When a P2 podium is no longer considered enough for D'Station Racing
Sunday, September 03, 2023
Have competed at three rounds so far, the #47 Vantage crew of Tatsuya Hoshino, Kenji Hama, Max Orido and Jake Parsons have only beaten the #2 KS Frontier KTM X-Box once this season so far at the opening round to then follow the #2 car home per round thereafter to trail them by just 9.5 points going into today’s five-hour round of the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit to the north of Tokyo.
Ran under sweltering conditions, the #47 car qualified eighth overall within the mixed class grid – albeit P2 to the KTM again to then suffer slight contact during the race with an ST-X classed car to lose one of its door mirrors.
Having to pit for repairs, that delay allowed the already faster KTM to develop a one lap lead over the #47 car from which there was no hope of recovering even with some subsequent periods of caution.
That leaves the team just two further rounds at both Okayama and Fuji to overcome that now double-digit deficit – all starting in about six weeks’ time as team attention now turns to the World Endurance Championship form their home track of Fuji this weekend.
Photo credits - Team
