Maiden victory for the new Honda Civic FK7 TCR

The 2018 Super Taikyu kicked off at Suzuka with a 5-hour race in which the TCR class was won by Tadao Uematsu, Shinji Nakano, Hiroki Otsu and Takashi Kobayashi in a Honda Civic FK7 TCR.
The #97 Civic, entered by Modulo Racing with DOME, scored the first ever victory for Honda with the new TCR model.
Seven TCR cars took part in the event that saw the Audi RS3 LMS run by BRP and driven by ‘Hirobon’, ‘Yossi’, Takuro Shinohara and Koichi Okumura setting the best qualifying time in the TCR class. However, they retired on the first lap with a broken suspension.
Another Audi, the Team DreamDrive car of Naoto Takeda, Takuya Shirasaka, Shozo Tagahara and Yoshiyuki Okumura led until mid race before losing one lap in the pits to solve a tyre issue.
The lead was then inherited by Philippe Devesa and Shogo Mitsuyama in the Adenau Volkswagen Golf GTI; they set the pace until the four hour mark, but eventually the #97 Civic took command and proceeded to claim the class win with a one-lap margin. The DreamDrive Audi finished in third position, a further 21 seconds adrift.
The Modulo Racing Civic had a consistent pace and benefited from a thorough strategy of pit stops.
The series will resume at Sugo on April 29 for round 2.