Supras Take 1-2-3 for the qualify

No.37 Castrol TOM'S SUPRA

Round 4 CP MINE GT RACE
Qualify Report / 10 Jul. '99

The Saturday qualifying sessions for "CP MINE GT RACE", the fourth round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (GTC) were held under a fine blue sky. Many GT race fans have came to the circuit to watch a high-speed contest for the pole position in the morning and afternoon sessions.

At 11:00, Motoyama in the No.1 Skyline GT-R was the first to go into the track followed by his teammate Aguri Suzuki in the No.2 GT-R. But it was Raphanel in the No.35 Supra who was the first to claimed the best lap. Then the other Toyota Supra drivers begun to set a fine laptime, to inmprove their position in the timing monitor immediately. Especially Toshio Suzuki in No.37 Supra ran well to claime the fastest lap at 10 minutes from the opening of the session. Then, Noda in the No.6 Supra who established the fastest lap in Friday free practice sessions, entered the track and came out in the top gorup immediately. However, his Supra, then, had an oil leak in the brake cooling divice, being impossible to improve the lap time more. Toshio Suzuki improved his best lap again to set 1' 24.519. As none could beat this record, Suzuki got the provisional pole position.

No.81 DAISHIN SILVIA

In GT 300 class, Takeshi Tsuchiya in the No.15 Silvia claimed the fastest lap immediately from opening the session for the class which started from 11:20. He improved his lap time to set 1'30.431, keeping the first place. However, just before the closing the session for the class, Fukuyama in the No.81 Silvia begun to attack, breaking the barre of 1 minutes 30 sec., to set 1'29.920. This is the new record of the GT 300 class. The both classes combined session was compteted from 11:40 for 20 minutes.

The second qualifying session which was held in the afternoon. As the temperture rose and the road temperture rose, no team in the top group could improve the lap time which was set in the morning session except for Wakisaka in the No.18 Honda NSX and Iida in the No.100 NSX. The pole position went to the pair of Toshio Suzuki and Ukyo Katayama in the No.37 Supra for the GT 500 class, Hideo Fukuyama and Nobuyuki Oyagi in the No.81 Silvia for the GT 300 class. "Emboldened by the good results of the Le Mans 24 hours, I tried it today" said Suzuki afterward. (Tom san: Toshio Suzuki made a good result in Le Mans this year) "The car run well and I could find good moment to attack when there was no trafic.For tomorrow, I think we will going to run at our own rythem."

Pole Position Driver

T.Suzuki / U.Katayama (No.37 Castrol TOM'S Supra)
H.Fukuyama / N.Ohyagi (No.81 DAISHIN SILVIA)
From Left