Super GT: Oshima and Yamashita take championship title by just two points

Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita are the Japanese Super GT Series champions for 2019! The duo in the #6 Wako’s Lexus LC500 of Lexus Team LeMans finished second in the season’s finale at Twin Ring Motegi, securing enough points to take their first championship title together.

Earlier in a career, the 32-year-old Oshima was the GT300 class champion in 2007 while Yamashita grabbed Super GT title three years after he was Japanese Formula 3 champion in 2016.

Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita Yuichi Wakisaka

Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita with their team boss Yuichi Wakisaka

The winners of the last race are Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa in the #37 KeePer Tom’s Lexus LC500, losing a title by just two points. Their teammates Kazuki Nakajima and Yuhi Sekiguchi, who started the race from pole in the #36 au Tom’s Lexus, completed the podium at Motegi.

The last race of the season was also the last Super GT race for former F1 champion Jenson Button, who spent two seasons with Honda in Japanese premier GT competition, winning the championship title in 2018. He and Naoki Yamamoto finished sixth today at Motegi in the #1 Raybrig Honda NSX-GT. Button announced that he wouldn’t return to Super GT in 2020 but didn’t tell what would be his next racing challenge.

Shinichi Takagi and Nirei Fukuzumi are GT300 champions in the #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3

In the GT300 class, the championship title went to Shinichi Takagi and Nirei Fukuzumi, who finished fourth in the last race in the #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 Evo. For Fukuzumi, it’s his first full season in the championship. On the other side, Takagi is a veteran who already won on GT300 title back in 2002 and finished four times as a runner-up.

The GT300 race had a dramatic finish when the #65 Leon Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 slowed down in the very last meters, handing the victory to the #11 Gainer Tanax Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Hironobu Yasuda. Leon Racing’s drivers Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami took the second place. LM Corsa’s Morio Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi finished third in the #96 Lexus RC F GT3.