Weekly Racing Roundup (5.27.19)

Nakajima, Sekiguchi Score First Super GT Win of Season

Kazuki Nakajima and Yuhi Sekiguchi led from pole position to take their first Super GT win of the season in the 300 km race at Suzuka on Sunday.

The Lexus Team au Tom’s pair remained out front for the whole race to lead a Lexus sweep of the podium positions ahead of the KeePer Tom’s car of Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy in second and the third-placed LeMans Wako’s entry driven by Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita.

Sekiguchi successfully held of Cassidy and Oshima in the second half of the race after taking over from pole-sitter Nakajima who had had to defend from the same cars earlier.

It marked the first race since Autopolis last year in which the Lexus LC500s have swept the podium.

The best-placed Honda NSX-GT was the Autobacs Racing Team Aguri car of Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa, who finished fourth ahead of another trio of Lexuses.

Jann Mardenborough and Mitsunori Takaboshi were the most successful Nissan GT-R NISMO drivers, finishing eighth for Kondo Racing.

The biggest drama of the race came on lap 17 when championship leader Ronnie Quintarelli went off track at 130R, bringing out the safety car for five laps.

Morio Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi took their second GT300 class win of the season driving the No. 96 Lexus RC F GT3.

RESULTS: Suzuka

Teo Martin, Emil Frey Victorious in GT Open at Hockenheim

Teo Martin Motorsport gave the McLaren 720S GT3 its first International GT Open win, while Emil Frey Racing scored a 1-2 during the series’ visit to Hockenheim.

Fran Rueda and Andres Saravia won the weekend’s first race after Saravia passed Duncan Cameron for the lead following the round of pit stops.

He went on to win by over 15 seconds ahead of Cameron and Matt Griffin’s Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3, while SPS Automotive Performance was third.

The second Teo Martin McLaren, driven by Martin Kodric and Henrique Chaves, placed fourth, with Marcelo Hahn and Allam Khodair’s McLaren finishing 13th.

Emil Frey Racing claimed a 1-2 victory in Sunday’s race, with Norbert Siedler and Mikael Grenier winning from pole in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

They finished just 0.691 seconds clear of teammates Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe, while Darren Turner and Ollie Wilkinson rounded out the podium for Optimum Motorsport.

Grenier held a six-second lead over Wilkinson after the pit stops but Costa soon came through to take second before unsuccessfully battling his teammate for the lead.

RESULTS: Race 1; Race 2

News & Notes

***Mathias Kaiser and Vincent Capillaire claimed victory in the six-hour Ultimate Cup Proto Series round at the Slovakia Ring. The Wimmer Werk Motorsport duo, driving a Ligier JS P3 Nissan, beat the No. 9 Graff Norma M30 Nissan of Eric Trouillet and Luis Sanjuan by 33 seconds. A total of 14 LMP3 cars and a single Ferrari 488 GT3 took part in the race.

***Uwe Alzen and Kenneth Heyer shared out the victories in the third DMV GTC series meeting of the year at the Red Bull Ring. Alzen’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 got past the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of pole-sitter Wolgang Triller and stayed out front to win the opening race, before Heyer won the second race in a Mercedes 1-2 with Mario Hirsch.

***BMW 24 Hours of Le Mans racers Philipp Eng and Nicky Catsburg teamed up for the BMW 120 at Le Mans sim race at the weekend. The pair finished 12th overall in the iRacing competition under the Team CATENG banner.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report.