» Super GT: Okayama race red-flagged amid pouring rain

Heavy rain twice interrupted the opening race of the AUTOBACS Super GT 2019 season at the Okayama circuit, with officials eventually forced to stop the race altogether before half-distance.

With just 31 laps out of the scheduled 82 completed, the race win went to Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa in their ARTA Honda NSX-GT in the GT500 class, with Morio Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi in their K-Tunes Lexus RC-F GT3 taking home the victory in the GT300 class.

The race was to start at 2:30pm local time, and opened behind the Safety Car due to the worsening conditions. The race was green-flagged on lap four, however was stopped at just Lap 10 after the #25 HOPPY Toyota 86 MC was involved in a collision with the #5 ADVICS MACH Toyota 86 MC, causing the Safety Car to be re-deployed for a lap.

Another crash on Lap 13 between the #10 GAINER Triple A Nissan GT-R and the #88 Manepa Lamborghini GT3 triggered a third Safety Car intervention and with conditions continuing to worsen, the red flag was waved and the race was stopped in the hope the rain would die down.

The race resumed at 3:45pm local time, however after another crash involving the #50 Arnage EXE Mercedes-AMG GT3 triggered the fourth deployment of the Safety Car. Officials had enough and the race was called off due to the increased risk of aquaplaning and the lack of grip the cars were facing.

In the GT300 class the victory went to the #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC-F GT3 (Morio Nitta/ Sena Sakaguchi) with second and third places going to the #55 ARTA Honda NSX-GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/ Nirei Fukuzumi) and the #52 SAITAMA Toyopet GreenBrave MARK X MC (Shigekazu Wakisaka/ Hiroki Yoshida) respectively.

In the GT500 class the victory went to the #8 ARTA Honda NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/ Takuya Izawa) with second and third places going to the #23 MOTUL AUTECH Nissan GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/ Ronnie Quinterelli) and the #12 CALSONIC MOTUL Nissan GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/ Jame Rossiter) respectively.

As the race was ended before it was 75% complete, half championship points will be awarded.

The next round of the Super GT Series takes place on May 3-4 at the Fuji Speedway.

2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT OKAYAMA 300KM – FINAL CLASSIFICATION (GT500 CLASS)
	Drivers	Team / Entry	Result	Pts
1.	Tomoki Nojiri Takuya Izawa	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	1:53:35.505	10
2.	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	NISMO	+ 1.227	7.5
3.	Daiki Sasaki James Rossiter	Team Impul	+ 2.781	5.5
4.	Kohei Hirate Frederic Makowiecki	NDDP Racing	+ 4.210	4
5.	Mitsunori Takaboshi Jann Mardenborough	Kondo Racing	+ 5.773	3
6.	Yuji Kunimoto Sho Tsuboi	Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh	+ 8.603	2.5
7.	Hideki Mutoh Daisuke Nakajima	Team Mugen	+ 11.099	2
8.	Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura	Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	+ 11.500	1.5
9.	Kazuki Nakajima Yuhi Sekiguchi	Lexus Team au Tom’s	+ 12.207	1
10.	Narain Karthikeyan Tadasuke Makino	Modulo Nakajima Racing	+ 13.614	0.5
11.	Heikki Kovalainen Yuichi Nakayama	Lexus Team SARD	+ 14.904
12.	Ryō Hirakawa Nick Cassidy	Lexus Team KeePer Tom’s	+ 16.620
13.	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	Lexus Team LeMans Wako’s	+ 17.635
14.	Koudai Tsukakoshi Bertrand Baguette	Keihin Real Racing	+ 31.856
15.	Jenson Button Naoki Yamamoto	Team Kunimitsu	1 lap behind