Super GT - Ferrari fifth at Okayama

Okayama, 10 April 2016 - The Okayama GT 300 Km Race, opening round of the 2016 Super GT series, took place at the Okayama International Circuit. Race day brought a thin overcast of cloud with not fear of rain. With the air temperature at 20° it was very comfortable weather for the 19,000 spectators who turned out to watch the opening round of the 2016 season kick off in the afternoon with two motorcycles of the Okayama Prefectural Police leading the parade lap in an appeal for traffic safety. After the parade lap and one formation lap, the 82-lap race got underway.   Fair battle. In the GT300 class, the No. 65 Leon Cvstos Mercedes with Hiroki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou caught and passed the pole-starting No. 25 ViVaC 86MC Toyota of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Takamitsu Matsui early in the race. From there, they ran on unchallenged to bring the team the first GT300 win ever.   A good fifth. Second on the podium were Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka (Mercedes) while third were Jorg Muller and Seiji Ara (BMW). The Ferrari 488 GT3 of the LM Corsa team was good fifth thanks to Akihiro Tsuzuki and Morio Nitta at the first race with the new car. The overall win went to the Moto Autech Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli. Next race is at Fuji on the firs weekend of May.