The 2013 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series consists of a total of eight rounds in one and now there is only the Round 8 “MOTEGI GT250km RACE” left in the season. As championship decision has been put off to the upcoming final round in both GT500 and GT300 classes, this race will be the place for conclusive battle. The stage is the same as last year, Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Prefecture), reputed as a difficult track, and the dates are November 2nd (Qualifying) and 3rd (Race). What kind of dramatic ending is waiting at the end this year?
Conclusive battle fought out in a short distance on a difficult track. Must stay tuned in from qualifying.
Twin Ring Motegi is a difficult track. Short straights and tight turns that rotate around, it is what is called “stop and go” layout. Overtaking with the speed on straightaway or by late-braking before a turn would be a difficult task to do, and, thus, less chance to pass during the race. In addition, the race distance is the shortest in the series at 250km. In another words, there are less time to recover than in usual races.
Given the above, the qualifying would have more importance. To mandate victory or a podium finish, one would need to get into the third row (sixth in qualifying) or above on the starting grid, or remain in the Q2 at least. For that, teams should be more focused than usual to put everything they have from the qualifying. There could well be a team that would select softer tires than its rival to prioritize the lap time obtained by one shot. Of course, any teams can make mistake and drop out in Q1. Knock-out qualifying is already filled with tensed atmosphere in all other series races, but the one in the final round at Motegi gets even hotter than other races. Fans should put their focus from there.
There are surprising 8 candidates for GT500 champion.
This season’s GT500 class is just turmoil. Eight teams still have a chance to win the drivers title at the final round. Among all, the most advantageous is obviously the number one in the ranking, No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate). It may not be in a comfortable position in terms of numbers with just four-point difference against the second in the ranking, but, considering it had achieved pole-to-finish at Motegi last year, the team should be able to take on the race with confidence. Second in the ranking is No.36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 (Kazuki Nakajima/James Rossiter). They can also clinch the title on their own by a win. The minimum requirement is to finish in front of No.38 car. The team grabbed its second win of the season at previous race at Autopolis by holding the No.38 car behind. It may deserve to be named as the favorite than a contender considering the momentum and confidence the team currently has.
Trailing six points behind the number one in the raking are two HSV-010 GTs, No.18 Weider Modulo HSV-010 (Naoki Yamamoto/Frederic Makowiecki) and No.17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Toshihiro Kaneishi). They would want to create a situation where they finish in the first or second position with No.38 car finishing fourth or below and No.36 car finishing third or below. For No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli) and No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), eleven and twelve points behind the leader, respectively, it is win or nothing situation. And only to pray for the four teams ahead of them to finish fourth or below. There is nothing left but a win for the remaining two teams, No.37 KeePer TOM’S SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Andrea Caldarelli) and No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Hiroaki Ishiura). And then wait for the result of upper group.
Looking back the winning record at Motegi in the recent three years, SC430 has two wins, GT-R with one, and HSV-010 GT is winless. But before that, it was domination by NSX, thus, there shouldn’t be any negative images for Honda machines. However, it seems that the SC430 fleet has advantage in the title contention this time around.
In addition, all cars will not load any handicap weight as all of them have participated in all races up to this point. And this will be the last championship race for the current model GT500 cars. Considering this is one race that both manufacturer and team wish to win, the race as well as the qualifying are anticipated to be a hard battle.
Point leading No.16 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Yuhki Nakayama) could only add two points with the ninth place finish at previous race at Autoplis as it was unable to carry out the race in the way they wanted to. It is now closed in by No.4 GSR HATSUNEMIKU BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), which emerged to the second in ranking after winning two consecutive races, to an eight point gap. Still, No.16 car remains to hold predominant position, and it can clinch the title on its own by a win or second place at Motegi.
But, on the other hand, the third in ranking won at last year’s Motegi due to an effect from an irregular element, rain. It turned around a nine point difference to realize a come-from-behind title. Then, not only No.4 car but also No.11 GAINER DIXEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Bjorn Wirdheim), ranked third with ten points behind, would well be in the range. Yet, it must get a win or a second place finish at least on its own. No.52 OKINAWA-IMP SLS (Hironori Takeuchi/Takeshi Tsuchiya) and No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki) at 14 points and 15 points behind, respectively, would need a win and having No.16 car finishing at seventh or below and No.4 car finishing third or below, hence, the situation seems a bit difficult.
For No.16 car (which won the Asian Le Mans Fuji but the result is not taken into account) and No.52 car, which are without a win out of the five teams, the situation is a little bit disadvantageous because if they conclude the season at the top with the same points with other team without winning this race, then the other team with a win would be deemed above.
There are many teams in both GT500 and GT300 classes other than those champion candidates mentioned above that are keen to grab a win. Hard fighting by those teams would impact the outcome of title. The final round at Motegi have been offering thrilling and exciting battles in the recent years, and it sure will be an eye-catching race from the qualifying session once again this year.
