Seven x Seven and Hitotsuyama win at Fuji Speedway

It can be said that the SRO Japan Cup weekend at Fuji Speedway had a bit of everything in both races, from red flags to late race chaos, with the No. 666 Seven x Seven Porsche 911 GT3R of Bankcy and Taichi Watarai beating the No. 296 Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Akihiro Tsuzuki and Shintaro Kawabata, with the Saturday runner-up snatching the win on Sunday in the final lap.
 
The No. 296 Hitotsuyama Ferrari kept the top position as the first race started, with the No. 555 Maezawa Ferrari jumping to second just at the right time, as multiple incidents took place around the Coca-Cola corner, with the No. 45 PONOS Ferrari and the No. 84 JMS Nissan staying there immediately, with a fire starting in the Nissan GT-R GT3 right after Nobuhiro Imada left the machine, while the No. 24 MAX Racing Mercedes was limped the whole first lap until the pitlane.
 
After some laps behind the Safety Car, it was decided that the red flag would be brought, and the cars were stopped in the pitlane for almost 20 minutes. After a few laps of Safety Car, the race went back to green again, which was disastrous for the No. 555, first by losing contact with the No. 9 BINGO Ferrari and then by spinning after contact with the No. 666 Seven x Seven Porsche, with Bankcy executing a brave maneuver on Shinji Takei for second place, all while the No. 81 Daishin Nissan that was leading the GT3 Am Cup was approaching the GT3 Pro-Am contenders, but Ryuichiro Oyagi losing no time behind Takei as it would help stretching the gap to the No. 1 Team Macchina Ferrari.
 
The top contenders went early for the mandatory stops, which actually gave the lead to the No. 666 while the No. 296 kept the chase to claim the lead back and the No. 16 Upgarage Ferrari was just racing to keep the GT3 Pro-Am podium, given the large gap to the leaders. The No. 1 also swapped positions with the No. 81, becoming the GT3 Am Cup leader after the pit window.
 
Despite the best attempts from Shintaro Kawabata, the No. 296 Hitotsuyama Ferrari couldn’t beat Taichi Watarai and the No. 666 Seven x Seven Porsche won overall and in the GT3 Pro-Am Cup. The No. 1 Team Macchina Ferrari went down the overall order but it was saved at the last moment from the No. 81 Daishin Nissan and won the GT3 Am Cup.
 
Japan Cup - Fuji Race 1 results
 
The No. 27 AWD Racing Porsche won comfortably the GTC Pro-Am Cup, keeping the pace with the overall top 10. The No. 888 BINGO Porsche won the battle with the No. 16 NGR Porsche for GTC Am Cup honors. The No. 39 TGR Indonesia Toyota narrowly won the GT4 Silver-Am Cup, staying 0.4 seconds ahead of the No. 82 Zenko RS Porsche.
 

The all-Ferrari front row in the second race kept position while the No. 24 Max Racing Mercedes almost found a way around the outside of the No. 45 PONOS Ferrari, but with the No. 296 Hitotsuyama Ferrari getting in the way, the No. 9 BINGO Ferrari kept the lead while bringing along the No. 45 in its slipstream, opening a gap from the rest until the Safety Car was called.
 
The accident was a K-Tunes knockout, as the No. 97 Toyota GT4 collided with the No. 98 Ferrari, sending the Toyota Supra GT4 over the barriers and upside down when it stopped in the catch fence, which brought a long red flag as the car would need to be moved from the awkward position and Betty Chen would need to go to medical checks, confirming later that she was OK.
 
After 30 minutes stopped, the cars went back to the track behind the Safety Car, with the green flag coming seven minutes later, leaving the competitors pretty close to the pit window. With the pro drivers on track, all GT3 Pro-Am Cup teams left the service for the last moment possible, with the order being largely unchanged.
 
With 17 minutes to go, BINGO Racing had an unwanted problem as the pit stop was below the minimum time, meaning that the No. 9 had a stop and go penalty to serve, handing the lead to the No. 45 PONOS Ferrari, while the No. 24 Max Racing Mercedes lost the second position to the No. 296 Hitotsuyama Ferrari, with the No. 555 Maezawa Ferrari coming with a lot of pressure to aim for third place. What wasn’t into Yudai Uchida’s plans was that the No. 81 Daishin Nissan would close down and attack with the No. 555, with the battle for third attracting the No. 666 Seven x Seven Porsche.
 
In the final lap, Yorikatsu Tsujiko got slowed down by traffic as it didn’t leave a clear line to pass, opening the door for Akihiro Tsuzuki to put the No. 296 Hitotsuyama Ferrari in front, with not even the slipstream from the home straight helping Tsujiko to turn things around.
 
Japan Cup - Fuji Race 2 results
 
Despite losing contact in the fight for the overall podium, the No. 81 Daishin Nissan still had enough gap in its favor to win the GT3 Am Cup, while the No. 16 NGR Porsche got GTC Am Cup honors from just outside the overall top 10, with the No. 27 AWD Porsche completing the GTC Pro-Am Cup sweep just behind them. The No. 39 TGR Indonesia Toyota had another top performance and it was the best GT4.
 
Tsuzuki and Kawabata (No. 296) leave Fuji with the points lead, with 73 over 61 from Bankcy (No. 666) and 53 from Takei and Sasahara (No. 9). The Japan Cup will be back to action on 30 and 31 August, when it visits the Okayama International Circuit with GT World Challenge Asia.
 
PHOTOS: SRO