Intercontinental GT Challenge
Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe
TOTAL SPA 24 HOURS

Dates: July 25th – 28th, 2019
Location: Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)
Weather: July 25th – 26th = Fair, July 27th – 28th = Rain
Qualifying: 38th
Finals: Retired (10 hours 48 minutes, 217 laps)

■Free Practice／Qualifying

Driver Nobuteru Taniguchi looks back on GOODSMILE RACING’s first attempt at the Total 24 Hours of Spa in 2017 by saying, “The two words of ‘crushing defeat’ are not strong enough.” Although we took on the challenge of a world-class GT3 battle as the top SUPER GT team, we were involved in an unlucky crash that put an end to our race before the morning.
Two years on, GOODSMILE RACING took on Spa again.

This time, GOODSMILE RACING collaborated with Black Falcon, which is a German powerhouse that has experience winning the 24 Hours Nürburgring. “Fate,” which is celebrating its 15th anniversary, was chosen for the vehicle, and the team name was decided as “GOODSMILE RACING & TYPE-MOON RACING.” The chosen drivers were Nobuteru Taniguchi, Tatsuya Kataoka, and AMG’s trusted Adam Christodoulou.
After seeing the vehicle design for “Fate,” Black Falcon asked GOODSMILE RACING to design the colors for their other two participating vehicles. “Promare” was chosen for the No. 4 car driven by the AMG drivers, and “Hatsune Miku” was chosen for the No. 6 car participating in the Silver Class.

On July 2nd – 3rd, the team participated in an official test ahead of race week. However, on the first day, Kataoka suffered a crash at Eau Rouge, Spa’s famous corner.
As a result, we rented a vehicle owned by AMG for race week and went into the race after refining the design of the colors.

On July 22nd, the team flew to Belgium to prepare for race week. There was abnormal weather all across Europe during that week, with intense heat that was consistently around 40℃ during the day. The mechanics who came from Japan carried out their tasks for preparation while covered in large beads of sweat.
The customary parade was held on the 24th, and qualifying took place on the 25th. This started with a free practice, where Christodoulou took a lead in breaking in the brakes and preparing for the race. The No. 00 car was feeling well.
Then, after the pre-qualifying session on that same afternoon, qualifying began without a moment of rest. All participating drivers joined four sessions of 15 minutes each, and standings were determined based on the average lap time for each team.

We did not participate in the first qualifying round, which only involved teams of four. For the second qualifying round, Taniguchi took the wheel.
Because all 72 participating cars, a record high, entered the course at once, it was difficult to get a clear lap on the long 7km circuit. Taniguchi somehow posted a time of 2 minutes 21.839 seconds, and handed the wheel to Kataoka, who would take on the third qualifying round. Kataoka also struggled to get a clear lap, but posted a time of 2 minutes 21.343 seconds.
Christodoulou was in charge of the fourth qualifying round. Because he had participated in 8 other 24-hour races in Spa, as well as other races on this circuit, prior to this, he knows the strategies for this course well. He posted a great time of 2 minutes 19.961 seconds.
The average of the three times came out to 38th place. Unfortunately, we did not qualify for the Super Pole, which would be contested on the following day by the top 20 cars.

On July 26th, there was only a 30-minute warm-up session and then the 30-minute Super Pole. The team members made their final preparations for the following day’s final race during the warm-up session and watched the time attack by the No. 4 car of Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon, their teammates that finished at the top of the Super Pole.
Maro Engel, who took charge of this attack, wonderfully captured pole position with a time of 2 minutes 18.588 seconds during the second timed lap. The team members were very excited about the fact that their teammates in the “Promare” colors took pole position.

■Final Race

July 27th was the day of the final race. In complete contrast to the fair weather and intense heat up to that point, the sky was covered in clouds, and the temperatures dropped. Furthermore, the forecast called for rain in the afternoon.
While fans continually poured into the circuit, it began to rain around 13:00 local time, as the forecast predicted, and it was raining heavily an hour prior to the start time. The course had wet conditions for the first time that week.
The rain gradually lightened up and had practically stopped by the start time of 16:30. The 24-hour race would begin as the road surface dried little by little.

