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2001-11-10 |
Qualify Review
No.30 SOK McLaren GTR
The curtain for the seventh and final round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship rose at CP MINE Circuit on November 10th. Saturday qualifying practice sessions were heated, full of excitement and anticipation with the Driver's Championship title on the line and still within the reach of eight teams in the GT500 class and six teams in the GT300 class.
The sessions were held under bright sunny skies, giving excellent conditions for the teams to work in. Sixteen cars broke the circuit record for the GT500 class and two cars in GT 300: overall best times being 1'21.789" for Andre Couto in a McLaren F1GTR for GT500 and 1'29.584" by Shinsuke Shibahara in a Porsche GT3R for GT300.
CP MINE Circuit is known as a site where European drivers are strong and the saying was put to the test in the first qualifying session with the top five places dominated by Europeans. Andre Couto in the No.30 McLaren F1GTR was fastest with a lap of 1'22.874", followed by Michael Krumm in the No.22 Skyline GT-R at 1'22.943" and Benoit Treluyer in the No.18 Honda at 1'22.999". Jeremie Dufour managed a 1'23.023" in his No.39 Toyota Supra for fourth fastest time and Dominik Schwager was fifth in the No.64 NSX at 1'23.072". The championship points standing leader, Hironori Takeuchi and Yuji Tachikawa were sitting with a provisional 10th on the grid in the No.38 Supra (1'23.623"), suffering from their heavy handicap weight of 80kg.
Many of the teams improved their morning performances in the second session in the afternoon; especially Couto who managed to break the 1'22" barrier, claiming a quick 1'21.789".
"It's a great feeling... Especially at the last race of the season," said Couto after the sessions. "The team did a great job and the car was feeling good. I was third, and then second. But we just missed first. Then I finally got in a better lap and got the pole position for the final race. I'm very happy. I hope to do a good race tomorrow."
Treluyer improved his lap time over the morning's first session as well. He managed to put in a 1'22.333" and place the No.18 NSX in second, filling the front row. Two Skyline GT-Rs are sitting third and fourth in the second row; Satoshi Motoyama in the No.12 GT-R clocked a 1'22.435" and Krumm in the No.22 car a 1'22.616". The quickest Toyota car was the No.6 Supra driven by Juichi Wakisaka and Hideki Noda. Noda set a lap of 1'22.762" to reverse positions with the No.39 car.
No.62 R&D SPORTS DUNLOP GT3R
Takayuki Aoki, the championship points leader with Nobuyuki Oyagi in the No.81 Silvia, gave a fine qualifying performance in the morning session. In spite of a heavy 80kg handicap weight, he claimed a lap of 1'30.106" placing the car at a provisional third in the class. The direct rival of his team, sitting only four points behind, are Tetsuya Yamano and Haruhiko Matsumoto in the No.7 Mazda RX7. Also carrying a 50kg handicap, Yamato finished the morning with a creditable sixth quickest lap of 1'30.310". The quickest GT300 car in the first session was the No.62 Porsche GT3R. Driver pair Shinsuke Shibahara and Shogo Mitsuyama set the pace with a provisional pole time of 1'29.584" put in by Shibahara, his Porsche being equipped with an original tuned suspension.
In the afternoon's second session, Aoki his time to 1'29.772", followed by Minoru Tanaka in the No.19 Toyota MR-S (1'29.893"). But no team could touch the record made by the No.62 Porsche GT3R in the morning session, giving the driver pair of Shinsuke Shibahara and Shogo Mitsuyama (and Porsche) their first pole position of the season.
"The track conditions became wrong in the afternoon and other teams couldn't improve their morning performance. This turned the situation good for us," said Shibahara at the end of the day. "We changed the tires to Dunlop just before the opening round and have been working with them since. We've also tried several things developing the car. These are the reasons for today's pole. The only thing still original in the car are the engine and frame, everything else came from our R&D. So this is sort of a "Super GT3R" With it we were able to get the season's first pole position for Porsche. I'm very happy. "
(from left) A.Couto, H.Okada, S.Shibahara, S.Mitsuyama
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