Under Mount Fuji’s shadow, Rickard Hellsten and Wilfred van den Brink battled it out for the win in a tense GT1 thriller. Tension built up when SFH driver van den Brink closed a large gap to class leader Hellsten, and turned the finale into a rollercoaster that had it all: slipstreaming, body-rubbing, attack and defense drifting. A joy to watch. This is what racing is all about.

In the first stages of the race van den Brink had  started in the #51 SFH Corvette together with Marcel Offermans, and both drivers drove to a secure lead that was to fade in a fatal disconnection in the 288th lap of the race. In the meantime, Ricardo Michalewski and Johan Nieuwenhof had a hard time in the #53 SFH Corvette. Running into early trouble, the odds seemed to discard any chance on a podium finish. Hanging in there, they kept the car running, and made this thriller possible.

The third SFH car wasn’t a Corvette this time. Tim Vanhee, Filip Verbert and Robin Verdegaal showed that the Porsche 996 can be a more than a match for the majority of Corvettes and Aston Martins in the GT1 field. Like the #51 SFH Corvette though, the #52 SFH Porsche had to retire after unvoluntarily disconnecting from the server, at that time running in 2nd place behind the #51 car.

The #53 went on, and with the extra support of SFH drivers András Király, Verdegaal and van den Brink made up for its early misfortune. At the finishline Ghostspeed’s ace Hellsten only just secured the seemingly secure victory that had almost slipped out of his hands, and van den Brink had to settle for 2nd place on the podium. The Black Rebels rounded up the GT1 podium in the #21 Aston Martin DBR9. This was one finale that would be talked about for months to come.