00-05-27 Round3 Qualify Report Wakisaka and Honda NSX Win Third Successive Pole Carrying 90kg Handicap Weight The qualifying sessions of the third round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) were held on May 27th at Sportsland SUGO. Thirty-six GT ars were on hand to compete for the pole under fine blue skies. The contest was keen in the GT 500 class, with the top 10 cars turning times within 1sec of each other and two machines breaking the course record. The driver pair of Daisuke Ito and Dominik Shwager ran well in the morning session to place the No.64 car high on the timing monitor in spite of not having participated in testing. But it was the veterans of Michigami in the N.16 NSX and Wakisaka in the No.18 NSX who turned the fastest lap times. Takeshi Tsuchiya put in a good time in the No.36 Supra to move into fourth place in the morning as the fastest Toyota driver. At the top of the GT 300 class fighting for the right to the pole were Haruhiko Matsumoto in the No.7 Mazda RX-7, Takashi Hara in the No.19 Celica and Hideo Fukuyama in the No.26 Porsche GT3R. The track condition improved a bit for the afternoon session, and many of the drivers beat their morning session best laps. Some 12 minutes after the start of the session, Nakaya claimed a fastest lap of 1'20.889" in the No.21 McLaren F1 GTR. Then, the No.69 car stopped on the track and bringing out a red flag. The session got a green flag again 7 minutes later, and with the track temperature having cooled down, conditions became even more advantageous for improving times. Tsuchiya took the No.36 Supra around the track in 1'20.713" besting the quickest lap of Nakaya, and then Noda in the No.6 Supra, Iida in the No.100 Honda and Raphanel in the No.35 Supra all improved on their times from the morning session. Then Wakisaka took to the track in the No.18 Honda, and to the surprise of all lapped an incredible 1'20.296"... carrying 90kg of handicap weight! His time held to the end of the session, giving him his third consecutive pole this year. In the GT 300 class, Hara drove the No.19 Celica to a fine 1'27.207" and pole start. But the team celebration was short-lived as the session lap time was nullified due to a scrutineering infraction (insufficient minimum car weight). As a consequence, Tetsuya Yamano and Haruhiko Matsumoto in the No.7 Mazda RX-7 won the pole for the class. POLE POSITION GT500 POLE POSITION Wakisaka & Kaneishi Juichi Wakisaka: "We suffered some oversteering going from the Friday free practice sessions into today's first qualifying session. But once we got the problem settled we were able to clock lap times equivalent to the test session in April. Then I became confident that all is going well." GT300 POLE POSITION Yamano & Matsumoto Haruhiko Matsumoto: "We ran with 50kg of handicap weight during the GTA test sessions in April. But since we finished fifth in the second round at Fuji, we were able to lose some weight. We found a good set-up as well. All praise is owed to the team."