K-Tunes lifts Japan Cup title at Okayama

The final weekend of FANATEC Japan Cup at the Okayama International Circuit saw new squads getting the first taste of SRO competition and some returning to action, all while titles were still in contention, with the No. 666 Seven x Seven with KFM Porsche 992 GT3R of Bankcy and Kiyoto Fujinami winning on Saturday while the No. 98 K-Tunes Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daisuke Yamawaki and Shinichi Takagi closed their title winning run with the win in Race 2.
 
The No. 55 Team Uematsu McLaren stood at caution speed and this was the biggest present for the No. 666 KFM Porsche, and with the No. 9 BINGO Corvette losing the route at the first hairpin, Bankcy was in a relatively comfortable position.
 
Once Motoki got the stability back, the No. 9 kept chasing the No. 666 until the pit window, but when Kiyoto Fujinami got into the No. 666, Shiji Takei couldn’t approach him while the No. 55 was falling into the radar of the No. 55 K-Tunes Ferrari, though Tadao Uematsu was momentarily saved by the GT4 traffic. A brief full course yellow did the job of holding Uematsu, and Shinichi Takagi had no problem to get third place once the green flag was waved again.
 
Takagi still had time to pester Takei, and the pace advantage was more than enough to put the No. 55 K-Tunes Ferrari into second overall along the second place in the Pro-Am Cup, where it stood in the final two laps as the No. 666 KFM Porsche won overall and in the GT3 Pro-Am Cup by a large margin, with the No. 9 BINGO Corvette won the GT3 Am Cup.
 
Japan Cup Okayama - Race 1 results
 
The No. 83 Gama B3 Porsche Cup won the GTC class while the No. 50 YZ BMW was the best GT4.
 

After two Safety Car laps, the No. 98 K-Tunes Ferrari had to fight hard to hold the leading position at the start of the second race as the No. 666 KFM Porsche had Kiyoto Fujinami wanting to take risks despite being a guest entry.
 
While the GT3 Pro-Am Cup was going further ahead, the GT3 Am Cup entries were having their own battle as the No. 7 COMET Ferrari was defending hard from the No. 81 DAISHIN N8ssan, until Yusuke Yamasaki left the door open to Ryuichiro Oyagi, only for Shinji Takei  to come hit the back of the No. 7, sending it to a spin.
 
With the pit window and success penalties out of the way, the No. 666 took the lead while the No. 555 Maezawa Ferrari was second and the No. 98 K-Tunes Ferrari dropped to third, though Daisuke Yamawaki recovered the lost ground to get second place back, and with the No. 666 getting a rare four penalty combo, the No. 98 was back to the lead, and once Bankcy finally got rid of all the penalties, the GT3 Am Cup leading No. 9 BINGO Sports took third place overall while the rest of the class podium passed the No. 666.
 
With Yusaku Maezawa 15 seconds behind Yamawaki, the final minutes were spent just managing the No. 98 K-Tunes Ferrari to bring it home as the winner, with the No. 9 BINGO Corvette winning the GT3 Am Cup and the No. 38 Wakayama Hojust Toyota was the best GT4.
 
Japan Cup Okayama - Race 2 results
 
Yamawaki and Takagi (No. 98) lifted the title with 179 points against the 108 of Shinji Takei (No. 9), and this same score gave the GT3 Pro-Am Cup title to them, while Tadao Uematsu (No. 55) lifted the GT3 Am Cup title. Takeshi Suehiro (No. 38) lifted the GT4 title with 153 points against the 146 of Yuki Fujii (No. 50) and 143 of Haridarma Manoppo (No. 39), with Suehiro lifting the GT4 Silver-Am Cup title while Tatsuya Hoshino was the GT4 Am Cup champion.
 
PHOTOS: SRO