AO by Absolute Porsche Takes Dominant Suzuka Win

AO Racing by Absolute took a dominant victory in the Suzuka 1000km, giving Porsche its first win in the Japanese enduro since 1994.

The combined efforts of Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello and Julien Andlauer aboard the ‘Bushi Rex’-liveried No. 8 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo were enough to beat the pole-winning Miedecke Motorsport/Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 EVO by 51 seconds.

Dennis Olsen, Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies controlled most of the first two hours of the Intercontinental GT Challenge round, spending much of the time locked in battle with the No. 7 Absolute Porsche, but a safety car period early in the third hour flipped the race on its head.

It allowed the No. 8 Porsche, which Heinrich took over for the third stint, to jump from fifth to second, before the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title protagonist quickly extinguished the ten-second lead held by the Ford of Mies.

Heinrich made the decisive move just after the halfway mark as he passed Mies at Turn 7, and with no further caution periods to follow, the No. 8 crew was untroubled en route to Porsche’s first Suzuka 1000km win in the SRO era and its 12th in total.

A Porsche 1-2 seemed possible at one stage as Ayhancan Guven showed spectacular pace in the No. 7 car that included a fastest lap, but a slow penultimate pit stop put the Bosch-liveried car back behind the No. 2 Johor Motorsports JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that was running right behind in a three-way fight for second.

Ultimately Guven was able to repass Nicky Catsburg with 40 minutes left on the clock to claim third for himself, Dorian Boccolacci and Alessandro Ghiretti.

Catsburg and his co-drivers Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Sims fell 7.5 seconds shy of a second consecutive podium despite a largely smooth run.

Craft-Bamboo Racing’s taxi-liveried No. 77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was a lapped fifth in the hands of IGTC title contenders Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin as well as Honda factory ace Kaku Ohta, who lacked the pace to keep up with the top four in the second half of the race after their spectacular comeback charge from 28th in the first half.

PONOS Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, driven by Tadasuke Makino, Seita Nonaka and Takuro Shinohara was the best of the Japanese squads in sixth, two laps down.

A total of 184 laps were completed, surpassing the titular distance by 11 laps.

Bronze class honors went the way of Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson, who finished seventh overall in their Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The WRT BMW, which was handed a drive-through penalty for contact in the final ten minutes, finished a lap clear of the High Class Racing Porsche of Kerong Li, Anders Fjordbach and Joel Sturm, with Li taking victory in the IGTC Independent Cup.

Completing the overall top ten were K-tunes Racing’s Pro class Lexus RC F GT3 and the Pro-Am winning No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari of ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, Kei Nakanishi and Shigekazu Wakisaka.

Third in the Bronze class and 11th overall was Herberth Motorsport’s Seven x Seven-backed No. 91 Porsche shared by Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer and Ralf Bohn, despite a penalty for contact with the No. 89 Team KRC BMW that caused the first full-course yellow of the race and another penalty for speeding under yellows.

JMR’s No. 99 Corvette of Ben Green and Princes Abu Bakar and Jefri Ibrahim was second in Pro-Am and 12th overall. Although it was classified a lap behind the LM Corsa Ferrari, the true gap between Fisichella and Green was just over 40 seconds.

LM Corsa’s path to victory was eased when the No. 28 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG lost significant ground with a suspected gearbox issue that left it sixth and last in class.

Tomei Sports’ overnight rebuild of its damaged Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 around a fresh tub paid off with an uncontested victory in the Am class and 28th overall.

Besides the No. 75 Express Mercedes-AMG that suffered an early crash in the hands of Kenny Habul, only two other cars were not running at the finish: the No. 89 Team KRC BMW that was withdrawn amid differential problems after its earlier contact cost it any chance of a strong result, and the EBM Porsche that went into the garage after a puncture.

RESULTS: Suzuka 1000km