Christodoulou was the first to grip the wheel of the No. 00 car. Once the green flag was waved after three safety car laps, Christodoulou began to push fiercely and improved his position in a manner that was improbable on a wet surface. During his stint, he used the “joker” pit stop, which is allowed once every six hours, and moved up to 13th position. After his hot pursuit, Christodoulou handed the reigns to Kataoka.

　There were many crashes early on, and Full Course Yellow (FCY) periods and safety car runs happened frequently. Nearly two hours after the start, the No. 37 BMW violently crashed into the guard rail at the end of the Kemmel Straight, resulting in a long FCY for repairs. Through these chaotic conditions, Kataoka completed a triple stint, which was also aided by long FCY periods, and handed the wheel to Taniguchi at almost exactly 21:00.

　Although Taniguchi was also completing his laps smoothly, he spun out at Les Comes around 21:39. Thankfully, there was no damage to the vehicle, and he rejoined the race, but this dropped our position to around 25th. It then started to rain again around 22:30, and the rain intensified rapidly.
Therefore, we immediately switched to rain tires, and Taniguchi also completed three stints.

The rain had lightened by the time Christodoulou took over at 23:34, so based on his suggestion, we decided to switch to slick tires despite the fact that the road surface was still wet. Because this action came slightly too early, we could not keep up with the other cars for a while, but when the “change over,” in which slick tires begin to produce better speeds than rain tires, arrived, Christodoulou completed his laps at a pace that outperformed our rivals by a wide margin.

At 02:00, during a switch from a FCY to a safety car run as a fine misty rain fell from low clouds, Christodoulou gave way to Kataoka again after completing a double stint. At this time, the road surface was wet, but drying, as the rain had lightened up.

Similarly to Christodoulou, Kataoka also used slick tires and increased his pace while checking the dryness of the road surface. He was feeling well and was within reach of 20th position. The pit was in a relieved state, having passed 10 hours and 40 minutes, which was when the crash took place during the last challenge. Kataoka had embarked on his double stint after a pit stop.
Immediately after this, large drops of rain came down onto the paddock. Almost simultaneously, the letters “FCY” and “00 HIT THE BARRIER” unbelievably appeared on the timing monitor. Was Kataoka involved in some kind of accident……!? The pit was in an uproar over the unexpected event.

When Kataoka, who was slowly increasing his pace on the drying road surface, approached Blanchimont, which is known as a super high-speed corner, the heavy rain that was also felt on the paddock had already been coming down. Kataoka spun out on the water without even noticing the rain, crashed into the tire barrier at a high speed, and seriously damaged the front and back of the vehicle.

The accident occurred just 10 minutes after the joy of bettering the previous result. Had the rain come down before or after Kataoka entered Blanchimont, something could have been done. The team members had no option but to accept the reality of retiring with an expression that cannot be described as disappointment or sadness.

This challenge ended in us retiring during lap 217 after 10 hours and 48 minutes, which is roughly 10 minutes longer than the last result.
However, by teaming up with the powerhouse Black Falcon, the engineers, mechanics, staff members, and drivers of GOODSMILE RACING learned a lot. On the back of this experience, GOODSMILE RACING will participate in the Suzuka 10 Hours race in August that has the same format as Spa.

■Team Member Comments

Team Owner: Takanori Aki

It is unfortunate! We were able to race for 10 minutes longer than last time, but we just can’t seem to make it until the morning. However, I think we can learn a lot from our partners at Black Falcon. The atmosphere was different from last time, and their build-up toward the 24-hour race was different from how things are handled by the team from Japan. We usually have harmony from always having the same team members, but this time we were involved in the process of communicating thoroughly and building a team. I think our framework for providing clear instructions was very good. I am not saying one is better than the other, but I strongly felt how things are done abroad during this race. I think it was a good experience. Additionally, we handled the colors of Black Falcon’s other two cars, and I feel like it had a larger impact than I had expected. The tendency to think of Japanese pop culture as being “cool” is prevalent across the world and more widely recognized than Japanese people imagine. I felt anew that we have potential fans and supporters in various places.

