Tom Coronel and Honda NSX
Extend GT AllStar Victory
to Two Years Straight

No.64 Mobil 1 NSX

NICOS CUP GT ALLSTAR RACE '99
Race Report / 28 Nov. '99

AUTOPOLIS welcomed an excellent turnout of 48,800 fans to "NICOS CUP GT ALLSTAR RACE '99", ensuring an exciting, fun-filled day for all. The start of the 54-lap race came under very difficult driving conditions: clouds filling the sky and a wet track surface. Tire choices ran the gamut, rain, intermediates and slicks, in accordance to the team strategies and feelings about the weather for the day.

Mitsusada got the No.64 Honda NSX off to a good start and led the field around the first corner closely followed by Michigami in the No.16 NSX. Both drivers were driving on rain tires. Starting from third on the grid was the No.18 Honda driven by Kaneishi. But he was running with slicks and suffered a spin on lap 2 causing him to lose positioning. Hoshino (No.12 Skyline GT-R) and Gardner (No.6 Supra) chose to start on slicks as well and ended up dropping back due to the slippery track. The two front-running Honda NSXs held a good pace gradually opening a gap between them and the third and fourth place drivers, Takahashi in the No.100 NSX and Comas in the No.1 Skyline, respectively. Krumm (No.2 Skyline) and Hasemi in the No.3 Skyline (1998 model) did well early on in the race, lapping consistently quicker and moving up through the field.

Rain began to fall mid-race, and it could be seen that all drivers except those who had chosen rain tires were having increasingly difficult times controlling their cars. Comas, who was running with intermediate tires, decided to pit the No.1 GT-R early for the driver change (wheel going to Motoyama) and as witch to rain tires. Contrarily, Mitsusada and Michigami ran as many laps as possible before going in for driver changes. Coronel received the wheel from Mitsusada on lap 31 and led the race in the No.64 NSX after all of the top runners had completed their routine stops. One driver, Nakako, was delayed in the pit with a seat belt problem. Even more unfortunate, a team strategy miss sent him back out onto the track without changing the tires. But the rain stopped and the track was slowly drying.

In the second half of the race, Iida showed some fantastic driving skill. Lapping faster than anyone else on the track, he put in a charge to catch the leaders and, before long, was sitting in second and cutting the gap separating him and Coronel. But the Dutch driver prevailed in the end, taking the checkered flag ahead of Iida and making him settle with second. The driver pair of Suzuki/Krumm finished in third in the No.2 Skyline, followed Comas/Motoyama (No.1 Skyline) fourth, Nakako/Mitsusada (No.16 NSX) fifth, and the fastest Toyota, the No.36 Supra driven by Sekiya/Kurosawa, finishing sixth.

No.77 CUSCO SUBARU IMPREZA

The GT 300 class presented fans with a thrilling day. Starting from last on the grid due to a mishap in the Saturday free practice session, the driver pair of Matsuda/Schwager gave a magnificent performance that took their No.26 Porsche to lead the class. But engine trouble developed in the later stages causing the tempt retire the car before it could finish the race. This moved second running Kobayashi/Tanigawa in the No.77 Subaru into the lead followed by Matsumoto/Yamano in the No.7 Mazda RX-7. The Mazda lost position due to a spin when Matsumoto was driving, but ran well afterwards and regained second. Tsuchiya/Ide ran constantly in the No.15 Silvia and overtook others in the field to run in third. The top runners finished in that order.