Team 5ZIGEN and Climax win GTWC Asia races at Suzuka

While they had pretty different finishes, Team 5ZIGEN and Climax Racing were able to join the list of winners of the 2024 FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia season at Suzuka, with the No. 500 Nissan GT-R MY18 of Yu Kanamaru and Hirobon prevailing in the Saturday thriller while the No. 66 Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Zhou Bihuang and Jules Gounon was in the best position during an incident filled Sunday race.
 
Race 1 started with the No. 36 FAW Audi jumping right in front of the No. 41 Absolute Audi, and bringing the No. 87 Origine Porsche and the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan, they were distancing themselves from the No. 1 Absolute Porsche.
 
With 12 minutes of racing, the No. 93 AAS Phantom Porsche found the gravel and the barrier, which prompted the first Safety Car entry and put the brakes in the progress of the leading Audis. Ten minutes later, it was time for the No. 63 VSR Lamborghini to be stuck in the gravel, so the Safety Car came back just before the pit window.
 
The scenario at the top was very different after the pit window, with the No. 500 leading the race, the No. 87 in second to fight for the Silver-Am win, and the No. 4 Origine Porsche in third, leading the Pro-Am Cup. Despite the pressure from Hongli Ye and Laurin Heinrich, Yu Kanamaru remained firm in first position, and with the similar pace the top 3 cars were, the Safety Car's third entry helped to cool down things for Kanamaru.
 
Eight minutes to go and the green flag was waved again, and when Ye failed to attack Kanamaru, Heinrich took his position, leaving the Chinese to deal with the No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes and the other cars behind it, but Mikael Grenier took the third position once Ye was penalized with a drive through due to contact with the No. 36 FAW Audi.
 
With the option to fight for the overall win, Heinrich stepped up the attack on Kanamaru in the final 3 minutes, and despite having better pace, the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan was the victor overall and in the Silver-Am Cup, while the No. 4 Origine Porsche won the Pro-Am Cup.
 
The No. 911 Absolute Porsche was the Silver Cup winner  from seventh overall, while the No. 75 Garage 75 Ferrari was the only class winner outside the overall top 10, as it comfortably conquered the Am Cup from 16th.
 
GTWC Asia - Suzuka Race 1 results
 

In Race 2, the No. 4 Origine Porsche didn’t have a Nissan GT-R ahead but had to deal with the No. 66 Climax Mercedes while the No. 296 Absolute Ferrari tried to join the party, but Laurin Heinrich took only two laps to make a successful move over Jules Gounon while keeping Finn Gehrsitz behind the two Pro-Am Cup cars.
 
Heinrich actually got the lead at the right time as an all-Audi crash left the No. 19 Spirit of FFF and the No. 41 Absolute entries in the gravel at Spoon, which called the Safety Car for the first time. 12 minutes were needed to take the cars off, clean the mess and wave the green flag again, so the situation wouldn`t suffer a change before the pit window.
 
Service done and success penalties served, the No. 4 was left behind the No. 296 while the No. 66 was leading the No. 1 Absolute Porsche, but then the No. 52 Climax Mercedes stopped at Spoon and neutralized the field again. With 15 minutes to go, the field was released again and Zhou Bihuang’s mission was clear - keep the No. 66 ahead of Anthony Liu’s Porsche while the No. 296 was taken off the fight for the win due to a pit timing penalty, which meant an 1 second stop and go for Andre Canard, but before serving the penalty, he made sure Lu Wei wasn’t gaining ground to fight for first directly with the No. 66 and the No. 1, though a full course yellow did the job for Lu.
 
The yellow flag became the third Safety Car entry as the No. 93 AAS Phantom Porsche was stopped after the bridge, and since there was no time left in the clock, the No. 66 Climax Mercedes was declared the winner behind the Safety Car, winning also in the Pro-Am Cup.
 
With the penalty for the No. 296 Absolute Ferrari, the No. 87 Origine Porsche won the Silver-Am Cup while the No. 36 FAW Audi comfortably won the Silver Cup as the opposition was way behind the overall top 10. The No. 51 AMAC Porsche won the Am Cup and made a pretty respectful appearance in the overall top 20.
 
GTWC Asia - Suzuka Race 2 results
 
Lu Wei (No. 4) leads the standings with 95 points against 94 of Liu and Picariello (No. 1) while Bo and Ye (No. 87) have 82 points. There will be a month of break before the final weekend in Japanese lands come as Okayama will host the penultimate weekend of the 2024 season on 24 and 25 August.
 
PHOTOS: SRO