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Racing Roundup

Weekly Racing Roundup (11.7.22)

Reports from title-deciding Super GT and NLS season finales plus news and notes…

Photo: Super GT

Baguette, Hiramine Win Super GT for Nissan

Bertrand Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine became the first Nissan drivers to win Super GT’s headline GT500 title since 2015 after they finished second in the Motegi decider.

The drivers of the No. 12 Calsonic Team Impul Nissan Z GT500 won the championship with 70.5 points, beating NDDP Racing Nissan drivers Katumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi by a 4.5-point margin.

Team Kunimitsu’s Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino dominated the 63-lap season finale in their Honda NSX-GT to end up third in the final standings.

Makino set the tone for his team’s day by making a strong start from pole position as Baguette settled into third.

Key title contender Takaboshi, meanwhile, incurred an early drive-through penalty for pushing the Aguri Honda into the gravel, compromising his and Chiyo’s title bid.

The Kunimitsu Honda continued to lead after the pit stops, which occurred shortly after a safety car period caused by a multi-car, multi-class accident further back in the field, and was prolonged by a collision between two GT300 cars on the main straight.

Yamamoto emerged from the driver swaps in the lead for Kunimitsu, while Hiramine moved up to second ahead of Toyota driver Kenta Yamashita, who swept around the Real Racing Honda which former Honda driver Baguette had battled during his opening stint.

A controlled drive from Yamamoto resulted in the 2020 championship duo’s first win of the season, while Hiramine kept Yamashita at bay to secure the title.

The last Nissan lineup to win GT500 was Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli seven years ago.

The GT300 championship went to Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami despite the Kondo Racing Nissan pair finishing the race down in 19th position. With their main rivals finishing one place behind, the 2020 champions returned to the top of the category.

RESULTS: Motegi

Photo: Jan Brucke/VLN

Phoenix Wins Third NLS in a Row, Speed Trophy 

Phoenix Racing claimed its third consecutive NLS race victory at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on Saturday, retaining the Speed Trophy series title in the process.

Jakub Giermaziak and Kim-Luis Schramm led home a third successive one-two result for Phoenix’s Scherer Sport-backed Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs, beating Frank Stippler and Vincent Kolb by a minute and 34 seconds.

It marked Giermaziak’s fourth win of the year and the first time that a team has won three NLS races on the bounce since Mercedes-AMG squad Black Falcon in 2019.

Walkenhorst Motorsport looked set to interrupt Phoenix’s streak at the Nordschleife until its No. 34 BMW M4 GT3 driven by Christian Krognes and Sami-Matti Trogen encountered trouble at its final planned pit stop of the four-hour race.

A problem with getting fuel into the car resulted in a costly standstill, followed by a second unscheduled pit visit, which enabled both Phoenix cars to break clear.

“This has never happened to us and we still have no idea where the problem was,” said Krognes, who set a new race lap record of 7:49.578 in the BMW.

“Until then, our car was running well and we were clearly on course for victory.”

Krognes and Trogen still finished on the podium in third, one position ahead of next year’s Type-992 Porche 911 GT3 R fielded by Dinamic Motorsport in the SP-X class.

AVIA W&S Motorsport claimed an outright top five with its Cup 2 class-winning Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, in a race that featured only eight cars in the top SP9 category.

RESULTS: DMV 4 Hours / Standings 

Image: Le Mans Virtual Series

Virtual Racing Action & News

***The third round of the Le Mans Virtual Series also took place last weekend and included the participation of Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen. The Dutchman and his Team Redline co-drivers finished second overall in the LMP2 class, just under eight seconds behind the winning AMG Team Petronas Esports crew of James Baldwin, Bono Huis and Graham Carroll.

***Harrolds Racing has signed international Australian driver Jordan Love for this weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS fixture at Bathurst. Love, who primarily races in Europe, will jump into Harrolds’ Volante Rosso Motorsport-prepared Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside Ross Poulakis.

***Another addition to the GTWC Australia grid for the three-hour Bathurst race is Supercars competitor Jack Smith, who will share an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Porsche racer Tim Miles.

***ByKolles rolled out a new Vanwall-badged LMH chassis in a different livery at Mugello last week. The Germany-based constructor will now head to Paul Ricard for two days of running with its non-hybrid prototype, which is also being developed for the rFactor 2 simulation title.

***BMW was the first LMDh manufacturer to launch a sim racing version of its new hybrid-powered prototype, with the BMW M Hybrid V8 due to arrive on iRacing in the “coming months”. BMW LMDh program manager Maurizio Leschiutta said: “We are making CAD data and findings from our simulator and racetrack tests available to iRacing. They are used as the basis on which to create a realistic virtual version.”

On this weekend: FIA World Endurance Championship (Bahrain), Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS (Bathurst)

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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