- NATIONS CUP
- Japan's Dramatic Comeback! 2nd Place Shared With Australia Due to Miraculous Identical Point Score
- Test Season 10 Overview
- 25/01/2018
The 10th Test Season of the Nations Cup was held across 6 rounds from January 14th to the 20th.
The opening round was a match on the Nürburgring GP in the Audi TT Cup. These types of one make races are a true test of skill; Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 and chonko_213, and Australia’s Nik_Makozi showed some incredible driving to score high points.
Round 2 continued on the Brands Hatch Indy with Racing Karts. Here, Nik_Makozi won the race with some good offensive driving, surpassing Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 in the point rankings. At the end of Round 3 (Interlagos / Gr. 3), the point ranking was in the order of Australia / Nik_Makozi in the lead, Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 in second place, and Merry_chataro_lc of Japan in third. However Kawakana222 and GTJ_300 of Japan who ended race 2 with no points are very close in terms of skill, so anything could still happen at this stage.
Round 4 on Thursday after the break was a one make race in the Mazda RX-7, on the Suzuka Circuit. Here, FD3S787, k24a_cm2, and s-shohei_ of Japan masterfully controlled the rotary-engined sportscar for some high scores. Round 5 on Friday was a Gr. 3 race staged on the Dragon Trail. In this battle, Japan’s Kawakana222 achieves a perfect pole to win in race 3 of the day. Racking up 1746 points Kawakana222 jumps from outside the top 10 ranking all the way to 4th place. Meanwhile Japan’s APEX-evolution,Taiwan’s ZeroYuRen, and Hong Kong’s saika159- who entered the season for the first time in this race also showed some impressive driving.
In the final round on Saturday. The top 24 Superstars race saw Australia’s Nik_Makozi in the lead of point rankings chased by Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 and Kawakana222. In qualifying, L-Shooter_RB26 and Kawakana222 lapped some good times, taking the pole position and a 2nd place start. Meanwhile Nik_Makozi could not perform as well as he could, rising no higher than 6th place.
In the race final, both L-Shooter_RB26 and Kawakana222 would not give way to anyone, keeping their qualifying positions all the way to the finish line. Meanwhile Australia’s Nik_Makozi squeezes out 3 overtakes with some seriously focused driving, finishing the race in 3rd place. As a result, Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 who scored 9962 points overturned the rankings, reclaiming the Championship title that was his back in Test Season 6. L-Shooter_RB26 also won the Manufacturer series this season, claiming a double title. In the end second place was actually shared by Japan’s Kawakana222 and Australia’s Nik_Makozi, who both earned identical season points at 12976 points.
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In the Top 24 Superstars race, Japan’s L-Shooter_RB26 who chose the only front wheel drive car in the top group executes a perfect pole-to-win.
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Australia’s Nik_Makozi who became buried in the middle group steadily raised his position and finished the race in 3rd place (pictured in the back
Point Ranking (Top10)
| RANK | DRIVER | DR | SR | RD.1 | RD.2 | RD.3 | RD.4 | RD.5 | RD.6 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
JAPAN
L-shooter_RB26
|
S | S | 1890 | 1661 | 1595 | - | - | 9962 | 13513 |
| 2 |
JAPAN
Kawakana222
|
S | S | 1630 | 0 | 1518 | 471 | 1746 | 9600 | 12976 |
| 2 |
AUSTRALIA
Nik_Makozi
|
S | S | 1785 | 1869 | 1869 | 1134 | 1571 | 9238 | 12976 |
| 4 |
JAPAN
GTJ_300
|
S | S | 1401 | - | 1651 | 526 | 1582 | 8152 | 11385 |
| 5 |
JAPAN
kuro96GT
|
S | S | 1319 | 1354 | 1407 | 0 | 1117 | 8514 | 11275 |
| 6 |
JAPAN
Merry_chataro_lc
|
S | S | 1577 | 1765 | 1402 | 1607 | - | 7790 | 11162 |
| 7 |
JAPAN
y_nuno2702
|
S | S | 1680 | - | 116 | 94 | 0 | 8876 | 10672 |
| 8 |
JAPAN
k24a_cm2
|
A | S | 1138 | 1225 | 1477 | 1668 | 1489 | 7066 | 10223 |
| 9 |
JAPAN
toybubu1205
|
S | S | - | 526 | 1391 | 1229 | 739 | 6704 | 9324 |
| 10 |
JAPAN
chonko_213
|
S | S | 1721 | - | - | - | - | 7428 | 9149 |