
On August 11 (Sun), Twin Ring Motegi was hit by intense heat from the morning. At the opening ceremony, Motegi Angels, Kochira, and Chirara made the opening declaration, followed by a briefing on the pit road in front of the control tower.
This year, on the grid, Saebato Mu announcer and Motegi Angel will introduce each team from the back of the grid, and finally enter the rolling lap. 104 cars participated in this year's Enjoy Class 7-hour endurance final event. Only [#78 PRD Racing4 Shirai Team] started from the pit, but the other 103 cars started the final event with a rolling start divided into two groups.
Entering first into corner 1 is the #71 Team SYOTA from the 5th grid, followed by #30 SuperChipsEnjoy, #25 Robot Racing Asahiruban, and #3 Rosso@GEN.
On the opening lap, #71 Team SYOTA pulls away from the rest of the pack and enters the 2nd lap. In 2nd place is #3 Rosso@GEN, with #30 SuperChipsEnjoy close behind. The rest of the pack is in a tight battle for 4th place. On the 2nd lap, #86 Team HKR 2013 breaks away from the pack and moves up to 3rd place, with positions constantly changing in the early stages of the race.
At the 2-hour mark, last year's most laps award winner [#39 Espresso] was in the lead with 39 laps, followed by [#71 Team SYOTA], [#75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers], [#38 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS], and [#2 Hayakoba Racing], with 14 teams all on the same lap as the leader. However, at the 4-hour mark, [#75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers] took the lead with 79 laps, followed by [#2 Hayakoba Racing], [#39 Espresso], [#77 Team SACHIKO], and [#71 Team SYOTA], with the top teams starting to separate from the rest.
The clouds began to spread and the sun gradually started to darken. Then, black thunderclouds approached from the west. As there was a possibility of a thunderstorm, the live announcer warned, but unfortunately, the rain started to fall. After 5 hours and 35 minutes, the safety car was deployed, but the rain became stronger and the thunder approached the Twin Ring Motegi area, so the event was interrupted with a red flag at 5:41. While waiting for the weather to improve, preparations were made to resume, but unfortunately, the final event was cancelled due to the road conditions not being expected to recover.
At the 108th lap, the safety car was introduced, so the final event was established based on the rankings at the end of the 107th lap.
The first to complete 107 laps was #2 Hayakoba Racing. "We were able to stay in the top group from the beginning, and the fuel consumption was as planned. We also checked the rain cloud radar and in the past, there have been times when the race ended in a thunderstorm, so I tried to run as long as possible while there was still gas," said team representative and B driver Yasushi Mashima.
The team's prediction was spot on, and they were able to win the award for most laps completed.
In addition, 4 other teams, #38 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS, #4 K.R.R, #75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers, and #39 Espresso, also completed 107 laps, making it a total of 5 teams that won the award for most laps completed in the 2013 Enjoy Class 7-hour endurance race.
The winners of the Excellent Lap Award for completing 106 laps are [#71 Team SYOTA], [#35 Keep Light K3 Racing], [#37 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS], [#88 Team Douraku no Kai @ SILK], [#773 Bridgestone Women's Kart Club], and [#99 Team P.R.U.]. The Excellent Lap Award winners for completing 105 laps are [#43 BOOFOOSETSU], [#77 Team SACHIKO], [#29 RA Racing @ GEN], [#33 K5Evolution @ GEN], and [#76 RF Aoyama KRT].
The MVP, despite being part of two large teams from Hokkaido, participated in two public practices and truly embodied the spirit of "let's all enjoy karting together", fully enjoying their K-TAI from the preparation stage. The chosen teams are [#100 Shin-Chitose Motorland A Team] and [#60 Shin-Chitose Motorland 2nd Machine SP].