O’Sullivan Revels in Winning Fierce Last Lap Podium Battle

CarGuy MKS Racing’s Zak O’Sullivan has revealed his satisfaction about coming out on top in an all-Ferrari battle for third place in class during last weekend’s Fuji 300km SUPER GT round against fellow Ferrari squad PONOS Racing.

O’Sullivan found himself fighting the PONOS Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo driven by series returnee Shintaro Kawabata in the closing stages for the final spot on the GT300 podium in a race won by the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT.

In the end, the British driver was able to get the move done around the outside of the long 100R right-hander to secure third for himself and his co-driver aboard the No. 7 CarGuy 296, Toyota junior driver Kiyoshi Umegaki.

Recalling the multi-lap battle, O’Sullivan said he was unhappy with Kawabata’s defensive tactics, adding that he was forced to concede position at one point to avoid a penalty, which allowed Hiroaki Ishiura’s Rookie Racing Mercedes-AMG into second.

“Racing against the same type of car as yours it’s the most difficult because you have the same characteristics, and I lost a lot of time battling,” said O’Sullivan. “Passing the PONOS car on the last lap at 100R was a nice way to end a difficult stint.

“I think we were running quite different set-ups; we went with a higher downforce set-up to help with tire degradation. They seemed to be running less downforce, which made it hard to pass them. I was losing around 4-5 km/h on the straights.

“There was a lot of contact [when I passed]. To be honest, I am not particularly happy with the way [Kawabata] was moving under braking.

“Also, the way the side-by-side racing rules are in Japan, the car on the outside gets a lot of priority. You really need to be fully ahead to pass on the inside.

“That’s why in the end I had to give back the position, otherwise I would have had a penalty. We were side-by-side and they said I had pushed him off. I originally passed him at [Turn 14]. That was what brought the No. 32 [Rookie AMG] in the battle.”

O’Sullivan might have been a clear second, and in a position to challenge the winning Toyota of Hiroki Yoshida and Seita Nonaka, had it not been for an earlier gearbox sensor problem that resulted in him running wide at Turn 1 and losing ground.

“The car was stuck in fourth gear and I went pretty much into the gravel,” recalled the Briton. “I was lucky that on the dashboard, there was a method to cancel a sensor — pull both clutches and upshift, and it was ok again.

“That cost me five or six seconds, and then to be still racing the PONOS car at the end was quite frustrating. I was pushing like an animal to make up the lost ground.

“Without that it would have been difficult to win, because at the end of the stint the JAF [GTA-GT300 rules] cars tend to be quick at the end of their stints. But I think we would have been in the fight, when the Green Brave car came out of the pits.”

A first podium of the year promotes O’Sullivan to ninth in the GT300 standings heading to the fourth event of the season at Suzuka later this month.

On his prospects of another good finish, he said: “Last year it was our best race, we won. It seems to be a track that suits the Yokohama tires.

“It will be the first race with a proper amount of success ballast on the car, because this time we only had 15 kg. So I expect a difficult weekend with more ballast, and maybe a different BoP, but we’ll try our hardest.”