Yogibo and D’Station win GTWC Asia races at SUGO

Sportsland SUGO was host of the fourth weekend of FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia in 2022, with the brave and the bizarre dictating the winners of the two races, with Yogibo Racing and D’Station Racing getting glory at the line.

Race 1 had lots of the home drivers starting further ahead, but the only one that could pose any threat to a home win, the No. 18 AAS Porsche, was spun into Turn 1 of Lap 1, leaving free reign for Naoki Yokomizo in the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari.

Serious consequences to the title race were seen further down the field, as the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes found the stranded No. 18 on the road, causing severe front left damage. Jeffri Ibrahim tried to carry on but it only lasted a lap until the suspension of the car gave up on him, sending it straight to the gravel.

Nearly 10 minutes were necessary to clear the track, but when the green flag came again, Yokomizo didn’t appear bothered by the field behind him, opening a decent gap again as the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari was barely holding second place from the No. 7 Comet Honda.

With the mandatory pitstop done, Kei Cozzolino just had to defend position from Kantadhee Kusiri to then focus on the attack, closing down more and more on the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari. Kiyoto Fujinami soon had the lime yellow Ferrari on his rear view, but that was the further Cozzolino could get to him, finding no way to overtake the sturdy defense of the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari.

As consolation to the CarGuy crew, the No. 777 was the GT3 Pro-Am Cup winner, while the No. 2 Team Uematsu McLaren got GT3 Am Cup honors at the expense of a brutal drop in pace of the No. 7b Comet Honda, and the No. 14 GTO Mercedes was the GT4 class winner with a dominant performance.

GTWC Asia SUGO - Race 1 results

For the second race, the No. 777 was the polesitter with the No. 5 PLUS Studie BMW alongside, and in typical Kei Cozzolino fashion, the Ferrari left the rest of the field behind dealing with their struggles. Cozzolino has one mission when he starts in the No. 777, which is opening the gap to ease the strain into Takeshi Kimura’s stint, and he did it pretty well by opening 20 seconds to the No. 5 in a bit more than 30 minutes racing.

The GT4 class was having another dominant display of the No. 14 GTO Mercedes, and even a drive through for track limit infringement wasn’t in their way, as it had enough cushion to still pit in the lead.

While the No. 777 was still in a comfortable lead, the No. 5 had to reconquer the overall second place from the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes, and despite having conquered the position, Tomohide Yamaguchi lost precious time battling, which didn’t close the gap to Kimura.

The Final Lap was where the fun was at, because a mix of car issues and Kimura’s misjudgement of the line not only flattened the 22 second gap to the competition, but also allowed them to overtake near the finish in bizarre fashion, with the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin passing the No. 5 PLUS Studie BMW, and passing the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari in a row to win the race.

GTWC Asia SUGO - Race 2 results

The No. 18 AAS Porsche reigned supreme in the GT3 Silver Cup while the No. 19 Reap Fueling Ambitions Lamborghini had the GT3 Am Cup in control, with the best GT4 being the No. 71 Akiland Toyota, which capitalized in the No. 14 GTO Mercedes’ penalty.

The last two races of the season will see the 2022 title being decided by two cars essentially, as the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes of Jeffri Ibrahim and Nick Foster having the same 108 points as Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura in the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari. Okayama will be host of both the GT World Challenge Asia season finale and also of the Japan Cup finale, since the scheduled round at Mandalika, in Indonesia, won’t go ahead due to pending homologation work on the circuit.

PHOTOS: SRO