First ever driver to win with 2 manufacturers
Thong became the first foreign driver to win Fuji 24 Hours twice
Helm Motorsport took the checkered flag with a record distance of 760 laps.

Thong and his team Helm Motorsports took home the 2022 NPAC SuperTec Fuji 24 Hours victory crown after completing 760 laps. It marks Shaun’s 2nd personal Fuji 24 Hours race victory and the team’s first on their debut season. Thong also became the first foreign driver to score a double victory in this event and the first ever driver to win with 2 different manufacturer (2020 with Mercedes AMG, 2022 with Nismo).

The victory did not come easy as the winning #62 Nismo GT-R GT3 had to serve a 3 minutes stop and go penalty during midnight after the team violated the maximum driver driving allocation time by 3 minutes. The penalty resulted Thong to lost the lead and dropped to 5th in class with 3 laps behind the leader from early stages onwards.

Helm Motorsport then went on and switch strategy and keep the Hong Kong Driver and Yuya Hiraki for the double stint strategy until the pair see sunrise the next day. Both the pair almost did 70% of the whole race which was then rewarded as daylight breakthrough, the #62 Helm Motorsport GT-R was sitting comfortably in 2nd place with a healthy 2 laps lead to 3rd place, however the team still had no answers to the leading rival #81 Daishin GT-R.

The twist came with 3 hours remaining when the leader #81 suffer from a starter motor failure during a routine pitstop and the car failed to leave the pit. Resulting the car having to be pushed back into the garage for a rather huge maintenance and eventually losing the lead.

From that point onwards Thong completed his final stint with 1 hour to go and handed the car to Yuya Hiraki to complete the final hour. At 3pm local time the #62 Helm Motorsport Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3 took the checkered flag to take their first Super Taikyu and Fuji 24 Hours victory with a 3 laps margin to the #888 Grid Motorsport AMG.

“It felt unreal, i mean my goal is to win this race and we did it. However from the look of it i didn’t think we can actually challenge for the win but we kept on pushing and tried to keep our chances as high as possible. It looked like we had to settle for 2nd at one point but luck was on our side today.

However even after taking the lead we still had a big job to do, problems that happened to the other car might also happen to us so we really have to take care of our car but at the same time maintain a reasonable pace. Nevertheless thank you Helm Motorsport for this opportunity and everyone form the team deserve this victory. “

Further details can be found on Instagram and Facebook

Rewatch Live Stream will be available at Super Taikyu YouTube Channel below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLiC8yIqUyM

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Thong became the first Foreign Driver to take home 2 Fuji 24 Hours Victories in History