Lexus wins Super GT300 class at Fuji Speedway

Nakayama, Tsuboi seal thrilling win in 2nd round of 2017 AUTOBACS series

TOKYO, June 7: Lexus secured its first victory of the season in the Super GT300 class as the No. 51 Lexus JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 driven by Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi sealed a thrilling win in the second round of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series held at the Fuji Speedway. Held under a clear bright sky, the Fuji 500-km race, round 2 of the series, is the second longest race of the SUPER GT season, running for more than three hours, and also the most popular event on the calendar.

“This has been a great performance by the No. 51 RC F GT3 team and is testimony to the capability of the Lexus RC F and the racing prowess of the entire team. I congratulate the drivers and support staff for putting on such an excellent race,” said Takayuki Yoshitsugu, Chief Representative, Middle East and North Africa Representative Office, Toyota Motor Corporation.

“Motorsports is an important medium for Lexus to convey the excitement of driving. It provides us with significant insights into our cars and their

Lexus RC F at Fuji Speedway race.

performance under extreme conditions on racetracks. Through these activities, we will continue to develop our human resources and leverage our ‘knowhow’ to make ‘ever-better cars.’ We thank our fans for their support and look forward to providing them with more thrills as the season unfolds,” Yoshitsugu added.

Trailing in fourth in the early stages of the race, the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3 with Yuichi Nakayama behind the wheel jumped up one place into third to chase the two frontrunners at the same pace as theirs. As the cars in the first and second places pulled up for their routine pit stops, the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3 pursued a different strategy of holding off longer and delaying the stop-off. Once in the lead after the first and second-placed cars had made their pit stop, Nakayama made a hard spurt to gain ground on the leading pack and it was not until the 41st lap that he brought his car into the pit.

When all of the cars had finished their first routine pit stop, the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3 was still in third and 19 seconds off the pace. In this middle stint of the race, it was the rookie Tsuboi, having taken over from Nakayama, who showed outstanding driving and fast laps to slowly close the gap to the second-placed car.

On the 60th lap, a left-front tire burst on the 300R curve forced the car leading the charge to make an earlierthan-scheduled pit stop, allowing the car placed just behind to pull into the lead, with the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3 following about five seconds back in second place. As the new frontrunner pulled up for a second routine pit stop on the 70th lap, Tsuboi, with no one in front of him now, ran consecutive super-fast laps to close the gap until he brought the car in for its second pit stop on the 80th lap.

The team pulled off some fast pit work, adding just enough fuel to finish the short remaining laps, enabling the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3 to get out of the pit and back into the race in just 39 seconds. As a result, the No. 51 Lexus RC F GT3, with Nakayama back behind the wheel, was able to keep the lead, and although the chasing car pulled up to within one second of its tail, Nakayama hung strong to pull away and blitz his way to the checkered flag, giving the new Lexus RC F GT3 and the rookie Tsuboi a momentous first win.

With the Lexus LC 500 having already won the Super GT 500 race held earlier in the day, the RC F GT3’s maiden victory completed a double win for the Lexus team on their home track of Fuji.

“I am very happy that we were able to win here at Lexus’ home track,” said Yuichi Nakayama. “In the opening round we lacked speed, so we thought that we would have a difficult time here at Fuji if something didn’t change. But, Bridgestone developed some outstanding tires for us. The result in yesterday’s qualifying was disappointing, but today we had the performance we needed and we were able to run a good race.”

Sho Tsuboi said: “I drove the second stint and my job was to get the car back in good position for (Yuichi) Nakayama-san for the last stint. That was all I was thinking about. So, I pushed hard from the beginning of my stint and the tires and the machine kept performing well without fail. That enabled me to run at a good pace and turn the car over to Nakayama-san again with more of a lead. It was really great.” Race Notes: No. 51 LEXUS JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi) Race: 1st, 102 laps Best Lap: 1’38.679