SUPER GT Round.1 OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE LEXUS LC500 Starts the Season with a Podium Finish
GT500 class
KeePer TOM'S LC500 No.1 co-piloted by last year’s champions Ryo HIRAKAWA/Nick CASSIDY finished third place at the Autobacs Super GT 2018 series at Okayama International Circuit.
WAKO'S 4CR LC500 No.6 with a new driver lineup Kazuya OSHIMA/Felix ROSENQVIST scored fourth place.
GT300 class
Three Lexus RC F GT3, arto RC F GT3 No.35, SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 No.60 and K-tunes RC F GT3 No.96 have started the season in the GT300 class.
KeePer TOM'S LC500 No.1
WAKO'S 4CR LC500 No.6
Ryo HIRAKAWA (KeePer TOM'S LC500 No.1)
It was a tough race. It was going well right until the car was damaged when Nick got contact with car No.17. The cowl was damaged and the center of the steering was deviated, so the car could not run straight. At first, I was passed by car No.6 but after I got used to driving under this circumstance, I was able to overtake No.6. It is a little disappointing knowing that I was getting closer to the car in front, but considering yesterday’s condition, third place is a good result and a good start of the season.
Nick CASSIDY (KeePer TOM'S LC500 No.1)
We had a good race car. I went from P9 to P1. But I could not avoid the contact with car No.17 when I passed it and the car got damaged. I think we lost some time during the pit stop, which resulted in bringing the position down. P3 is pretty perfect coming from P9, and considering the points, it was a really good result. But when I was behind the Honda cars, they were so fast on the straight. Fuji has a long straight, so I think it will be a tough race, too.
GT500 CLASS RESULTS
| Po | No | Machine | Driver | Laps | Time/Diff | Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | KEIHIN NSX-GT | Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure | 82 | 1:55'14.381 | 1 |
| 2 | 100 | RAYBRIG NSX-GT | Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button | 82 | 1.610 | 5 |
| 3 | 1 | KeePer TOM'S LC500 | Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy | 82 | 5.582 | 9 |
| 4 | 6 | WAKO'S 4CR LC500 | Kazuya Oshima / Felix Rosenqvist | 82 | 5.759 | 4 |
| 5 | 23 | MOTUL AUTECH GT-R | Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli | 82 | 36.990 | 8 |
| 6 | 24 | Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R | Joao Paulo de Oliveira / Mitsunori Takaboshi | 82 | 48.375 | 6 |
| 7 | 3 | CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R | Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo | 82 | 59.362 | 3 |
| 8 | 38 | ZENT CERUMO LC500 | Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura | 82 | 1'00.357 | 10 |
| 9 | 19 | WedsSport ADVAN LC500 | Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita | 82 | 1'05.532 | 7 |
| 10 | 16 | MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT | Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima | 82 | 1'06.532 | 12 |
| 12 | 39 | DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 | Heikki Kovalainen / Kamui Kobayashi | 82 | 1'10.110 | 15 |
| 13 | 36 | au TOM'S LC500 | Kazuki Nakajima / Yuhi Sekiguchi | 82 | 1'11.410 | 14 |
GT300 CLASS RESULTS
| Po | No | Machine | Driver | Laps | Time/Diff | Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | UPGARAGE 86 MC | Yuhki Nakayama / Takashi Kobayashi | 77 | 1:56'23.935 | 9 |
| 2 | 7 | D'station Porsche | Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller | 77 | 5.476 | 20 |
| 3 | 25 | HOPPY 86 MC | Takamitsu Matsui / Sho Tsuboi | 77 | 10.283 | 5 |
| 4 | 65 | LEON CVSTOS AMG | Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou | 77 | 10.571 | 4 |
| 5 | 11 | GAINER TANAX GT-R | Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Hironobu Yasuda | 76 | 1 Lap | 3 |
| 6 | 55 | ARTA BMW M6 GT3 | Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw | 76 | 1 Lap | 8 |
| 7 | 88 | MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 | Kazuki Hiramine / Marco Mapelli | 76 | 1 Lap | 1 |
| 8 | 0 | GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG | Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka | 76 | 1 Lap | 15 |
| 9 | 26 | TAISAN R8 FUKUSHIMA | Shinnosuke Yamada / Shintaro Kawabata | 76 | 1 Lap | 13 |
| 10 | 50 | EXE AMG GT3 | Masaki Kano / Hideto Yasuoka | 76 | 1 Lap | 23 |
| 14 | 96 | K-tunes RC F GT3 | Morio Nitta / Yuichi Nakayama | 76 | 1 Lap | 6 |
| 17 | 60 | SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 | Hiroki Yoshimoto / Ritomo Miyata | 75 | 2 Laps | 24 |
| 20 | 30 | TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT | Hiroaki Nagai / Kota Sasaki | 75 | 2 Laps | 25 |
| 24 | 35 | arto RC F GT3 | N.Charoensukhawatana / N.Hortongkum | 74 | 3 Laps | 28 |
| 31 | TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT | Koki Saga / Kohei Hirate | 30 | 47 Laps | 7 |
Drivers Standings (GT500)
| Po | No | Driver | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure | 21 |
| 2 | 100 | Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button | 15 |
| 3 | 1 | Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy | 11 |
| 4 | 6 | Kazuya Oshima / Felix Rosenqvist | 8 |
| 8 | 38 | Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura | 3 |
| 9 | 19 | Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita | 2 |
Team Standings (GT500)
| Po | No | Team | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | KEIHIN REAL RACING | 23 |
| 2 | 100 | TEAM KUNIMITSU | 18 |
| 3 | 1 | LEXUS TEAM KeePer TOM'S | 14 |
| 4 | 6 | LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S | 11 |
| 8 | 38 | LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO | 6 |
| 9 | 19 | LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH | 5 |
| 13 | 36 | LEXUS TEAM au TOM'S | 3 |
| 14 | 39 | LEXUS TEAM SARD | 3 |
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