Podium and then race win for the D'Station Racing team at lasted round of GT World Challenge Asia Japan Cup
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Having not had much GT3 running this year, team boss Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii were both looking to continue their racing form that had been recently displayed at the last round of the Super Taikyu Series where they took a P2 overall finish to a series that they had so far struggled with.
Again Qualifying on the second row of the combined GT3/GT4 grid for this penultimate round from Sugo, it was Hoshino who would first pilot their #47 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 for the first stint of the hour-long race on what was still a very damp track.
Luckily avoiding early contact within the mid-field that claimed a couple of cars, Hoshino was able to solidify his P4 running position around the greasy track after the Safety Car had already taken half over 10 minutes from his maximum drive stint for the lap one incident.
Pitting at the halfway mark, Fujii was able to come out in third behind the #27 and #777 cars but the nine second deficit was too much for the #47 car to counter as the D’Station Racing crew claimed a much deserved third place finish.
Sundays second race was to become even better as Fujii this time took the start from his P4 starting position as the #777 Car Guy Ferrari quickly exited the front of the group to soon establish a twenty second lead going into the pit stop window.
With Hoshino taking the #47 Vantage to the flag, he was racing with the two cars immediately ahead for fourth but that soon became P3 with just five minutes remaining. The gap to the leading #777 Ferrari however was somewhat tumbling per lap – down from the 20 plus seconds after the stop to 17 and then 12 seconds going into the final lap.
Despite a spinning Mercedes complicating matters at the final corner with a self-inflicted journey into the tyre wall at the end of the penultimate lap, a clearly slowing #777 going up the hill to the chequered flag was enough for Hoshino to pass not just the BMW car ahead but also the #777 car to claim their first overall race win.
Without clear evidence of why the #777 was slowing so much, those loss of points for them brings the #47 Aston Martin back into play for the overall Japan Cup GT3 honours going into the final round of the season at Okayama at the end of September. Thirty-six points behind the #777 with fifty points available, the Japan Cup will be the Car Guys Championship to lose and gives both Hoshino and Fujii great confidence going into their latest round of the World Endurance Champiosnhip at Fuji International in three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – GTWCAsia / Team
