By Johan Laubscher
The first GT300 race was held at the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup this morning, a special
non-championship event for the Japanese Super GT and Super Formula. Richard
Lyons was behind the wheel of the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra and
he was able to recover following a difficult qualifying session.
As was the case during the bulk of the 2013 Super GT season, the sole Audi
entry in the GT300 class this weekend is the #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra from Hitotsuyama
Racing. Their regular two-man driver line-up of Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard
Lyons will be behind the wheel this weekend. They had a season of ups and downs
as they worked against bad luck and a negative Balance of Performance, but they
never gave up and worked hard all season long, despite the setbacks.
The Fuji Sprint Cup is split into two sprint races per category. Each
car has two drivers and each driver will do one of the two sprint races
individually. The two Super GT classes are also split for the races, running
GT500 and GT300 separately in the sprints.
It was a difficult qualifying session which saw the R8 LMS ultra
relegated to the rear of the field, as has been the case in Super GT all season
long. Richard Lyons qualified nineteenth for the first race and Akihiro Tsuzuki
qualified twenty-first for the second race.
The first GT300 race got underway on Saturday morning. Hitotsuyama
Racing pushed hard with Richard Lyons and the race concluded with the #21 Audi
R8 LMS ultra having recovered up to thirteenth place by the finish, up from the
nineteenth starting position. The first race was won by the #3 S Road NDDP Nissan
GTR GT3 ahead of the #11 GAINER DIXCEL Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3 and the #55 ARTA Honda
CR-Z.
Photo credit: Audi Sport Communication / Media
