2011 SUPER GT : MOTUL AUTECH GT-R wins bad-weather season opener

2011 SUPER GT - Fuji 400 km. Race GT500 Winners : No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R [ Satoshi Motoyama - Benoit Treluyer ]

FUJI SPEEDWAY : May 1, 2011 - The FUJI GT 400km RACE, Round 2 of the 2011 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4.563 km x 66 laps) in Shizuoka Pref. on May 1. The come-from-behind winner in the GT500 class was the 6th-place qualifying MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer.


This race was scheduled as the second round of the 2011 series, but the first round at Okayama originally scheduled for April 3rd was postponement because of the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster, it effectively became the season opener. Also, the race distance was shortened from the originally planned 400 km to 300 km.

The race started under the worst of conditions with heavy rain and strong winds, which meant that everything hinged on the teams' choice of tires. Bad tire choices by a number of teams, including the pole-sitting (first qualifying) DENSO SARD SC430, and spin-outs in the wet conditions hampered one team after another. One driver who seemed to be unaffected by these bad conditions was Benoit Treluyer, who started from 6th position on the grid in the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R. In the early stages of the race he moved up steadily to take the lead.
Before returning to the pit and turning the wheel over to teammate Motoyama, Treluyer managed to build up a lead of 16 seconds over the 2nd-place machine. Motoyama continued to stay in control in the lead during his stint until the rain increased in fury with about 10 laps remaining in the race. Judging the conditions to be too dangerous to continue the race, the officials stopped the competition with six laps remaining. Eventually, that signaled the end of the race and the finishing order was that at end of the 59th lap. This gave the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R team the first win of the season.
This victory extended Motoyama's record of most wins for a driver in the GT500 class to 13.

2011 SUPER GT - Fuji 400 km. Race GT300 Winners : No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE [ Masami Kageyama - Tomonobu Fujii ]

The GT300 class race became an impressive runaway victory for the pole-starting HANKOOK PORSCHE driven by Masami Kageyama and Tomonobu Fujii. The team's Hankook tires fit the track conditions perfectly and enabled the drivers to build a 30-second lead over the field by the end of the race.
(Spectators: 36,000)

Winner Comments

GT500 Podium

No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R [GT500]

Satoshi Motoyama: "I am tremendously happy. We didn't get any wins last year and the last couple of seasons have been tough ones for our team, so we feel determined to do well this season. I didn't expect us to win the opening round and today's conditions were very difficult, but we thought that might give us a chance. In the first half of the race Benoit did a great job, driving magnificently to get in front and give us a big margin of lead. He raced intelligently to overcome the bad conditions. [During my stint] the conditions weren't that bad at first but in the final stages the rain got worse and I started hydroplaning. We hadn't changed tires during the pit stop, so they were getting worse and I nearly spun out several times. It was hard just to keep the machine on the track. I believe it was the right decision for the officials to stop the race when they did. I want to thank Nissan for giving us a winning opportunity and everyone on the team, the engine and tire staff a
nd my wonderful teammate Benoit."

Benoit Treluyer: "I am truly happy! It was a very difficult weekend. With the terrible earthquake and the long interval without racing, it was hard to get back into the competitive mode. Also, returning to Bridgestone tires after a year with another maker we didn't have much time for tests and that left some uncertainties in the machine set-up. Still, everything went very well during the race and I felt good at the start. During Satoshi's stint the rain got worse and I'm sure the conditions were bad. But, the great driver he is, he ran very well. I want to dedicate this victory to all the people who have suffered from the earthquake and tsunami."

