Absolute Porsche Fastest Again in Rain-Soaked Second Test

Ayhancan Guven made it a clean sweep of best times in paid testing ahead of this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge aboard his Bosch-liveried Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

The Turkish driver set the benchmark lap of 2:17.376 with six minutes remaining in the one-hour session as conditions eased slightly, around six seconds away from the time with which he topped the first session earlier in the day in the No. 7 machine.

That was after the morning rain became considerably heavier, turning the intervening SRO Japan Cup and Porsche Carrera Cup Japan sessions into washouts and ensured that only a small handful of cars circulated when IGTC running resumed.

As the rain reduced in intensity, more cars ventured out later in the session, with the majority of best times being recorded in the closing stages.

Guven’s nearest rival was the Pro-Am class No. 99 Johor Motorsports JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Green, who jumped up the timesheets with a lap of 2:18.388, albeit still just over a second away from Guven’s benchmark.

Maxime Oosten was third-fastest in the Bronze class-entered No. 89 Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO on a 2:18.499, ahead of Joel Sturm’s High Class Racing Porsche.

Nicky Catsburg spent a large portion of the session at the head of the times in the No. 2 JMR Corvette, but ended up fifth-fastest ahead of Mikael Grenier’s 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and Kaku Ohta in the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG.

Rounding off the top ten were SUPER GT regular Takamitsu Matsui in the K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3, Dan Harper in the Team WRT BMW and Song Jiajun in the Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

Absolute’s ‘Bushi Rex’-themed No. 8 Porsche was closer to the pace of its sister car than it was in the morning session, ending up 15th-fastest as Porsche Penske Motorsport IMSA star Julien Andlauer turned his first laps at Suzuka.

Only 25 cars set times, although all 30 cars took part in the session — with the No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari logging ten laps without completing any of them.

Friday’s Suzuka 1000km track action concludes with night practice at 5:50 p.m. local time (4:50 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Paid Test Session 2