Comet Racing wins incident-filled Race 2 at Suzuka

 

In a quite anti-climatic end and after multiple Safety Car interventions, Comet Racing came home with the Race 2 win of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia weekend at Suzuka, with the No. 7 Honda NSX GT3 Evo of Yorikatsu Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki standing at the right place in the final half of racing, which was the first overall win of a GT3 Am Cup entry this season, as well the first in the series history.

The weather in Race 2 was much better than the variable conditions presented in a cloudy and wet Race 1 as a majorly blue sky was predominant, and without the need to dig his way out from the back, Kei Cozzolino kept the Race 1 winner No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari in the first position from the start, while the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes passed the No. 5 Studie BMW for the second place.

While Nick Foster was more eager to catch Cozzolino, Seiji Ara was falling more and more into Jazeman Jaafar’s strike zone, with the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes leading a five car pack looking for the third place. Things looked brighter for the chasing group with the Safety Car being called with nine minutes of racing due to a damaged No. 3 Studie BMW M2 stopped on track.

Five minutes later the green flag was back but the situation of the moment didn’t have a single change, with the No. 777 having a smaller margin to the No. 99 than before the Safety Car. Cozzolino opened the gap marginally again, but his progress was halted again due to a Safety Car intervention to rearrange the barriers, meaning that the No. 777 couldn’t create the cushion to compensate for the success penalty applied.

The green flag came in during the pit window, which prompted CarGuy to pit the No. 777 as early as possible, while on the other hand, the No. 99 pitted in the final minutes of the window. The success penalties across the field gave the overall lead to the No. 7 Comet Honda, which kept the lead without the advantage due to another Safety Car intervention after an incident triggered by the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes, that spun the No. 18 AAS Porsche and parked the No. 30 Porsche Okazaki and the No. 17 CREF McLaren GT4.

10 minutes later the green flag was back, and Yusuke Yamasaki had 11 minutes left on his mission to hold the overall lead, helped by some GT4 traffic slowing the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes, which passed the No. 51 AMAC Porsche for the second place, and this overtake put the No. 99 into an excellent position due to another Safety Car arrival, this time caused by a crashed involving the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin and the table leading No. 55 Team Scala Mercedes GT4.

With only nine minutes left on the clock and the extensive damage at the crash scene, there would be no time left to take the cars out, rearrange the barriers and go back to the green flag, so the No. 7 Comet Honda was declared the race winner under yellow flags, staying behind the Safety Car until the Final Lap.

GTWC Asia - Suzuka Race 2 results

The No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes stood on the overall second, which secured the GT3 Pro-Am Cup win, while further down the order in eight overall, the No. 18 AAS Porsche won the GT3 Silver Cup. Just outside the overall top-10, the No. 33 Team GMB Mercedes conquered the GT4 class win.

In the GT3 standings, Jeffri Ibrahim and Nick Foster from the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes keep the lead with 68 points against 43 of the absent Adrian D’Silva and Earl Bamber, while  Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura from the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari are in third with 35 points, who also lead the Japan Cup table.

In the GT4 table, Hiroki Hatano and Shinya Hosokawa from the No. 33 Team GMB Mercedes lead both the GTWC Asia and Japan Cup with 37 points, while Jun Tashiro/Tatsuya Tanigawa (No. 55 Team Scala Mercedes), Brian Lee/Hideto Yasuoka (No. 14 GTO Mercedes) and Motoharu Sato/Katsuyuki Hiranaka (No. 12 Koshido Toyota) are all tied in second place with 33 points.

The GTWC Asia returns to action next weekend, with Fuji Speedway hosting the third round of the Asian competition, as well the second round of the Japan Cup.

PHOTO: SRO