Before we begin, we would like to congratulate Black Falcon for finishing 3rd place overall with the #4 Promare car and 3rd place in the Silver Class (24th overall) with the #6 Miku car at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps back in July. Unfortunately for Goodsmile Racing and TYPE-MOON, the #00 Fate car retired halfway into the race when they collided at the high-speed turn of Blanchimont.
Now back to Super GT. The #4 Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 qualified in 9th position for the start of the race which would start off fine for the first hour until the pit stop strategies came into play with teams using different tyre strategies with some teams opting not to change tyres on their first pit stop. The team managed to climb up to 3rd position overtaking the #7 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the process before their second pit stop.
The Safety Car came out on Lap 69 when the #38 ZENT Lexus LC500 crashed due to a loose wheel nut shortly after their pit stop forcing them to retire from the race. Things would calm down as the race restarted until the Safety Car was pulled out once again on the 104th lap, this time for the #24 Realize GT-R GT500 pulling over at the pit entry due to an engine failure which would then catch on fire. The #4 Miku AMG were lucky enough to pit before they closed the pit lane when the Safety Car came out.
Once again, the race restarts and teams would stop for their fourth and final mandatory pit stop mixing up the field for the last time until more drama unfolds with the #25 Hoppy 86 MC colliding with the #22 R’Qs AMG forcing Hoppy to retire from the race. As the race was at it’s closing stages a timer appeared finishing the race earlier rather than racing the full length of 177 laps. With less than 2 minutes until the end of the race, the #4 Miku AMG overtook the #61 Subaru BRZ placing them in 8th position until the end of the race.
The race would finish on the 175th lap with the #6 WAKO’S LC500 winning in GT500 and the #87 T-Dash Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in GT300. We would like to congratulate both teams on their victory in Super GT’s endurance round of the season.
Goodsmile Racing still stands 11th in the championship standing despite the pace they had during the race, only the timing of the pit stops, and safety cars compromised their position.
The next race will take place at Autopolis on the 7th and 8th of September. But before that is the 10 Hours of Suzuka happening from the 23rd to the 25th of August with Kamui Kobayashi returning as the team’s third driver for the race. Once again, we wish the team good luck for the upcoming endurance race. Fight, GSR!
