
On August 11 (Sun), Twin Ring Motegi was hit by intense heat from the morning. At the opening ceremony, Motegi Angels, Kochira, and Chirara made the opening declaration, followed by a briefing on the pit road in front of the control tower.
This year, on the grid, Saebato Mu announcer and Motegi Angel will introduce each team from the back of the grid, and finally enter the rolling lap. 104 cars participated in this year's Enjoy Class 7-hour endurance final event. Only [#78 PRD Racing4 Shirai Team] started from the pit, but the other 103 cars started the final event with a rolling start divided into two groups.
Into the first corner, the #71 Team SYOTA from the 5th grid position entered first, followed by #30 SuperChipsEnjoy, #25 Robot Racing Asahiru Ban, and #3 Rosso@GEN.
On the opening lap, 【#71 Team SYOTA】 pulled away from the rest and entered the second lap in the lead. 【#3 Rosso@GEN】 moved up to second place, with 【#30 SuperChipsEnjoy】 closely marking its tail. With a slight gap, a fierce battle unfolded from fourth place onward. By the second lap, 【#86 Team HKR 2013】 broke away from the pack to rise to third place, and the positions rapidly changed in the early stages.
At the 2-hour mark, last year's most laps award winner [#39 Espresso] was in the lead with 39 laps, followed by [#71 Team SYOTA], [#75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers], [#38 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS], and [#2 Hayakoba Racing], with 14 teams all on the same lap as the leader. However, at the 4-hour mark, [#75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers] took the lead with 79 laps, followed by [#2 Hayakoba Racing], [#39 Espresso], [#77 Team SACHIKO], and [#71 Team SYOTA], with the top teams starting to separate from the rest.
At that time, clouds began to spread and the sunlight gradually started to fade. Then, pitch-black thunderclouds approached from the western sky. Because there was a possibility of a thunderstorm, the live announcer issued a warning, and mercilessly, the rain began to fall. At 5 hours and 35 minutes elapsed, the safety car was deployed, but as the rain intensified and the thunder approached the vicinity of Twin Ring Motegi, the event was suspended with a red flag shortly after 5 hours and 41 minutes to protect the safety of the participants. Preparations were made to resume while waiting for the weather to improve, but since the road conditions were not expected to recover, it was unfortunately decided to end the final event.
Since the safety car was deployed on the 108th lap, the final event was decided based on the standings at the end of the 107th lap.
The first to complete 107 laps was [#2 Hayakoba Racing]. "We were able to stay with the top group from the start, and fuel consumption went as planned. We were also monitoring the rain cloud radar, and since there have been times in the past when the race ended due to thunderstorms, we tried to stretch it out as much as possible while we still had fuel," said Yasushi Majima, the team representative and B driver.
The team's prediction was spot on, and they splendidly won the Most Laps Award.
Additionally, four teams—[#38 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS], [#4 K.R.R], [#75 RF.AOYAMA Sake Powers], and [#39 Espresso]—also completed 107 laps, making a total of five teams honored with the Most Laps Award in the 2013 Enjoy Class 7-hour endurance race.
The winners of the Excellent Lap Award for completing 106 laps are [#71 Team SYOTA], [#35 Keep Light K3 Racing], [#37 TeamKRS-DAI&MKS], [#88 Team Douraku no Kai @ SILK], [#773 Bridgestone Women's Kart Club], and [#99 Team P.R.U.]. The Excellent Lap Award winners for completing 105 laps are [#43 BOOFOOSETSU], [#77 Team SACHIKO], [#29 RA Racing @ GEN], [#33 K5Evolution @ GEN], and [#76 RF Aoyama KRT].
The MVP, despite being part of two large teams from Hokkaido, participated in two public practices and truly embodied the spirit of "let's all enjoy karting together", fully enjoying their K-TAI from the preparation stage. The chosen teams are [#100 Shin-Chitose Motorland A Team] and [#60 Shin-Chitose Motorland 2nd Machine SP].