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"JOY TAI" Top PageReports & Winners2013 "JOY TAI" July 7th (Sun) 7-Hour Endurance Race Report

2013 "JOY TAI" July 7th (Sun)
7-Hour Endurance Race Report

【#9 Fukuda Solar NS WM REV EK】showed a steady run and won the overall championship!

2013 "JOY TAI" July 7th (Sun) 7-Hour Endurance Race Report It was a hot and humid day from the morning on the final day of "JOY TAI". After refueling the gasoline early in the morning, the machines were transported to the grid and stored until the start. The opening ceremony was held with KOCHIRA and Takahiko Daito, the general manager of Twin Ring Motegi, riding on a high-altitude work vehicle and greeting everyone from 15 meters above. After the Twin Ring Motegi Angels made the opening declaration, the team introductions began.

As scheduled, at 9:55 am, the rolling lap began slowly and the road course was completed in a beautiful formation. When the safety car left, the 13th "Joy Tai" started. Starting from pole position, [#57 Toho Intec Racing DC5] cleared the first corner and continued to lead the race. On the opening lap, they pulled away from the second place and returned to the home straight, widening the gap even further. In second place was [#9 Fukuda Solar.NS.WM.REV.EK], who started from 4th on the grid, followed by [#67 Yamato Civic], [#73 BS Denso Fukuda DC2], [#45 Tohoku Seiko EK9 with RAID], [#126 Tohoku Seiko Elfism MSEK9], and [#18 Asano Automobile Prelude].

Afterwards, [#57 Touwa Intec Racing DC5] was leading the race, but it didn't last long and they dropped positions after pitting in. At the 2-hour mark, [#9 Fukuda Solar NS WM REV EK] was in the lead, followed by [#32 NUTEC☆ATS☆Smile EG6] on the same lap. However, at the 4-hour mark, [#36 Endless Advan Trust Vitz] from the 1.5 Challenge Cup took the lead, showing that fuel-efficient cars were still at the front.

At the remaining 1 hour mark, [#9 Fukuda Solar NS WM REV EK] was running in 2nd place with a 3 lap lead, but immediately after, they made their 5th pit stop for refueling. [#59 KOG Wako's Dunlop City], [#36 Endless Advan Trust Vitz] caught up and the 3 teams were now on the same lap. However, at this point, [#59 KOG Wako's Dunlop City] had only made 3 pit stops and had to make 2 more to fulfill the pit stop requirement under the "Joy Tai" rule, causing them to drop in rank. "We were following our strategy and gave it our best. We were hoping to make our pit stop during a safety car period, but unfortunately that didn't happen..." said Asakura, driver of [#59 KOG Wako's Dunlop City].

【#9 Fukuda Solar.NS.WM.REV.EK】 once again takes the lead, with 【#36 Endless Advan Trust Vitz】 following in second place. Fukuda, the driver of 【#9 Fukuda Solar.NS.WM.REV.EK】, maintains the gap with second place while driving. He then crosses the finish line in first place, securing the overall victory.
"We had plenty of fuel left. Towards the end, I was driving while keeping an eye on the time difference with the car behind me. There's no specific reason for our win. We were just lucky this time. When building a car, there are good times and bad times. This time, it was a good time. It was a very easy car to drive," said Fukuda.

2nd place, with a difference of 26.950 seconds, was taken by [#36 Endless Advan Trust Vitz] and won the 1.5 Challenge Cup class. 3rd place, with a difference of 52.779 seconds, was taken by [#59 KOG Wako's Dunlop City] and won the Class 3. The top 3 recorded 154 laps.

※Click on the photo to view the enlarged image.

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