Rexy wins the Suzuka 1000km as Porsche ends a 32-year drought
Porsche had not won the Suzuka 1000km outright since 1994. It ended that 32-year wait in style, and a Belgian was part of the crew that did it.
The 50th running of the Suzuka 1000km went to the #8 AO by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, known as Bushi Rex, shared by Laurin Heinrich, Julien Andlauer and Belgium's Alessio Picariello. They won by 51 seconds and led home a Porsche one-three, ending a drought at one of endurance racing's great venues that reached all the way back to 1994.
We previewed this entry last month, when AO Racing arrived for its Intercontinental GT Challenge debut with a samurai-themed Porsche and three factory drivers. The debut could hardly have gone better.
How the win was built
The result was not handed over. Pole and the early lead belonged to the Miedecke Ford Mustang, and it took a charging middle stint from Heinrich to change that. After a Safety Car restart with around three and a half hours to go, Heinrich carved from fifth to first, picking off four cars in roughly 45 minutes, with the decisive move coming on Christopher Mies' leading Ford. From there the Porsche simply drove away as the damp track dried toward sunset, and clean pit work protected the lead to the flag. Andlauer, fresh from Porsche's Daytona 24 Hours hat-trick earlier this year, and Picariello did the rest.
A race of attrition behind the leaders
Behind that controlled run, the Suzuka 1000km lived up to its billing. Conditions were damp but drying at the 12:50 local start, and trouble came quickly. Kenny Habul crashed the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG at the daunting 130R, the #89 Team KRC BMW tangled with the #91 Herberth Porsche and was out after 85 laps, and a spin from the #18 Porsche as it left the pit lane brought the full Safety Car that reshuffled the race. Both BMW and Mercedes-AMG were hit hard by the carnage. Amid it all there was still time for a record: Ayhancan Güven, in the sister #7 Absolute Porsche, broke the two-minute barrier with a 1:59.966, a new GT3 lap record for Suzuka, before a slow refuelling stop late on cost his car around 13 seconds and any chance of catching the leaders. The Ford of Dennis Olsen, Mies and Belgium's Frédéric Vervisch hung on for a superb second, Ford's best-ever result in the series, with Güven's Porsche completing the podium.
A milestone, with a Belgian flavour
The numbers make it a landmark. This is Porsche's first outright Suzuka 1000km win in 32 years, its ninth Intercontinental GT Challenge victory, and a first outright IGTC win for Heinrich, Andlauer, Picariello and the AO by Absolute team, on their series debut. For Belgian fans there was plenty to enjoy beyond the winner: Vervisch took second in the Ford, and Maxime Martin brought his Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG home fifth. Porsche's one-three, meanwhile, strengthens the manufacturers' championship lead it carried into the weekend, with only the Indianapolis 8 Hour finale, the last of a season that has taken in rounds like the Bathurst 12 Hour, left to settle it.
AutoNext Take
For AO Racing, this is a dream debut. The team is best known for a dinosaur mascot and a taste for showmanship, but there is nothing gimmicky about winning a 1000-kilometre classic first time out and ending Porsche's longest drought at the circuit in the process. Heinrich's charge through the field was the drive of the day, and the Belgian alongside him now has a win at one of the sport's cathedrals.
The bigger story is Porsche's. A one-three on a weekend when its title rivals fell apart leaves the manufacturers' championship firmly in its hands going to Indianapolis. Ford can take real heart from pole and a career-best second, but on a day defined by who survived, Porsche had both the pace and the luck.
