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First Japanese Super GT Victory for Lucas Ordóñez

Lucas Ordóñez, the first GT Academy winner, has achieved his first GT300 Class victory. The win came in the 7th round of the Super GT series, held at Chang International Circuit, Thailand, on the 5th of October.

The Chang International Circuit is a brand new course that just opened in eastern Thailand last month. The only overseas event for the 2014 Super GT series became the inaugural race for this circuit.

In the GT300 class, the Porsche 911 GT3 #99, from local team i-mobile-AAS, gained pole position, and led the race with a strong start. Lucas Ordóñez and Kazuki Hoshino in the B-MAX NDDP GT-R #3, and the Studie BMW Z4 #7, driven by Seiji Ara and Jörg Müller, began their chase. Strategic pits by the two teams set them ahead of car #99 at one point, but the differences in top speed would eventually lead to car #99 regaining the lead and widening the gap.

However, car #99 encountered a flat tyre on the 49th lap, slowing it down considerably. The GT-R #3 took the lead, with the BMW Z4 #7 following. The two cars fought a heated, close battle, with less than a second gap between the two in the latter part of the race. But in the end Lucas fended off the fierce overtaking attempts by Müller and successfully concluded the race as the winner.

This is the 7th race for Lucas in Japan's Super GT series, which he has entered through the NISMO Global Driver Exchange Program. Until now Lucas had shown great speed in the series but had not yet obtained a win; his first victory came after a very tough battle in Thailand.