GTWC Asia at Fuji had giant killing and chaos

Fuji Speedway was the first host fot the Japan Cup part of the 2023 FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia calendar, and while the full season entries offered a big challenge, one home team didn’t disappoint, being it the underdog No. 9 BINGO Racing Corvette C7-GT3R of Akira Iida and Shinji Takei, who flawlessly won the first race, while the other one went for the No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes of Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Luca Stolz after a bizarre flip over in the classification due to a flurry of penalties being distributed during and after the race.
 
While the grid for Race 1 was kinda out of shape, it was deemed acceptable and the green was given with the No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi keeping the lead while the surprise No. 9 BINGO Corvette dropped to fourth as the No. 37 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes and the No. 87 R&B Porsche advanced.
 
Five minutes into the race were enough for the first Safety Car intervention as the spinned No. 992 Absolute Porsche was found by the No. CREF McLaren, taking the former out while the latter spent a chunk of time being repaired. With green flag being waved again, Anthony Liu lost no time to mount an attack on Kang Ling, but the flow of the race actually backfired on Liu, opening the door for Ye Hongli to put the No. 87 in second.
 
The No. 9 BINGO Corvette was one of the first cars to pit when the window opened, and as the team name says, they hit the bingo when the cycle was nearing the end, jumping into the leading spot as Cao Qi couldn’t muster the pace to keep the No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi in the top spots, and Yuan Bo came in too late and the No. 87 R&B Porsche became an easy prey with the cold new tires.
 
At the final 20 minutes, the top of the table changed completely as the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin and the No. 4 R&B Porsche were trailing the No. 9 Corvette, but the No. 47 was cut off the fight due to a pit time infringement penalty, bringing the No. 2 Climax Mercedes and the No. 911 AAS Porsche to the fight, but with at least a five second deficit to the leading Corvette.
 
The No. 4 R&B Porsche and the No. 911 AAS Porsche were right behind the No. 9 BINGO Corvette with Dennis Olsen and Alessio Picariello being capable enough to reach Akira Iida, but as they had to settle their matters for second place, Iida could breathe and celebrate the win with the little more than three seconds he had for the No. 911.
 
GTWC Asia - Fuji Race 1 results
 
The No. 3 Climax Mercedes had no opposition to win the GT3 Am Cup while the No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi secured an easy GT3 Silver Cup win, with both being mixed with the massive majority of the GT3 Pro-Am entries and being near the overall top-15. The No. 50 YZ Studie BMW also had a comfortable win between the GT4s, with 35 seconds to the second placed No. 71 Akiland Toyota.
 

The second race had the No. 37 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes on pole barely holding the No. 2 Climax Mercedes, all while the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan spun due to contact and stood still on Turn 1, bringing the first Safety Car intervention of the race.
 
The pair of Mercedes were on the battle when the race restarted, which would allow the chasing pack to get closer, but things remained on a status quo until the No. 9 BINGO Corvette tangled with the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini while trying to pass it at the home straight, crashing violently in the outside guard rails and totalling both machines, which meant a return of the Safety Car to the track with six minutes to the start of the pit window.
 
More problems occurred at the second restart, with contact from the No. 2 on the No. 37, sending Daniel Juncadella to the gravel while the No. 911 AAS Porsche took the lead before the cars started jumping into the pits for their mandatory stops. Things got worse for Dennis Lind as the No. 4 R&B Porsche passed for second before dropping into the pits.
 
Right after the pit window end, the No. 2 rear ended the No. 911 and sent it to the barriers, and at the same time the left rear tire of the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes blew up and sent it to the wall, leaving a broken car and lots of debris on track, and bringing the Safety Car one more time. Of course, the chaos created would have its consequences, and for the No. 2 it was a drive through penalty.
 
Whoever stood in front when the No. 2 served its penalty would be the winner, and the No. 47 D’Station Aston Martin appeared as clear contender as Satoshi Hoshino had no difficulties to pass Paul Ip in the No. 22 KCMG Honda, who was also overtaken by the No. 4 R&B Porsche and kept falling over from this point. While the Porsches closed down in the final moments, it wasn’t enough to dethrone the No. 47 as the No. 2 had added time as a trade off for not doing the drive through on the pitlane.
 
But if it wasn’t a chaotic weekend until this point, the crash of the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes brought more, as the stewards penalized with 30 seconds the top 13 cars as they didn’t avoid the accident scene by going via the pitlane, which actually promoted the No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes to the top spot, with some cars, like the on track winning No. 47, having extra penalties for other incidents.
 
And the penalty show went deep enough to reach the GT4 cars, with the No. 71 Akiland Toyota being penalized and the victory being handed to the No. 718 Caymania Porsche.
 
GTWC Asia - Fuji Race 2 results
 
The GT3 standings show Vuttikorn Inthrathuvasak and Alessio Picariello (No. 911 AAS Porsche) in front with 51 points while the Abu Ibrahim/Stolz duo (No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes) has 50, and the duo Lu/Olsen (No. 4 R&B Porsche) is in third with 40 points.
 
Despite only competing in Thailand, the duo Manoppo/Seita (No. 39 TGR Indonesia Toyota) keep the GT4 lead with 50 points against 40 of the Otsuka/Kobayashi pairing (No. 718 Caymania Porsche) and 36 from the Oyama/Sakaguchi duo (No. 71 Akiland Toyota).
 
The GTWC Asia and the Japan Cup now move to Suzuka for the third double header of the season, set for 15-16 July.
 
PHOTOS: SRO