On the afternoon of April 1, the Okayama GT 300km Race, Round 1 of the 2012 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Okayama International Circuit in Okayama Pref. The winner in the GT500 class was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa and Kohei Hirate. The winner of the GT300 class was the GAINER DIXCEL R8 LMS (Audi) driven by Tetsuya Tanaka and Katsuyuki Hiranaka.
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SC430, GT-R and HSV-010 battle it out in the first half
The wind was chilly but the skies were only partly cloudy with no fear of rain at Okayama Circuit for Sunday’s race. As the start of the season’s opening race neared, the air temperature was 10 degrees C. and the track was dry with a surface temperature of 15 degrees C. The race began from a rolling start at 2:00 and after the first lap the stage was set for 82 laps of tough competition.
Starting from pole position, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Kohei Hirate) dashed successfully into the lead. Behind it the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 (Loic Duval) collided with the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa) but still managed to emerge in 2nd position. The No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) followed in 3rd and the No. 1 S Road REITO MOLA GT-R rose to 4th position, with the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 dropping to 5th.
Driving from pole position for the first time in a GT500 race, Hirate in the leading No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 managed to open up a 2-second margin of lead over the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430. On the fourth lap, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R mounted a fierce charge to close the gap on the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430, recording the fastest lap of the race (1’24.450) in the process.
From around the sixth lap the leaders began to come up behind the GT300 class back markers, and having dispensed with the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R began to close the gap slowly on Hirate in the lead. However, making skillful use of the back markers, Hirate managed to maintain a 4.8 second lead over Motoyama at around the 15th lap.
The gap between the two leaders began to narrow again from the 17th lap. As the margin closed visibly with each lap between these two machines fighting for the lead, behind them the No. 1 S Road REITO MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) was passed by the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 as it got caught behind a GT300 back marker entering the Attwood Curve on lap 23. Now in 4th position Izawa began narrowing the gap on Duval in third place. Eventually Izawa managed to pass Duval to the inside on the Mike Knight Corner on lap 28 and recover to 3rd position, but by this time the gap with the two lead machines had grown to a formidable nine seconds.
Breath-taking battle between the veteran Tachikawa and young Yamamoto
As they pulled away from the rest of the field, the margin between the leading No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R hovered within a few a few fractions of 1.5 seconds. This tightly contested battle for the lead finally saw a decisive move on the 33rd lap. Coming out of the Attwood Curve, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R began to pull up alongside the leading No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 and then managed to take the inside on the following hairpin and pass No. 38 into the lead.
As the air temperature and the track temperature continued to rise, the teams began to make their routine pit stops after the 30th lap. Among the front group, the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 and the No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 were the first to return to the pit at the end of the 34th lap, where they changed drivers to Kazuki Nakajima and Takashi Kobayashi respectively. Having hung on close to the fleeing No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, Hirate in the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 made his pit stop on lap 36 and turned over the wheel to Tachikawa.
Seeing this, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R and the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 made their pit stops on the next lap. With fast pit work, the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 managed to return to the race in front of the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 and move effectively into 2nd position. However, having been unable to pick up the pace on its first lap out of the pit as in the early stages of the race, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Michael Krumm) was passed by the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Naoki Yamamoto) on the hairpin of lap 38. Next No. 23 was also passed by the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Tachikawa) on the home straight of the following lap.
When the No. 24 D’station ADVAN GT-R (Bjorn Wirdheim) finally made its delayed pit stop on lap 44, the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Yamamoto) found itself in the lead. But, just 0.7 seconds behind Yamamoto at this time came the charging No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430. The veteran Tachikawa (No. 38) put on the pressure by pulling alongside the fleeing Yamamoto (No. 100) from time to time, but by mid-stint the pace of the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 was faster and by lap 56, Yamamoto had built up a lead of up to four seconds.
That lead didn’t last, however. Due to factors like the timing of encounters with back markers, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 rapidly closed the gap again. Finally Tachikawa was able to make a move coming out of the hairpin of lap 69 and then take Yamamoto’s inside on the ensuing Revolver Corner to slip into the lead.
With few laps remaining, it looked as if the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 was on its way to victory, but Yamamoto wasn’t going to give up. Closing in on the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 as its tire wear worsened in the closing laps, Yamamoto overtook Tachikawa on the second of the double hairpins of lap 81 to regain the lead.
Yamamoto went on that way to enter the final lap in the lead, but Tachikawa wasn’t going to give up the chance for a win either. Entering the final hairpin to the inside of the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010, Tachikawa succeeded in turning the tables again at the last moment!
In this dramatic finish that saw the lead change hands twice in the final laps, it was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 that emerged victorious in the opening round of the 2012 series. After a strong performance, the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 settled for a somewhat disappointing 2nd place. In 3rd came the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi), having passed the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 (Nakajima) on the last corner of the 81st lap. When the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 overran the Revolver Corner on the last lap, it was passed once again and had to settle for 5th place. Finishing 4th was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R.
