FINALLY I got around to watching the third round of the Autobacs Super GT round 3 @ the Fuji Speedway. Actually ended up taking it to work to watch it since I just wasn't finding any time while at home to watch it.
The third round was definitely the best so far no rain and no yellow flag finishing under caution crap this time out. It was all clean racing with the one expect ion to the first lap smack up between the Calsonic/Impul GTR and the Arta NSX due to the Impul GTR losing traction and flying into the rear of the Arta NSX punting the NSX off track and completely demolishing the Impul front end. That was pretty much it for the Impul GTR even though it was still able to race after going to the pits and getting some tape mods. The Arta NSX fared much better even though it got punted pretty much to the end of the line after hard charging into the front pack from it's starting position.
With the third round being a 400km race (88 laps) two pit stops were required which I didn't know at first until I did some reading after the fact. So imagine my surprise when I started seeing cars pitting after only 23 laps and just about every finished by the 30th lap. I figured it out later when they all started pitting again at around lap 50.
Now lets look at that racing in the GT500 group it was a race for the Nissan GTR's to take back the points from the Lexus SC430s. The Motul GTR was able to take the pole position and with some pit racing (by the pit crews getting their job done quickly and faster than the other teams) and some good luck they were able to pull off the win. However before they could do that they had to do some serious driving to get past the HIS GTR which took the lead in traffic but with the early pitting and some good timing the Petronas SC430 was able to take the lead leaving the Motul GTR and others to fight on in heavy traffic. It's not just the fight between the Motul GTR and the Petronas Sc430 but there are other great fights going on Most notable was the fight between the Enoes and Kraft SC430s and the HIS GTR However the Arta NSX is fighting even harder coming all the way from 7th to finish in third leaving the last of the fights between the HIS GTR and the Eneos Sc430 but in a last ditch effort to get fourth a hard dive to the inside turns out bad for the Eneos as he can't brake soon enough or hard enough for the corner and ends up overcooking the corner and losing a position to the Kraft SC430. With the last lap looming the Petronas SC430 starts to pressure the Motul GTR but isn't able to do anything to keep the Motul GTR from winning the GT500 race.
On the GT300 side of things it was a bit different. The odd duckling Arta Garaiya was on pole for this round and was eventually able to take the win as well. However our plucky little Studie GLAD BMW Z4 was well at the back but was able to finish in 17th ahead of a couple Lamborghinis at least. it did get some good air time not for itself though but as traffic for the GT500 cars. Hey any coverage is good coverage for this car. The Arta Garaiya wasn't always in the lead that honor went to the Daishin Ferrari F430 which is new this year and was able to hold onto the lead for some time. It seemed like the GT300 cars had more issues though going off course more and having a couple issues in the pits. The Privee Apple Shiden was really having issues and wasn't doing all that well neither was the Reckless Lexus IS350. Even the RX-7 stalled in the pits for a second. At least this time all the Lamborghinis were able to stay on the track this time nor "Ford" Lambos this time around. Most of the show was spent on the GT500 cars but the battles that they did show for the GT300 class was the battle between the Upstart 911 and the S Road 350Z we got to follow that battle for a while until it back to GT500 and then later to the Weds IS350 and S Road 350Z. There just wasn't a whole lot going with the GT300 class this time.
A few questions that came up from watching this was what exactly are the hummingbird logos on both the Arta cars for? It looked pretty interesting and since it was on both the cars and the driver's uniforms of both cars it must have something to do with Autobacs. And secondly what exactly are the 320R race cars there are a few of them but I'm not exactly sure what exactly they are. Also why are there not that many replays in Super GT you'd get this little dust up for a split second like when the Weds IS350 got into it with I believe a GTR but they never replay that and I'm sure they discussed it but since I don't understand Japanese I have no idea what happened. A replay would have been good there or any of the many times you get a short off course aftermath shot and what the hell what happened where's my replay but oh well that's just what I get for not knowing enough Japanese.
Anyways that was pretty much the third round of the Super GT race series and look at that I finished it before the next one (June 21st) was run and aired. I'm definitely looking forward to the fourth round. This time the image was provided by another flickr member which you can find their stuff here with a lot more coverage of the third round. I was even able to find this short video which shows the punting of the Arta NSX by the Impul GTR.
