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 Andre Couto/Kohei Hirate 2Laps
Drivers' championship
1 Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim 51
2 Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval 50
3 Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli 41
4 Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer 41
5 Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi 34
6 Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons 32
7 J.P.Lima de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda 31
8 Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya Oshima 31
9 Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto 24
10 Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer 23