Team Manager: Ukyo Katayama

Although we made some mistakes during qualifying, I knew that we had room for improvement in the final race, and we were starting to catch up, so I am very disappointed that things ended the way they did. There was a time when we were up to 5th position on the timing monitor, and even when considering the differences in pit stop sequences, I thought we were in a position where we could go for the top 10.
In the end, we were at the mercy of the weather, but there is nothing we can do about that, since this is also part of racing. However, all of us were able to go through such a rare experience, I don’t think there is another team that uses Pirelli so much, and I believe this was a good experience for the Suzuka 10 Hours race and the SUPER GT moving forward.

Driver: Nobuteru Taniguchi

As this was my second time taking on the challenge of the Spa 24 Hours and my first time in two years, my intent was to complete the 24 hours and finish in a respectable position. However, I was only able to add about 10 minutes of endurance to the previous results after all. This time we were able to partner with Black Falcon, which is a strong team, and I was able to learn a lot from Christodoulou, who is a driver that knows AMG well. We were able to maintain a high position early on thanks to him, but I personally feel like our team may have gotten overzealous as a result…
Looking back, it may have been better to put safety first and use wet tires while the road surface was wet. I feel apologetic to all of our supporters for this disappointing result, but this is also part of racing. Because things don’t always go right, we can celebrate when things do go well. I want to celebrate very soon!

Driver: Tatsuya Kataoka

As I also crashed during the test day, I wanted to make sure that we finish the race no matter what, although I did want to go a step further during the weekend. We were racing carefully, but because the car was performing well, I felt that we were in a good position to compete during my first stint.
When the road surface was slightly wet during the night, we were going at a faster pace than the other cars. The road surface was beginning to dry, and just as I thought that we were approaching a pace that is suitable for dry surfaces, I lost my grip so suddenly that I didn’t even realize it was raining. I did not realize that it was raining hard until I stepped outside the car. To be honest, this was a situation I was not expecting. This can be chalked up to a lack of experience with Spa weather, which is known to change suddenly, and I probably should not have been racing at near 100% of my abilities during a 24-hour race. As a result, I ended up crashing and was not able to fulfill my number one goal of completing the race. I feel apologetic to my team, president Aki, all of our staff members, and all of our fans.
However, we were able to compete at a high level in terms of speed, and I am grateful for the opportunity to test my abilities on the world stage again.

Adam Christodoulou

Although things felt good during the free practice, it was difficult to get a clear lap during qualifying, and the three of us couldn’t match up our lap times. As a result, we had to start the final race at 38th position, which is quite far back, but our engineers and team members made the right decisions for this starting position and gave us pit stops at the right times. This allowed us to climb up to 13th position right away. TK and NOB drove wonderfully under the abnormal weather conditions, and the car was always steady regardless of the situation. However, looking back, I think that switching to slick tires during my stint was too optimistic, given the road surface conditions.
Overall, it was a very fun weekend. I was able to gel really well with my team as we took on this race. Because I was able to work with such a wonderful team, it is really disappointing that we could not produce any results. GOODSMILE RACING was absolutely full of passion and performed very strongly. I feel more regretful because I was having so much fun with the team. I would like to race with this team again.

Kamui Kobayashi

This was my first time watching various scenes of the race from an objective perspective as a part of the team without actually driving. Personally, I was able to learn a lot and focus in on various objectives ahead of the Suzuka 10 Hours race that I will be driving in. The final result was disappointing, but I think we need to turn it into a positive experience. As somebody who will drive at Suzuka as part of the GOODSMILE RACING family, I would like to make full use of this experience.