Weekly Racing Roundup (8.28.23)

Aguri Honda Converts Pole to Victory at Suzuka

The Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda pairing of Hiroki Otsu and Nirei Fukuzumi converted pole position into their first victory of the Super GT season at Suzuka.

Fukuzumi finished around 10 seconds clear of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli’s Nissan Z GT500, which was later disqualified due to excessive skid block wear.

Otsu made a strong start, keeping Quintarelli and Nobuharu Matsushita at bay through the first corner and building a gap at the head of the field.

His Aguri team’s decision to pit just before the first of three Full Course Yellow periods further solidified the No. 16 Honda NS-X GT’s advantage, which Fukuzumi picked up at the second pit stop and maintained through to the checkered flag.

Quintarelli and Matsuda’s disqualification promoted Yuichi Nakayama and Yuhi Sekiguchi to second after their Toyota GR Supra finished two seconds ahead of the Toyota driven by Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita.

It was a close battle for the outer podium positions as the Real Racing Honda of Matsushita and Koudai Tsukakoshi finished six-tenths behind the third-placed Toyota.

Nissan’s Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi maintained their GT500 points lead despite only finishing 13th, considering their main challengers Ritomo Miyata and Sho Tsuboi ended up 10th for a single point.

Syun Koide and Takashi Kobayashi won the GT300 class for the second time this season in their Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22, capping a good day for the manufacturer.

RESULTS: Suzuka

Nielsen Wins First Le Mans Cup Race at Aragon

Matt Bell and John Melsom rose from 19th on the grid to win the Michelin Le Mans Cup’s first race at Aragon in their Nielsen Racing Duqueine D08 Nissan.

Bronze-rated Melsom made up a dozen positions during the opening stint of an incident-filled contest before Bell made further progress to take victory by 5.8 seconds.

The one-hour, 50-minute race was put under safety car conditions on the first lap after several LMP3 cars went off at Turn 1, although Melsom avoided the melee and gained several places.

Josh Caygill led from pole position in the No. 22 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan, and remained ahead through a safety car interruption later in the stint after Christophe Cresp ended up in the gravel courtesy of contact with Audunn Gudmundsson.

Caygill pitted from the lead to hand over to Garnet Patterson, but the United car failed to start and slipped down the order, enabling Cedric Oltramare to hit the front for Cool Racing.

Both Gillian Henrion, of Team Virage, and Bell overtook Oltramare before a safety car occurred with 23 minutes remaining due to an engine failure on the No. 23 United Ligier.

Bell quickly dispatched Henrion into Turn 1 and increased the margin to claim victory for Nielsen, while the Virage Ligier finished second to ensure that Henrion and Julien Gerbi increased their LMP3 points lead over Gudmundsson and Colin Noble in third.

Kei Cozzolino and Hiroshi Koizumi claimed GT3 honors with their No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 after the winning High Class Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R had five seconds added to its final race time for an earlier overtake beyond the track limits.

RESULTS: Aragon

Other Racing Action & News

***Markus Winkelhock and Vicente Floirendo won the first of two Thailand Super Series races at Sepang in their B-Quik Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. However, in the second contest, Winkelhock and Edoardo Mortara came to blows and reached the gravel on the opening lap, enabling Jesse Krohn to assume the lead and take victory alongside his Team AAI BMW co-driver Chun Hua Chen.

***International GT Open will visit the same seven circuits next year, according to a provisional schedule released by promoter GT Sport. There is also the option of an eighth round, but the confirmed venues are Portimao (April 27-28), Spa (May 25-26), Hungaroring (June 22-23), Paul Ricard (July 20-21), Red Bull Ring (Sep. 13-15), Barcelona (Sep. 28-29) and Monza (Oct. 19-20).

***Kevin Estre’s summer break included being reunited with the Type-997 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in which he won the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup France title. The Porsche Hypercar ace said the session at Magny-Cours brought back “great memories.”

On this weekend: Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup (Hockenheim)