D'Station Racing reverse the points tide with a fourth place finish at Suzuka earlier today

 

 

The Japanese D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team did their Super GT Championship ambitions a world as they saw out the fifth round of the season from Suzuka earlier today.

Again running both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg aboard the green liveried #777 car, the last round of the season was a bitter pill for them all to swallow as both high success ballast and a fuel flow restrictor saw it impossible for them to even consider even a lower end points finish, but this weekend was different.

 

Having lost a fair wedge of that earlier success ballast (thanks to their poor result at Fuji Speedway), the newfound performance of the #777 was quickly realised in qualifying as the car booked a front row start for Sunday’s 300km race from second in the GT300 class.

Starting on a bright and warm track, it was full defence mode for most of the opening lap as the #777 defended its second position on track with Viger – sometimes going the long way around the corners just to stay where they were before eventually the challenging Mercedes did drop back. The team would maintain their position up until the first FCY for a stranded GT500 in the gravel on lap seventeen.

 

Pitting early compared to some within class, the #777 did fall outside of the top ten as they waited for the remaining half of the grid to make their respective stops to equalise out that equation as the race entered its second half. That was eventually realised by about lap thirty but which time the Aston Martin had dropped to fourth in class.

With just five laps to go, a late Safety Car for another GT500 car in the gravel and tyre wall calmed things down but the circuit damage would see the race finishing still behind the Safety Car with the D’Station Racing crew claiming enough points to pull their championship points back up to second in class as the series heads to Sugo towards the end of September.

Photo credits - Team