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2002-07-28 |
Race Review
Momentous Race Ends with Victory for CERUMO SUPRA
Porsche Wins following a Long Silence
Round 5 of the 2002 AUTOBACS Japan GT Championship Series kept both teams and spectators alike on edge throughout the race, which was marked by a number of incidents and introduction of the Safety Car three times. Under hot, harsh summer conditions, the defending Driver's Championship pair, Takeuchi and Tachikawa, drove the No.1 Supra entered by TOYOTA TEAM CERUMO to victory in the high-paced race.
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Some 51,000 fans made their way to Fuji International Speedway for the 57-lap race. Takeuchi and the No.1 Supra, starting from the pole, took the lead into the first corner after the green, followed by Ara in the No.25 Supra, Tsuchiya in the No.36 Supra and Motoyama in the No.22 Skyline GT-R. One of the GT300 machines went off the course on the first lap brining the Safety Car out. The green was given again on lap 6, and a one-on-one battle for first broke out immediately between Takeuchi and Ara. Tsuchiya, in the No.36 Supra, was unable to challenge as the 60kg handicap weight was too much to allow him to keep the rhythm set by the top two cars. Motoyama moved the No.22 Skyline GT-R into the slipstream of Tsuchiya's car, and put the power of the new V6 engine to good use to overtake and move into third on lap 14.
The 18-year-old driver, Shimoda, put the No.33 Supra through a spin that ended with a crash at the last corner on lap 18. The young driver managed to get the car back to the pits afterwards, but the Safety Car was introduced to anyway. Nearly all of the top teams decided to utilize the Yellow to make their routine stops, causing pandemonium on pit lane as numerous cars rushed in and out at the same time.
Takeuchi passed the wheel of the No.1 Supra to Tachikawa, who lost time when trying to leave the pit as the neighboring garage was pitting at the same time. After the top teams had completed their stop and were back out on the track, the order was Gardner and the No.36 Supra on top, followed by Yamaji in the No.25 Supra, Krumm in the No.22 Nissan and Tachikawa and the No.1 Supra all the way back in fourth.
Poised and confident of the car's setup, Tachikawa set himself in the groove and went to work on regaining the lead. And an excellent second-half performance it was. He overtook Krumm and Yamaji, moving into second on lap 29, and then slipped passed the No.36 Supra to take the lead again on lap 31. From there on, the No.1 car never looked back. Tachikawa held his amazing pace and widened the gap between him and the other top runners with every lap. |
Montin, driving the second stint in the No.37 Supra, fought well too. The Italian driver came out of the pits in fifth place following the return to the green on lap 26, worked his way through the field and overtook to move into fourth on lap 30 and then third on lap 39. There he skillfully drove out the remainder of the race and brought the team its second podium finish of the year-following another third place finish at the previous round in Malaysia.
Second place went to the No.22 Skyline GT-R. Krumm showed at bit of brilliant driving, passing the No.36 Supra on lap 27 and the No.25 car on lap 35. He then simply concentrated on keeping his position and protecting it following the third appearance of the Safety Car from lap 49 to 55.
The best result for the Honda NSXs was turned in by the No.18 car driven by Philippe and Lions, finishing in sixth place.
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It looked as if the No.62 Vemac would again dominate the field with a pole to checkered flag victory in the GT300 class. The car shot off the line at the green and looked most powerful early on. The nearest contenders were the No.81 Silvia driven by Oyagi/Aoki, No.24 Porsche driven by Fukuyama/Kinoshita and the No.26 Porsche driven by Yogo/Nishizawa. But the No.62 car experienced fuel system problems in the second half of the race and slowed. Having fought and woven its way into second, No.26 Porsche found itself in first place, Fukuyama and Kinoshita drove the car to the checkered flag to give Porsche its first win since Round 6 in the 2000. The other podium slots were filled by Nissan Silvias, No.81 drivers Oyagi/Aoki, second, and No.3 drivers Yamano/Yanagida, third.
Round 6 of the 2002 AUTOBACS Japan GT Championship Series will be held at TWIN RING Motegi on September 14-15.
Hironori Takeuchi "Before the start of the race, Tachikawa ordered me to give him the wheel with a 10sec gap over the car running in second (laughing). I had to stop the car in front of our pit literally sitting diagonally because many of the teams had set tires out in front of their garages. This caused a problem for Tachikawa as he couldn't get out of the pit smoothly, and we dropped back to fourth. Then he just showed what you'd have to call superb performance and caught and overtook the front runners."
Yuji Tachikawa "Since Takeuchi made the routine stop earlier due to the first Safety Car, I had to drive longer, so it wasn't so profitable for me (laughing). I had to use reverse to get out of the pit. And I honestly thought I'd lost many more places, but I was confident that I could recover it because the car was running so well."
Hideo Fukuyama "We've suffered and lost races recently due to involvement in accidents, and I was feeling a bit uneasy, the thought of a helicopter crashing down on my car crossing my mind (laughing). Each car has its strong and weak points, and the Porsche GT3R is quick on the straight. So the car runs well here at Fuji and Motegi, which is where the next round will be held."
Mitsuhiro Kinoshita "I couldn't get my own pace going because the first Safety Car was introduced at the very beginning of the race. Even so, my lap times were good, so I thought that we'd put in a good race as long as we didn't have any problems."
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