SUPER GT Round 8 MOTEGI GT GRAND FINAL LEXUS LC500 Wins the Championship in the Debut Year
GT500 class
KeePer TOM'S LC500 No. 37 co-piloted by Ryo HIRAKAWA/Nick CASSIDY finished second place with the all-new LEXUS LC500 at the Autobacs Super GT 2017 series in Twin Ring Motegi. The two young drivers won the championship at the youngest age ever.
GT300 class
JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 finished sixth place with drivers Yuichi NAKAYAMA/Sho TSUBOI. They finished the overall season in third place with the all-new LEXUS RC F GT3.
KeePer TOM'S LC500 No. 37
JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 No. 51
Ryo HIRAKAWA (KeePer TOM'S LC500 No. 37)
I don‘t know what to say. I took the steering at second position today and I knew that if I kept that position we were going to win the championship, but I couldn‘t push 100%. I had to drive more than 30 laps knowing that I had to do everything to come back in the same position, so the pressure was big. I thought I would be happy after the finish but I rather felt relieved. The team supported without any mistakes, Nick did an excellent work, LC500 was always fast and strong and the tire performance was good even under difficult conditions, so it was a perfect season. I am really thankful for everyone.
Nick CASSIDY (KeePer TOM'S LC500 No. 37)
This is unreal! I am really thankful for the faith that Lexus and TOM‘s have put in me. It was only my second year in GT500 and to achieve this with Ryo was amazing. We knew from day one, both of us always had the speed. We managed that in the correct way. I think this year that was the most important thing because we made no mistake or contact, not pushing all the time and knowing when to be conservative. Especially that was important today. Our relationship has grown over the year, we worked together really really well and I‘m so happy to share this championship, not only with him but the whole team.
GT500 CLASS RESULTS
| Po | No | Machine | Driver | Laps | Time/Diff | Q | WH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | MOTUL AUTECH GT-R | Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli | 53 | 1:31'44.581 | 1 | |
| 2 | 37 | KeePer TOM'S LC500 | Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy | 53 | 6.263 | 3 | |
| 3 | 38 | ZENT CERUMO LC500 | Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura | 53 | 13.353 | 9 | |
| 4 | 17 | KEIHIN NSX-GT | Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure | 53 | 19.962 | 8 | |
| 5 | 100 | RAYBRIG NSX-GT | Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa | 53 | 20.537 | 6 | |
| 6 | 46 | S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R | Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo | 53 | 20.857 | 4 | |
| 7 | 12 | CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R | Hironobu Yasuda / Jann Mardenborough | 53 | 38.909 | 10 | |
| 8 | 1 | DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 | Heikki Kovalainen / Kohei Hirate | 53 | 46.745 | 11 | |
| 9 | 8 | ARTA NSX-GT | Tomoki Nojiri / Takashi Kobayashi | 53 | 1'01.721 | 12 | |
| 10 | 64 | Epson Modulo NSX-GT | Bertrand Baguette / Kosuke Matsuura | 53 | 1'28.669 | 14 | |
| 13 | 6 | WAKO'S 4CR LC500 | Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli | 51 | 2 Laps | 2 | |
| 14 | 36 | au TOM'S LC500 | Kazuki Nakajima / James Rossiter | 42 | 11 Laps | 7 | |
| 15 | 19 | WedsSport ADVAN LC500 | Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto | 38 | 15 Laps | 15 |
GT300 CLASS RESULTS
| Po | No | Machine | Driver | Laps | Time/Diff | Q | WH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 65 | LEON CVSTOS AMG | Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou | 49 | 1:31'56.005 | 3 | |
| 2 | 55 | ARTA BMW M6 GT3 | Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw | 49 | 2.255 | 2 | |
| 3 | 4 | GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG | Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka | 49 | 13.992 | 1 | |
| 4 | 9 | GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 | Jono Lester / Kyosuke Mineo | 49 | 19.524 | 9 | |
| 5 | 25 | VivaC 86 MC | Takamitsu Matsui / Kenta Yamashita | 49 | 26.024 | 4 | |
| 6 | 51 | JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 | Yuichi Nakayama / Sho Tsuboi | 49 | 27.234 | 8 | |
| 7 | 11 | GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 | Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Bjorn Wirdheim | 49 | 27.941 | 5 | |
| 8 | 21 | Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS | Richard Lyons / Masataka Yanagida | 49 | 38.351 | ||
| 9 | 33 | D'station Porsche | Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller | 49 | 49.364 | 6 | |
| 10 | 3 | B-MAX NDDP GT-R | Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi | 49 | 1'00.717 | 16 | |
| 12 | 31 | TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT | Koki Saga / Rintaro Kubo | 49 | 1'14.863 | 19 | |
| 18 | 60 | SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 | Akira Iida / Hiroki Yoshimoto | 49 | 1'40.254 | 15 | |
| 30 | TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT | Hiroaki Nagai / Kota Sasaki | 5 | 44 Laps | 23 |
Drivers Standings (GT500)
| Po | No | Driver | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37 | Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy | 84 |
| 2 | 23 | Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli | 82 |
| 3 | 6 | Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli | 63 |
| 4 | 38 | Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura | 62 |
| 5 | 36 | James Rossiter | 53 |
| 6 | 36 | Kazuki Nakajima | 47 |
| 8 | 1 | Heikki Kovalainen / Kohei Hirate | 44 |
| 13 | 19 | Yuhi Sekiguchi | 23 |
| 14 | 19 | Yuji Kunimoto | 22 |
| 17 | 19 | Kamui Kobayashi | 10 |
| 19 | 36 | Daisuke Ito | 6 |
| 20 | 19 | Kenta Yamashita | 1 |
Team Standings (GT500)
| Po | No | Team | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37 | LEXUS TEAM KeePer TOM'S | 105 |
| 2 | 23 | NISMO | 103 |
| 3 | 6 | LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S | 82 |
| 4 | 38 | LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO | 81 |
| 5 | 36 | LEXUS TEAM au TOM'S | 73 |
| 6 | 1 | LEXUS TEAM SARD | 64 |
| 12 | 19 | LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH | 41 |