GT300 Podium

No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE [GT300]

Masami Kageyama: "First of all I would like to send my condolences to all who have suffered in the Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and to thank all the people who worked to make this race possible. Tomorrow is my birthday, so I want to make this victory a present to myself, too (laughs). We owe this victory to Hankook (Tire), the team, Fujii-san who drove so well in these difficult conditions, all the fans who came out in the rain to cheer us on and Mitsuru Kinoshita-san who worked on the tire development with us last year. Before the start we had a very hard time deciding what tires to use, but our decision to go with wet tires was the right one. It was a good decision by the team. Another reason for this win was the fact that we didn't make any mistakes. The 2nd-place finisher was a team that had recovered from a spin and a penalty, so the fact that we were able to race at a high level without any mistakes makes this not only my victory but a victory by the whole team.
"

Tomonobu Fujii: "By running fast in the qualifying and winning the race in these tough conditions, I feel that I have been able to pay back all the people of the team and the people at Hankook who got us here. Today the conditions were so bad that I wished I didn't have to drive, but watching Kageyama-san build a lead and hold off on making the pit stop in those uncertain conditions filled me with admiration. Honestly, I really didn't want to go out there and drive today, so I'm glad I was able to make it back with no mishaps (laughs). But, since the tire choice and the machine setting were good, I was able to drive with confidence. But, when I saw the GT500 machines start hydroplaning I realized how dangerous it was out there. So, I'm glad I was able to finish the race successfully."

Race result : GT500 Class

Po.	No.	Machine	Drivers	Time/Diff	Lap	Best Lap
1	23	MOTUL AUTECH GT-R	Satoshi Motoyama Benoit Treluyer	1:56'19.904	59	1'46.488
2	6	ENEOS SUSTINA SC430	Daisuke Ito Kazuya Oshima	0'05.211	59	1'46.875
3	19	WedsSport ADVAN SC430	Tatsuya Kataoka Seiji Ara	0'28.128	59	1'46.599
4	36	PETRONAS TOM'S SC430	Andre Lotterer Kazuki Nakajima	0'48.002	59	1'46.923
5	38	ZENT CERUMO SC430	Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate	1'01.381	59	1'47.123
6	39	DENSO SARD SC430	Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi	1'06.776+45sec	59	1'44.968
7	24	ADVAN KONDO GT-R	Hironobu Yasuda Bjorn Wirdheim	1Lap	58	1'46.712
8	17	KEIHIN HSV-010	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	1Lap	58	1'46.443
9	8	ARTA HSV-010	Hideki Mutoh Takashi Kobayashi	1Lap	58	1'47.903
10	46	S Road MOLA GT-R	Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli	1Lap	58	1'45.823
11	35	D'STATION KeePer SC430	Juichi Wakisaka Andre Couto	1Lap	58	1'45.307
12	100	RAYBRIG HSV-010	Takuya Izawa Naoki Yamamoto	1Lap	58	1'47.351
13	1	Weider HSV-010	Takashi Kogure Loic Duval	2Laps	57	1'46.834
14	12	CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R	Tsugio Matsuda J.P.L.de Oliveira	2Laps	57	1'47.970
15	32	EPSON HSV-010	Ryo Michigami Yuhki Nakayama	6Laps	53	1'46.654

Race result : GT300 Class

Po.	No.	Machine	Drivers	Time/Diff	Lap	Best Lap
1	33	HANKOOK PORSCHE	Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii	1:56'21.130	55	1'55.120
2	11	JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka	0'34.820	55	1'54.310
3	25	ZENT Porsche RSR	Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya	0'35.899	55	1'55.995
4	31	HASEPRO MA IWASAKI apr COROLLA	Koki Saga Yuki Iwasaki	1'32.611	55	1'56.584
5	4	HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW	Nobuteru Taniguchi Taku Bamba	1'53.506	55	1'55.633
6	43	ARTA Garaiya	Shinichi Takagi Kosuke Matsuura	1'59.938	55	1'54.927
7	74	COROLLA Axio apr GT	Morio Nitta Yuji Kunimoto	1Lap	54	1'58.022
8	88	JLOC Lamborghini RG-3	Hiroyuki Iiri Yuhi Sekiguchi	1Lap	54	1'57.223
9	41	NetMove TAISAN Ferrari	Shinichi Yamaji Hiroshi Koizumi Shogo Mitsuyama	1Lap	54	1'57.799
10	34	HARUHIRACING HANKOOKPORSCHE	Hiroshi Takamori Michael Kim Naoya Gamou	1Lap	54	1'58.183
11	27	PACIFIC NAC IKAMUSUME Ferrari	Yutaka Yamagishi Hideki Yamauchi	1Lap	54	1'57.358
12	26	Verity TAISAN Porsche	Hidedshi Matsuda Kyosuke Mineo Junichiro Yamashita	2Laps	53	1'57.009
13	22	R'Qs Vemac 350R	Hisashi Wada Masaki Jyonai	2Laps	53	1'57.636
14	87	RIRE Lamborghini RG-3	Atsushi Yogo Manabu Orido	2Laps	53	1'57.605
15	69	ThunderAsia MT900M	Melvin Choo Hiroki Yoshida	3Laps	52	1'57.661
16	14	SG CHANGI IS350	Ryo Orime Alexandre Imperatori	3Laps	52	1'56.746
17	360	RUNNUP SPORTS CORVETTE	Atsushi Tanaka Kazuyoshi Okamura	4Laps	51	1'56.891
18	62	R&D SPORT LEGACY B4	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki	5Laps	50	1'57.726

