Victory for Audi Team DreamDrive in the 24H Fuji

The Audi Team DreamDrive claimed its maiden victory in the Super Taikyu in the series’ most difficult race, the 24-hour Fuji.
This was also the third consecutive victory of an Audi team during the current season, following those scored by Team Mars at Suzuka and BRP at Sugo.
The Qualifying at Fuji saw two Honda Civic teams setting the fastest laps: the reigning champion Modulo Racing DOME claimed pole position (3:38.488) from KCMG (3:38.939).
However, the pole-setting car lost time to replace a broken exhaust and eventually retired after nine hours with a broken gearbox. The KCMG car driven by Paul Ip, Josh Burdon, Matthew Howson and Attila Tassi led the race during the first six hours, but then it also suffered from a gearbox failure and spent long time in the pits to replace it.
The Team DreamDrive Audi RS 3 LMS of Naoto Takeda, Takuya Shirasaka and Shozo Tagahara took the lead during the seventh hour and never lost it, winning with a 3-lap margin over the Adenau Racingline Performance Volkswagen Golf GTI shared by Philippe Devesa, Shogo Mitsuyama, Jake Parsons and Jyuichi Wakisaka. This was the team’s and Volkswagen’s best result so far in Super Taikyu.
The podium was completed by the RFC Racing Honda Civic of Jun Fuji, Takahisa Oono, Toshio Suzuki and Seiji Ara that finished a distant third, 13 laps behind the winners.
The series will resume for round 4 at Autopolis on 19/21 July.

Race
1. Team DreamDrive, Audi RS 3 LMS (Takeda/Tagahara/Shirasaka), 731 laps
2. Adenau Racingline, VW Golf GTI (Devesa/Mitsuyama/Parsons/Wakisaka), 3 laps
3. RFC Racing, Honda Civic FK8 (Fuji/Oono/Suzuki/Ara), 13 laps