Astemo NSX-GT and STANLEY NSX-GT Finish 1-2

Autopolis in the race week was blessed with fine weather and both the ambient and road surface temperatures hiked up. During the free practice session in Saturday morning, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Nobuharu Matsushita) who had marked superb times till then veered off the track and damaged the front parts. It was feared at one time that the #17 car won’t be able to take part in qualifying, however, team’s swift efforts to repair the damage avoided such mishap, and the entire brigade of NSX-GT proceeded to the Q1 session in the afternoon.

As the result from Q2, #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) took the 2nd grid, #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) 6th, and #64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) 7th. As for #17 Astemo NSX-GT having been repaired in time for qualifying albeit insufficient set up adjustment, Matsushita made it through to Q2 and Koudai Tsukakoshi captured 4th grid, thus maintained high hope to the race on Sunday.

Yet another fine weather on the race day saw the ambient temperature went up to 26℃ and so did the road surface to 46℃ at the peak, and at 1:30 p.m., the 65-lap race was green-flagged. While #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) kept its 2nd slot, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Matsushita) launching from 4th grid soon closed in on #19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra, and passed it to 3rd place on lap 19.

#100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Makino) running 2nd came in for new tires and refueling after 22 laps, the minimum stint that allows driver change without penalty, and handed the car over to Yamamoto. Did the same on a lap later, switching from Matsushita to Tsukakoshi,  the #17 car benefited from a little bit less pitting time returned the track just in front of #100 STANLEY NSX-GT.

The pole sitter of the race, #24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z made its stop after 27-laps, and duly changed drivers, however, the pace of the two early-stoppers, i.e., #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) and #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) was way faster than the then race leader, the NSX-GT duo established 1-2 formation with #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) first and #100 STANLEY (Yamamoto) following behind.

In the later half of the race, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) went on to lead the pack in which #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto) and #24 Z were getting closer to the top while fighting for the runner up position. But after the 40th lap or so, #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi) collected spare speed from somewhere and further widened the lead. #100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Yamamoto), in the meantime, put #24 Z’s fierce chase under control, and took an invaluable part making up the 1-2 finish by NSX-GT.

The race winner, #17 NSX-GT (Tsukakoshi/Matsushita) adding up 20-points to the total score placed itself 3rd over all (54-points) behind #3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z leading the series with the total of 58-points and #12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z 2nd with 55.5-points. #100 NSX-GT added up 15-points and placed 4th over all with the total of 41-points. The two NSX-GT cars, #17 and #100 still have chance for the series title that will be decided in the final round at Motegi just a month ahead from now.