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The FUJI GT 300km RACE, round 6 of the 2012 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on Sept. 9th at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4.563 km x 66 laps) in Shizuoka Pref. Before a large gallery of more 33,000 spectators, the GT500 class race was won in magnificent pole-to-win fashion by the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira). The team gave manager Kazuyoshi Hoshino his first win of the season and a spot in the title race over the next two rounds.
Having qualified fastest (pole position) in Saturday’s qualifying, the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R got a great start in the hands of the first-stint driver and began to pull away from the Tsugio Matsuda S Road REITO MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) in 2nd position and the KeePer Kraft SC430 (Andrea Caldarelli) and the rest of the field. The NISSAN GT-R and LEXUS SC430 cars from 3rd position back changed position frequently in fierce battles. However, Matsuda in the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R continued to build his lead over the field to nearly 10 seconds. When Matsuda returned for the routine pit stop, the team refueled the car and changed the tires with no hitches and Joao Paulo de Oliveira got the car back in the race as the second-stint driver. De Oliveira went on to widen the gap over the S Road REITO MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida) in 2nd place even further, breaking the usual SUPER GT pattern of close finishes to deliver a true runaway victory with a margin of more than 20 seconds at the checkered and bring the team its first victory of the season.
For the NISSAN GT-R it was the second win of the season, following the victory in the last round at Suzuka. Or the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R team it was its first victory since May of last year at Okayama. This win moved the Matsuda/De Oliveira team (NISSAN GT-R) up to 4th position in the series ranking. By finishing 2nd in this race, the Yanagida/Quintarelli driver pair (NISSAN GT-R) sits at the top of the ranking while the two LEXUS SC430 driver pairs of Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate and Juichi Wakisaka/Hiroaki Ishiura rank in at 2nd and 3rd respectively. With two races remaining in the season the title race is nearing its climax.
In the GT300 class, the hybrid apr HASEPRO PRIUS GT (Morio Nitta) that started from pole position suffered a spin at the first turn after the start and had to work back from the tail end of the pack. This gave the lead to the HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama) that started from 2nd position on the grid. But, the push from the rear by Nitta in the PRIUS GT, and later by Koki Saga in the second stint was truly awesome. With 15 laps remaining in the race, the PRIUS GT now driven by Saga was closing in on the tail of the leading HANKOOK PORSCHE (Tomonobu Fujii), and on the 53rd lap Saga tried to pass Fujii. The result was a collision that caused the PRIUS GT to spin out. This gave the HANKOOK PORSCHE plenty of lead to run home easily to victory and give the Kageyama/Fujii pair their second win of the season, following a victory in round three.
Having dropped to 3rd after the spin, the PRIUS GT battled with the other hybrid car in the race, the MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Daisuke Nakajima) that had moved up to 2nd, and managed to pass the CZ-R (Nakajima) with two laps remaining. Although it failed to claim the first GT victory ever by a hybrid car this time, the PRIUS GT did manage to outrun its hybrid rival, the Honda CR-Z, to claim the honor of being the first hybrid to finish 2nd in a SUPER GT race.
Video by orion0141
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