D'Station Racing keep their Super Taikyu hopes alive with podium finishes at Autopolis
Sunday, December 13, 2020
The #777 Aston Martin Racing GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Tsubasa Kondo had earlier secured their third consecutive Pole Position and their fourth pole of the Series so far whilst the four-man crew of Max Orido, Tatsuya Hoshino, Takuro Shinohara and Kenji Hama also achieved another front row start for their #47 ST-Z class Vantage GT4.
As with previous rounds (especially for the #777 ST-X class Vantage GT3), this multi class series of this time 46 runners could always easily give rise to that inadvertent contact that puts you out of the race but at least Lady Luck was on the team’s side this time as, despite the seriously very low track and air temperatures during the five-hour race, each of the D’Station cars were able to run to their own race plan from the front of the class.
With the #777 ultimately claiming an emphatic race win again, a double team win was narrowly thwarted as the #47 endured a late 60 second stop and go penalty for having pitted during a Full Course Yellow. Despite the late penalty the #47 crew were still able to claim another P2 in class and very much kept alive their ST-Z Championship aspirations.
The sixth race of this season won’t be held until the 23rd January 2021 when the series visits Suzuka for its finale. Whilst the #47 remain very much in contention in their class, Sundays win pulls the #777 back into Championship contention being now just 24 points behind the leading Mercedes but with a maximum of 32 points on offer at Suzuka.
Photo credits – D’Station Racing / Super Taikyu
