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From an unlucky 13th spot on the
starting grid, the Xanavi Nismo Z (No. 23) of Satoshi Motoyama,
Richard Lyons and Hironobu Yasuda finished the six-hour
International Pokka 1000-kilometer endurance race in third place. On
the way to the podium, the No. 23 Z fortunately survived numerous
race incidents. The Pokka International race, which is Round 6 of
the Japan Super GT series, was more than
35,000 spectators braved the hot weather to watch the equally fierce
race. At the start, the pole-sitting YellowHat YMS Moba HO! Tomica Z
(No. 3) of Sebastian Philippe and Masataka Yanagida led the
formation lap. Philippe maintained his lead until Lap 7, but with
soft tires on the car, was forced to give way to one of his
pursuers. On Lap 20, the car returned to the pits, changed tires and
Yanagida took over.
Yanagida dropped to fourth, then
sixth. After a sudden rain shower, he dropped further to 10th. The
No. 3 Z ultimately finished the race in eighth place.
Meanwhile, Motoyama was the
starter in the No. 23 Z. In the opening lap, he collided with the
No.35 Lexus SC430, resulting in the No. 23 Z to be pushed back to
the rear of the GT500 class. With Motoyama’s tires not matching
track conditions, the car suffered as it worked hard to recover. On
Lap 16 the machine came in to the pits, where Lyons took over.
Lyons then increased the pace,
reaching the 10th position by Lap 27. The early pit stop worked well
here, and on Lap 36—when everybody emerged from their first pit
stops—Lyons was leading the race.
The other lead cars were on
four-stop strategies while the Z cars needed five pit stops.
Motoyama took over for the middle section of the race, keeping
things steady and making sure he wasn’t left far behind. When it
rained, the other teams scrambled to change tires. Luckily, the No.
23 Z was already in the pits by then.
Lyons took over once again and
reached third place on Lap 138, a position he maintained until the
checkered flag.
The Calsonic Impul Z of Benoit
Treluyer, Kazuki Hoshino and Jeremie Dufour started 10th, with
Treluyer at the wheel, who pulled the car up to fourth place by Lap
17. The car returned to the pits on the following lap, switching
over to Dufour.
During refueling a fire erupted,
and it took some time before the car was able to leave the pits. On
Lap 63 Hoshino crashed out and retired while running in 14th place.
The Motul Autech Z (No. 22) of
Michael Krumm and Tsugio Matsuda started the race in 14th. Their
strategy was to gradually improve their position, but after the
first driver change, the car hit the No.23 Z and went off track.
Caught deep in a gravel bed, the team lost several positions.
However, the rain helped them get back near the front again,
eventually finishing sixth.
“The next race in Motegi will
surely be difficult, but we are not giving up. Our goal is to win
the Championship,” Yoshitaka Iijima, Nismo director, said.held
August 19 at the famous Suzuka Circuit.
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