Having qualified earlier in what they themselves expressed to be a disappointing tenth position within their GT300 class, Tomonobu Fujii would again take the start to this sixth round 300km round to the season.
Having dropped what looked to be guaranteed championship points last time out at Suzuka with a late puncture, this sixth round of an eight-round season appeared pivotable to their championship aspirations after the leading crew in class also failed to capitalise upon D’Station Racing’s misfortunes.
Starting under clear skies and sunshine, progress within the opening laps proved to be frustrating for the #777 car as the characteristics of the Sugo circuit proved to be not to the ‘liking’ of the Aston Martin with its tight and twisting circuit layout.
With the mid-race driver change over to Charlie Fagg looming, the #777 was involved in an unseen three car incident that then saw the two other cars impact heavily with themselves and the pit lane entrance guardrail to end up in a crumpled mess upon either side of the racetrack.
Before that point of impact, however, the #777 can also be seen upon the side of the circuit on the uphill to the start straight also with significant front and rear end damage with the race then being immediately red flagged because of the scale and nature of the incident involved.
Importantly, we understand that all the drivers involved were seen removing themselves from their vehicles unaided, but the team have yet to officially confirm anything else moving forward. The race was later restarted and ran to its scheduled race length conclusion.
The next round to the series will be from Autopolis in about three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media