Drivers Ranking : GT500 Class

Po.	No.	Team	R1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	23	Satoshi Motoyama Benoit Treluyer		20							20
2	6	Daisuke Ito Kazuya Oshima		15							15
3	19	Tatsuya Kataoka Seiji Ara		11							11
4	36	Andre Lotterer Kazuki Nakajima		8							8
5	38	Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate		6							6
6	39	Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi		5							5
7	24	Hironobu Yasuda Bjorn Wirdheim		4							4
8	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi		3							3
9	8	Hideki Mutoh Takashi Kobayashi		2							2
10	46	Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli		1							1

Drivers Ranking : GT300 Class

Po.	No.	Team	R1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	33	Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii		20							20
2	11	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka		15							15
3	25	Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya		11							11
4	31	Koki Saga Yuki Iwasaki		8							8
5	4	Nobuteru Taniguchi Taku Bamba		6							6
6	43	Shinichi Takagi Kosuke Matsuura		5							5
7	74	Morio Nitta Yuji Kunimoto		4							4
8	88	Hiroyuki Iiri Yuhi Sekiguchi		3							3
9	41	Shinichi Yamaji Hiroshi Koizumi		2							2
10	34	Hiroshi Takamori Michael Kim		1							1

Team Ranking : GT500 Class

Po.	No.	Team	R1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	23	NISMO		23							23
2	6	LEXUS TEAM LeMans ENEOS		18							18
3	19	LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH		14							14
4	36	LEXUS TEAM PETRONAS TOM'S		11							11
5	38	LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO		9							9
6	39	LEXUS TEAM SARD		8							8
7	24	KONDO RACING		6							6
8	17	KEIHIN REAL RACING		5							5
9	8	AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI		4							4
10	46	MOLA		3							3
11	35	LEXUS TEAM KRAFT		2							2
12	100	TEAM KUNIMITSU		2							2
13	1	Weider Honda Racing		1							1
14	12	TEAM IMPUL		1							1
15	32	NAKAJIMA RACING		1							1

Team Ranking : GT300 Class

Po.	No.	Team	R1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
1	33	HANKOOK KTR		23							23
2	11	JIMGAINER		18							18
3	25	SAMURAI Team TSUCHIYA		14							14
4	31	apr		11							11
5	4	GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO		9							9
6	43	AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI		8							8
7	74	apr		7							7
8	88	JLOC		6							6
9	41	Team TAISAN CINECITTA		5							5
10	34	HANKOOK KTR		4							4
11	27	LMP MOTORSPORT		3							3
12	26	Team TAISAN CINECITTA		1							1
13	22	R'Qs MOTORSPORTS		1							1
14	87	JLOC		1							1
15	69	ThunderAsia Racing		1							1
16	14	Team SG CHANGI		1							1
17	360	TOMEI SPORTS		1							1
18	62	R&D SPORT		1							1

Images : 2011 SUPER GT : FUJI GT 400km RACE

[Source : SUPERGT - Official]