Finally something to cheer for D'Station Racing with Japan Cup class win at Suzuka
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Having been taken out of yesterday’s hour-long opener within just a few hundred metres of the start line, todays concluding race quickly became a race of high morale importance for the team as having suffered both race ending technical and accident issues within their prior rounds of the World Endurance Champiosnhip.
Flying back into Japan for this latest round of the SRO series from Monza, drivers Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii were looking a for good performances from the off and Hoshino’s Qualifying position of P10 for race 1 looked promising.
Unfortunately, bad luck again quickly came their way as Hoshino was first tapped into a spin by one Porsche before being collected by another even before the opening lap was a quarter finished. Whilst Hoshino was able to quickly move his car out of immediate harm’s way from further contact, he was unable to get the car going again and would retire the car on the spot.
Race 2 on Sunday would go better as Fujii opened the proceedings for the D’Station team, vigorously at times defending their track position of P10 from Saturdays race winner for much of his stint.
Handing back over to Hoshino, a wide track through the chicane gave a brief cause for concern before he adopted a more conventional route around the circuit and whilst others were ‘losing their heads’ and gaining themselves race and post-race penalties, the #47 car would eventually be classified sixth overall – P5 in GT3 Pro-Am.
Handing back over to Hoshino, a wide track through the chicane gave a brief cause for concern before he adopted a more conventional route around the circuit and whilst others were ‘losing their heads’ and gaining themselves race and post-race penalties, the #47 car would eventually be classified sixth overall – P5 in GT3 Pro-Am.
That result also gave the team a GT3 Japan Cup class win and lifts them up to second within that championship table as the series quickly moves onto Motegi next weekend.
Photo credits – Team / Series
