Japanese Series

Japan Le Mans Challenge - Motegi Race

© Japan Le Mans Challenge

Once more Hitotsuyama Racing has won a round of the Japan Le Mans Challenge. The Motegi 1000 kilometres, the third and penultimate round of the 2007 season, saw the Zytek 05S taking the win after just over six hours of racing. A surprisingly good race for the Hitotsuyama Ferrari 550 Maranello meant it finished second overall, while the Team Kawamura Ferrari 430 crossed the finish line in third place.
The Sunday started wet at Motegi with rain coming down during the warm-up session in the morning. The Zytek 05S lapped the 4.8 kilometers long Motegi Road Course in 1:54.552, seven tenths of a second quicker than its main rival, the Courage LC70 of Team Mugen.

As it stopped raining after the warm-up and the race got underway on a dry track and under cloudy skies. Team Mugen could not hold onto their leading position for long and soon after the race had started it was Hitotsuyama Racing that took over the lead of the race.

The Courage LC70 was already two laps down after 250 out of 1000 kilometres had been completed and kept it this way at the half-way point. Unfortunately after just over four hours of racing Team Mugen’s race came to an end. The third placed AIM Sports GC-21 was not able to maintain the position it had after 500 kilometres and was overtaken by the Ferrari 550 Maranello, which had started from the back of the grid, as well as the Ferrari 430 of Team Kawamura.

When the chequered flag came out after the leading Zytek had covered 189 laps and for the third time in as many races Hitotsuyama Racing won both the LMP1 and LMGT1 class. Team Kawamura scored its third GT2 victory, while Max Racing took their first win of the season in the RS.KK-LM car.

JLMC – Motegi – Race

1. #22 Hitotsuyama Racing – Zytek 05S – 189 laps (6:01:08.079)
2. #21 Hitotsuyama Racing - Ferrari 550 Maranello – 178 laps
3. #27 Team Kawamura – Ferrari F430 GT – 175 laps
4. #15 Max Racing – RS.KK-LM – 172 laps
5. #18 AIM Sports – GC-21 – 162 laps
6. #910 910 Racing – Porsche 996 GT3 R – 162 laps
7. #20 Hitotsuyama Racing – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR – 140 laps
8. #5 Dragon – GC-21 – Not Classified/less than 70% (110 laps)
9. #16 Team Mugen – Courage LC70 – DNF (117 laps)
10. #37 Ebbro – GC-21 – DNF (53 laps)
11. #7 Scuderia Forme – Porsche 996 GT3 R – DNF (51 laps)

_{Marcel ten Caat - Planetlemans.com}