CarGuy conquers GTWC Asia title at Okayama

It wasn’t quite the fairytale weekend for CarGuy Racing and their No. 777 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, but Takeshi Kimura and Kei Cozzolino were the ones with the last laugh as they lifted the FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia title at Okayama while Yogibo Racing and D’Station Racing were the last winners of the season that marked the return of the competition.

In Race 1, the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari looked a bit sloppy at the main straight but Naoki Yokomizo kept the top position away from the No. 18 AAS Porsche, having a line good enough to even open an initial gap between them as the rest of the field was trying to push to not let the No. 18 go away too.

Things were in a status quo to the 15th minute of racing, when the Safety Car joined the track due to a stopped No. 19 Reap Fueling Ambitions Lamborghini and and the No. 44 Bingo Corvette trying to return to the track, which extended to the pit window start. Once the field pitted, the scenario was pretty different behind the top two, as the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari had Kei Cozzolino piling on the pressure and passing round the outside of the No. 18 for second place.

Only six seconds separated Cozzolino from Kiyoto Fujinami when he passed Kantadhee Kusiri, and with 20 minutes to go, Cozzolino would have enough time to counter Fujinami. The No. 777 had only 2 seconds in the final lap to the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari, and Cozzolino kept gaining, but the agonizingly close margin of 1.225 seconds was the closest possible that Cozzolino could get of Fujinami, which each winning the GT3 Silver and GT3 Pro-Am Cups.

GTWC Asia - Okayama Race 1 results

The No. 2 Team Uematsu McLaren was again on a good performance for the class and was the best GT3 Am Cup car, while the No. 14 GTO Mercedes conquered the GT4 Cup.

In Race 2, the first two corners had title race implications as the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari was basically muscled out of the way by the No. 99 Triple Eight Mercedes while fighting with the No. 5 Studie BMW for second place, with the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin staying in the lead it lost before Turn 1. Since the No. 777 only smashed the foam instead of barriers, CarGuy only did integrity checks and sent the car back on track to try a recovery race.

Nick Foster needed to put the No. 99 in the lead since the No. 777 would probably score nothing, so leaving it in the best position for Jeffri Ibrahim was the mission of the remaining 20 minutes of his stint. However, what would be a quest for the lead took a serious shot as the No. 99 was penalized with a stop and go due to the contact with the No. 777, which had a second stop for checks during the Safety Car.

With the two title rivals at the back of the field, the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari could have a small chance but it would need to climb the field all the way from the 12th position during the pit window. The No. 47 kept the lead with the No. 5 following closely in second, while the No. 27 had the 7th place and the other two contenders were fighting for the 15th position, meaning that everything would fall into the hands of Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura.

Positions hasn’t changed for the remainder of the race, and a contact in the final seconds that parked the No. 51 AMAC Porsche practically secured the second victory for the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin in the 2022 season, while the 13th place for the No. 777 CarGuy Ferrari secured the title for Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura.

GTWC Asia - Okayama Race 2 results

The No. 18 AAS Porsche beat the No. 27 Yogibo Ferrari for GT3 Silver Cup honors, while the No. 19 Reap Fueling Ambitions Lamborghini was the best with ease in the GT3 Am Cup, with the No. 33 GMB Mercedes beating marginally at the line the No. 14 GTO Mercedes for the GT4 Cup win.

Cozzolino and Kimura narrowly beat Jeffri Ibrahim and Nick Foster, having 126 points against 123 of the Triple Eight duo, which still ended the season as GT3 Pro-Am champions by five points over the CarGuy duo. Naoki Yokomizo got the GT3 Silver Cup trophy while Andrew MacPherson and Ben Porter gave the GT3 Am title to AMAC Motorsport despite the bad ending on track.

The GT4 Cup had Brian Lee and Hideto Yasuoka comfortably lifting the title along with the GT4 Silver-Am title, while Masayoshi Oyama was the best GT4 Am driver.

In the Japan Cup, Kimura and Cozzolino had a more comfortable advantage to win the title, being also the best in GT3 Pro-Am. Tadao Uematsu and Yudai Uchida lifted the GT3 Am Cup, while Hiroaki Hatano and Shinya Hosokawa also did a double with the GT4 Cup and GT4 Silver-Am Cup titles, and Masayoshi Oyama also lifted the sub-series GT4 Am Cup title.

The 2023 calendar is almost entirely confirmed, but the start of the season is already set, with drivers and teams traveling to Thailand as Buriram hosts the first round on 13 and 14 May.

PHOTOS: SRO