2013 Autopolis GT 300km explained

The 2013 Autopolis GT 300 km was the seventh round of the 2013 Super GT season and the 8th points scoring race for GT300 cars. It took place on October 6, 2013, at Autopolis near Kamitsue, Oita, Japan.

Background

Dome Racing drivers Frédéric Makowiecki and Naoki Yamamoto were tied on 46 points for the championship lead with Impul's João Paulo de Oliveira and Tsugio Matsuda. Following their win in at the 3 Hours of Fuji Team Mugen extended their championship lead in GT300 to 16 points over the Gainer Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Björn Wirdheim. With Autopolis being the 2nd last round of the season, instead of having weight ballast equal to twice the number of points scored in the season, teams that competed in all previous 6 races had their weight ballast reduced to the number of points they scored.

After running a 2013-spec Porsche 997 GT3, Team Taisan reverted to running a 2012-spec Porsche for balance of performance reasons.^[1] The GTA adjusted the balance of performance for both JAF-GT and FIA GT3 cars. For the JAF-GT cars the air restrictor sizes were reduced in an effort to reduce power, however The Toyota Prius was not given any adjustments. The Nissan GT-R GT3 was given a slight increase in boost pressure.^[2]

39 cars were entered for the race, the only change from the previous round was that the Dijon Racing Callaway Corvette Z06.R GT3 did not enter Autopolis.

Report

Practice

The practice session began in wet conditions. The #36 Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S Lexus SC430 was the fastest car in GT500 and the #10 Gainer Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 was the fastest GT300 car. The session was red flagged 13 minutes in after Naoki Yamamoto spun off-road and crashed. The session resumed 9 minutes later but due to worsening conditions few teams completed laps on the circuit. The session was later red flagged 48 minutes in and not restarted due to poor visibility.^[3]

Qualifying

Qualifying was scheduled to be held on October 5, 2013, but due to the heavy rain and fog that cancelled the practice session, qualifying was cancelled and rescheduled to October 6. Instead of the standard 15 and 8 minute knockout sessions for both GT500 and GT300 cars, there would only be a single 25 minute session for both classes.^[4]

Race

Results

Qualifying

^{[5] [6]}

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Qualifying	Tyre
GT500
1	38	Lexus Team Zent Cerumo	Yuji Tachikawa	1:38.174
2	23	Motul Autech NISMO	Ronnie Quintarelli	1:38.209
3	18	Weider Dome Racing	Frédéric Makowiecki	1:38.220
4	1	S-Road REITO MOLA	Satoshi Motoyama	1:38.346
5	12	Calsonic Team Impul	João Paulo de Oliveira	1:38.385
6	100	Raybrig Team Kunimitsu	Takashi Kogure	1:38.566
7	37	Lexus Team KeePer TOM'S	Daisuke Ito	1:38.573
8	17	Keihin Real Racing	Koudai Tsukakoshi	1:38.661
9	8	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Ralph Firman	1:38.725
10	36	Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Kazuki Nakajima	1:38.856
11	24	D'Station ADVAN Kondo Racing	Hironobu Yasuda	1:39.012
12	6	Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Kazuya Oshima	1:39.227
13	39	Lexus Team DENSO SARD	Hiroaki Ishiura	1:39.569
14	19	Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh	Andre Couto	1:39.893
15	32	Epson Nakajima Racing	Daisuke Nakajima	1:40.606
GT300
1	3	NDDP Racing	Kazuki Hoshino	1:47.222
2	48	Dijon Racing	Katsumasa Chiyo	1:47.236
3	50	Arnage Racing	Hideto Yasuoka	1:48.036
4	61	R&D Sport	Kota Sasaki	1:48.408
5	30	apr	Yuki Iwasaki	1:48.416
6	11	Gainer	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	1:48.564
7	21	Hitotsuyama Racing	Richard Lyons	1:48.571
8	4	GSR Hatsune Miku	Tatsuya Kataoka	1:48.906
9	10	Gainer	Tetsuya Tanaka	1:49.229
10	52	OKINAWA-IMP RACING with SHIFT	Takeshi Tsuchiya	1:49.243
11	33	Hankook KTR	Masami Kageyama	1:49.363
12	87	JLOC	Hiroki Yoshimoto	1:49.423
13	22	R'Qs MotorSports	Hisashi Wada	1:49.473
14	62	Leon Racing	Haruki Kurosawa	1:49.547
15	2	Cars Tokai Dream28	Hiroki Katoh	1:49.557
16	16	Team Mugen	Hideki Mutoh	1:49.620
17	360	Tomei Sports	Takuya Shirasaka	1:49.727
18	5	Team Mach	Tetsuji Tamanaka	1:49.754
19	86	JLOC	Koji Yamanishi	1:50.032
20	88	JLOC	Manabu Orido	1:50.125
21	31	apr	Morio Nitta	1:50.406
22	9	Pacific Direction Racing	Shogo Mitsuyama	1:51.310
23	0	Team Taisan Ken Endless	Naoki Yokomizo	1:51.352
24	55	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Takashi Kobayashi	1:51.402

