Two Japan Cup titles in a row for Hitotsuyama Racing

The season start in the SRO Japan Cup wasn’t giving indications the Akihiro Tsuzuki and Shintaro Kawabata would be able to defend their title, but the No. 1 Hitotsuyama Racing with Cornes Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 swoop the whole final weekend at Suzuka to lift the second title in a row in the most dramatic way possible.
 
The No. 45 PONOS Ferrari was an unusual presence in the Race 1 pole position, but the top Am Cup car quickly lost the lead to the No. 24 Max Racing Mercedes, though Yorikatsu Tsujiko kept Mineki Okura behind his Ferrari before the yellow flags were waved as the No. 27 AWD Audi got beached in the gravel after only one corner, returning to the track with some level of assistance.
 
The overall top 3 quickly set themselves apart from the field, despite the best efforts from Tadao Uematsu to chase them down in the No. 88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren. Tsujiko appeared to not care that much about having the Am Cup lead and started pressing Shibata, and just before the pit window, Shibata went wide at Spoon corner, and the No. 45 PONOS Ferrari took the overall lead, with the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini going to second.
 
The pit window was a disaster for Max Racing, as the No. 24 was thrown back to the track just ahead of the No. 1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari, with Shintaro Kawabata making almost no effort to pass Yuya Motojima for third overall and the Pro-Am Cup lead, while the No. 19 took the lead as PONOS Racing’s late pit stop didn’t work as intended, sending Yusuke Yamasaki to fourth before he completes one lap of his stint.
 
With the No. 1 chasing Hiroshi Hamaguchi, he decided he didn’t want to take part in the Pro-Am Cup title matters and backed off for both the No. 1 and the No. 24 to overtake, effectively keeping the Am Cup lead behind them while still mantaining an overall podium place until Kenta Yamashita chased him as passed to put the No. 88 in third.
 
With Motojima dedicating the final moments of the race defending from Yamashita, Kawabata was free to run away from the No. 24 Max Racing Mercedes and secure victory for the No. 1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari, while the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini stood just outside the overall podium to take GT3 Am Cup honors. The best GT4 was the usutal suspect, with the No. 82 Zenko RS Sunrise Porsche dominating out there.
 
Japan Cup - Suzuka Race 1 results
 

With the Japan Cup opening the program for the Suzuka 1000km, the second race naturally got the worst of the rain that fell over Suzuka, with some Safety Car laps being needed to assess the conditions and offer some safety to warm up the tires. While the rain itself wasn’t exactly hard, the No. 1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari losing balance in the final chicane gave an idea of the track condition.
 
Everybody opted to preserve themselves at the start to avoid meaningless off-track excursions or even crashes, so it was the whole field playing catch with one another amid the lack of visibility due to the water spray. The condition wasn’t improving, and to make matters worse, the No. 44 Pop Race Mercedes crashed at 130R, and the Full Course Yellow brought to the circuit immediately became a Red Flag with 14 minutes of racing.
 
The race remained stopped for 14 minutes until the Safety Car led the cars back to the track for some recongnissance laps, and other 10 minutes to release the competitors and restart the race, with even more standing water than during the start.
 
Unlike the usual, the pro drivers in the GT3 Pro-Am Cup brought the cars immediately when the pit window opened, and this benefited massively the No. 9 BINGO LM Corsa Porsche, jumping from third to the lead while the No. 555 Maezawa Ferrari chased it from second place, but the pursuit wouldn’t take long as Yusaku Maezawa saw Shinji Takei taking the outside line and jumped for the overtake on the inside at Spoon. With Akihiro Tsuzuki putting the No. 1 ahead of Takei, it was clear that Takei’s priority was to bring it home in one piece, with the No. 88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren also making a smooth overtake on the No. 9.
 
A full course yellow assisted the No. 1 to reach the No. 555, and an erratic defense from Maezawa practically opened the door for Tsuzuki to take the lead, with Maezawa falling to third once Tadao Uematsu found a way past with the No. 88, and Uematsu was so fast that he quickly crushed the three second gap to Tsuzuki, biding his time to look for a flaw in Tsuzuki’s line, but in the end, Tsuzuki held the No. 1  Hitotsuyama Ferrari in first. Behind the No. 88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren, Yusaku Shibata tried to reach Yusaku Maezawa, but the No. 555 Maezawa Ferrari held the third position while the No. 24 Max Racing Mercedes was fourth, meaning the title stood with Hitotsuyama Racing. The No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini commanded the GT3 Am Cup from lights to flag, while the No. 82 Zenko RS Sunrise dominated between the GT4s.
 
Japan Cup - Suzuka Race 2 results
 
While the No. 1 and the No. 24 were tied with 135 points, the duo Kawabata/Tsuzuki (No. 1) had three wins over a single one from Shibata/Motojima (No. 24), making it the second title in a row for Hitotsuyama Racing. The GT3 Am Cup title went to Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Mineki Okura, as the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini scored 168 points over the 158 of Yorikatsu Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki (No. 45 PONOS Ferrari), and between the GT4 competitors, Yoshitomo Makino and Takeshi Suehiro converted their dominance into a title for the No. 82 Zenko RS Sunrise Porsche, having 193 points over the 93 of Maaya Orido and Kelvin Ho (No. 44 Pop Race Mercedes).
 
PHOTOS: SRO