Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT Finish on the Podium in 3rd Place

The SUPER GT race has so far been conducted on the distance-oriented race format between 250-1000km, but for this time, as an experimental case, the race was run on a 3-hour time-oriented format. The race distance is estimated to be around 500km, and the 2-stop strategy is deemed as the standard practice.

Fuji Speedway on May 3 (Fri) was blessed with fine weather. CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars were generally in good shape right from the 10 min Q1 session began at 2:58 p.m., and #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta) marked the top time followed immediately by #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) and then by #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu), making up a CIVIC TYPE R-GT’s 1-2-3 sweep going into the Q2 session. #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tadasuke Makino) that had finished 3rd in the opening round had to accept the undeserved 8th fastest time partially due to the 24kg success weight.

The Q2 session started at 3:54 p.m. saw another clean shot made by #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) that eventually marked the aggregated top time added up on Q1 time. This is the maiden pole position achieved for the first time by CIVIC TYPE R-GT in its second official appearance. #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Ren Sato) marked the second best time next to #17 car, however, the time was nullified because yellow flags were presented on the track during its attack. By this mishap, #16 car was forced to start the race from the grid as low as 14th. #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Nobuharu Matsushita) seized the 4th grid and #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) 6th to start the race.

May 4 (Sat), the race day was again greeted by clear blue sky, and the race started at 1:36 p.m. #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tsukakoshi) started from the pole position, but was soon caught by #3 Niterra MOTUL Z from outside and was passed by at the exit of Turn-1. Worse still, #17 car was overtaken also by #23 MOTUL AUTECH Z and dropped down to 3rd. As it is, #17 car made its first stop on Lap-34 and then retrieved the 2nd place back from #23 car when it made stop on Lap-38.

In the meantime, #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Matsushita) launching from 4th grid made its first stop on Lap-33 and was handed over to Nojiri, who began closing up on #23 car running now in 3rd. Later on Lap-71, Nojiri overtook #23 car at Turn-1 and climbed up to 3rd making the CIVIC TYPE R-GT’s 2-3 formation with #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT ahead.

#17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tsukakoshi) running 2nd made its second stop on Lap-74 and Ohta clung on the duty. As #3 car was also pitted at the same time, #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Nojiri) took up the nominal top position. #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Nojiri) came in on Lap-78 for the second driver change to Matsushita, who returned to the course ahead of #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Ohta) but behind #23 car that had completed its second stop earlier. This means that #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Matsushita) was now running 3rd and #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Ohta) was chasing it hard in 4th. An head-on fight between two CIVICs for the 3rd place looked imminent.

To everyone's surprise, however, #8 ARTA MUGEN TYPE R-GT (Matsushita) was hit by a transmission failure on Lap-110, and hurried to the pit only to have the team decide the pitiable retirement. #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Ohta) inherited a windfall 3rd knowing that further pursuit of #23 car in front for 2nd was not feasible because the race was entering its final stage. CIVIC TYPE R-GT achieved a back-to-back podium finish following the season opener in April. #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Yamamoto/Makino) came in 7th, another back-to-back point finish on its own merits.