Race

Race result is as follows.^{[7] [8]}

Pos	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Time/Difference	Laps
GT500
1	36	Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Kazuki Nakajima James Rossiter	Lexus SC430		1:55:03.613	65
2	38	Lexus Team Zent Cerumo	Kohei Hirate Yuji Tachikawa	Lexus SC430		+2.622	65
3	17	Keihin Real Racing	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	Honda HSV-010 GT		+2.811	65
4	1	S-Road REITO MOLA	Satoshi Motoyama Yuhi Sekiguchi	Nissan GT-R		+11.227	65
5	18	Weider Dome Racing	Frédéric Makowiecki Naoki Yamamoto	Honda HSV-010 GT		+11.841	65
6	24	D'Station ADVAN Kondo Racing	Michael Krumm Hironobu Yasuda	Nissan GT-R		+12.326	65
7	39	Lexus Team DENSO SARD	Hiroaki Ishiura Juichi Wakisaka	Lexus SC430		+12.735	65
8	23	Motul Autech NISMO	Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Nissan GT-R		+24.134	65
9	37	Lexus Team KeePer TOM'S	Andrea Caldarelli Daisuke Ito	Lexus SC430		+24.474	65
10	32	Epson Nakajima Racing	Ryo Michigami Daisuke Nakajima	Honda HSV-010 GT		+46.935	65
11	6	Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Yuji Kunimoto Kazuya Oshima	Lexus SC430		+52.084	65
12	100	Raybrig Team Kunimitsu	Takuya Izawa Takashi Kogure	Honda HSV-010 GT		+1:18.304	65
13	19	Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh	Seiji Ara Andre Couto	Lexus SC430		+1 Lap	64
14	8	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Ralph Firman Kosuke Matsuura	Honda HSV-010 GT		+4 Laps	61
Ret	12	Calsonic Team Impul	João Paulo de Oliveira Tsugio Matsuda	Nissan GT-R		+32 Laps	33
GT300
1	4	GSR Hatsune Miku	Tatsuya Kataoka Nobuteru Taniguchi	BMW Z4 GT3		1:56:59.345	62
2	50	Arnage Racing	Masaki Kano Hideto Yasuoka	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3		+1 Lap	61
3	52	OKINAWA-IMP RACING with SHIFT	Hironori Takeuchi Takeshi Tsuchiya	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3		+1 Lap	61
4	11	Gainer	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Björn Wirdheim	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3		+1 Lap	61
5	33	Hankook KTR	Tomonobu Fujii Masami Kageyama	Porsche 911 GT3-R		+1 Lap	61
6	30	apr	Yuki Iwasaki Igor Sushko	Nissan GT-R GT3		+1 Lap	61
7	61	R&D Sport	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano	Subaru BRZ		+1 Lap	61
8	0	Team Taisan Ken Endless	Kyosuke Mineo Naoki Yokomizo	Porsche 997 GT3		+1 Lap	61
9	16	Team Mugen	Hideki Mutoh Yuhki Nakayama	Honda CR-Z		+2 Laps	60
10	87	JLOC	Hideki Yamauchi Hiroki Yoshimoto	Lamborghini Gallardo GT3		+2 Laps	60
11	2	Cars Tokai Dream28	Hiroki Katoh Kazuho Takahashi	McLaren MP4-12C GT3		+2 Laps	60
12	88	JLOC	Takayuki Aoki Manabu Orido	Lamborghini Gallardo GT3		+2 Laps	60
13	86	JLOC	Shinya Hosokawa Koji Yamanishi	Lamborghini Gallardo GT3		+2 Laps	60
14	22	R'Qs MotorSports	Masaki Jyonai Hisashi Wada	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3		+2 Laps	60
15	31	apr	Morio Nitta Koki Saga	Toyota Prius		+2 Laps	60
16	55	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Takashi Kobayashi Shinichi Takagi	Honda CR-Z		+2 Laps	60
17	48	Dijon Racing	Katsumasa Chiyo Hiroshi Takamori	Nissan GT-R GT3		+2 Laps	60
18	62	Leon Racing	Haruki Kurosawa Tsubasa Kurosawa	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3		+3 Laps	59
19	9	Pacific Direction Racing	Shogo Mitsuyama You Yokomaku	Porsche 911 GT3-R		+4 Laps	58
20	10	Gainer	Tetsuya Tanaka Masayuki Ueda	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3		+5 Laps	57
21	21	Hitotsuyama Racing	Richard Lyons Akihiro Tsuzuki	Audi R8 LMS ultra		+5 Laps	57
22	5	Team Mach	Tetsuji Tamanaka Junichiro Yamashita	Nissan GT-R GT3		+8 Laps	54
23	360	Tomei Sports	Takuya Shirasaka Atsushi Tanaka	Nissan GT-R GT3		+15 Laps	47
Ret	3	NDDP Racing	Kazuki Hoshino Daiki Sasaki	Nissan GT-R GT3		+26 Laps	36

• GT500 Fastest Lap – Kohei Hirate, #38 Lexus Team Zent Cerumo Lexus SC430 – 1:40.434
• GT300 Fastest Lap – Tetsuya Yamano, #61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ – 1:48.799

Point rankings after the event

GT500 Driver Point rankings

Rank	Driver	Points
1	Kohei Hirate Yuji Tachikawa	58
2	Kazuki Nakajima James Rossiter	54
3	Frédéric Makowiecki Naoki Yamamoto	52
4	Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	52
5	Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	47

GT300 Driver Point rankings

Rank	Driver	Points
1	Hideki Mutoh Yuhki Nakayama	70
2	Tatsuya Kataoka Nobuteru Taniguchi	62
3	Katsuyuki Hiranaka Björn Wirdheim	60
4	Hironori Takeuchi Takeshi Tsuchiya	56
5	Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano	55

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both GT500 and GT300 classes.

External links

• Super GT official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: タイサンの"MY12"ポルシェ911導入の真相は？. as-web.jp. September 18, 2013. October 5, 2013.
2. Web site: GTA、GT300参加条件を変更。JAF-GT勢に調整. as-web.jp. September 26, 2013. October 5, 2013.
3. Web site: Rd.7 公式練習：雨と霧によりほとんど走行ができず. Super GT. October 5, 2013. October 5, 2013.
4. Web site: Rd.7 予選速報：第7戦オートポリスの予選は悪天候のためキャンセル. Super GT. October 5, 2013. October 5, 2013.
5. Web site: GT500 RESULT: Total. Super GT. October 6, 2013. October 6, 2013.
6. Web site: GT300 RESULT: Total. Super GT. October 6, 2013. October 6, 2013.
7. Web site: GT500 RESULT: Race. Super GT. October 6, 2013. October 6, 2013.
8. Web site: GT300 RESULT: Race. Super GT. October 6, 2013. October 6, 2013.