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2003-09-14 |
Toyota Celica Wins GT300
No.16 G'ZOX-NSX
Twin Ring Motegi was the site of Round 6 of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC, drawing out a large crowd of 45,0000 spectators who braved the lingering Indian summer heat. A splendid display of driving skill by Dome Racing Team drivers Daisuke Ito and Tom Coronel sent their Honda NSX across the finish line in first to give the team its second consecutive victory of the season following the Round 5 win at Fuji Speedway by Ryo Michigami and Sebastien Philippe in the No.18 car. In the GT300 class, it was again a Toyota Celica on top, but this time the machine of SIGMATEC Racing TEAM with drivers Tatsuya Kataoka and Keita Sawa.
Tsuchiya shot off the line from the pole in good form and securing the lead in the No.36 Supra. He set a quick pace in the opening laps, slowly opening a gap between himself and the second running No.22 Skyline with Kageyama behind the wheel. In the No.16 NSX, Ito was pushing hard on Kageyama's backdoor, pressuring him across the entire circuit. He finally found the moment on lap 10, slipped by the Skyline and began his quest to catch Tsuchiya. The cars in the top group ran well early on, but a number of incidents around the track began taking toll on the teams before mid-race. The No.18 NSX driven by Philippe had to pit for repairs to damage at the rear of the car after being rear-ended by another machine. The No.37 Supra pitted to change a wheel that was damaged in a collision with a GT300 car. And the No.64 NSX went off the track on lap 23...
The cars started going in for their routine driver and tire change stops around lap 25, the first into the pits being the No.25 Supra driven by Ara, who was lying in 10th place. The team was lightning fast with the pit work, and when all was said and done Dufour rejoined the track in sixth. Ito took the No.16 Honda into the pit after completing 26 laps, and two laps later Tsuchiya pitted as well. The No.36 Supra crew was fast, but not quite fast enough. As Comas brought the car out of pit lane and back up to speed, the No.16 NSX, with Coronel at the controls, shot by just in front of the French driver. So with the routine stop behind them, the leading lineup became Coronel and the No.16 NSX on top, Comas in the No.36 Supra in second and Lyons in the No.22 Skyline sitting third.
Dufour was running fourth in the No.25 car, but Wakisaka was creeping up in the No.1 Supra while Mitsusada in the No.100 NSX increased his rhythm to close the gap on Wakisaka. Unaware of the closing No.100 car, Wakisaka overtook Dufour for fourth place-the position that obtains the most points without gaining handicap weight too. But Lyons unexpectedly pulled the No.22 Skyline off into the trackside green due to a problem with the power train, giving the No.1 car third and a threat of having to add 20kg for the next round. Hoping to maintain the team strategy of a fourth-place finish, Wakisaka backed off a bit to let the No.25 car pass. The plan worked well as Dufour overtook, but then Wakasaki had to hold off a last-minute charge from the No.100 NSX. The top runners finished in the order of No.16 NSX, No.36 Supra, No.25 Supra, No.1 Supra and No.100 NSX. With the results, Wakisaka and Iida in the No.1 Supra took over the lead in the driver's championship standings.
Motoyama was running ninth in the No.23 Skyline, but slowed and stopped at the side of the track on the last lap after running out of gas.
Tom Coronel: "We had good practice at the Suzuka 1000km last month (finished second), where we had good speed. During the free practice here, we could see that Daisuke was very fast and I knew that as long as we didn't make any mistakes... But someone always makes a mistake. It's a long race and many factors are important. Everyone had a lot of weight in the cars. For us, we were thinking, 'This should be a race where we can win.' The set-up was really good and I pushed very hard a few laps out of pit because the team was telling me, 'Push! Push! Push!' because Comas was coming in. The team was controlling me and I was controlling the car."
Daisuke Ito: "I was shocked about the difference between the performance of our car and that of others at the opening round of the season. But the team has improved the car little by little, and I think that's why we achieved the victory today. Tom made a good set-up for the race and I pushed hard at the beginning of the race to battle with a Skyline GT-R. The team decided to make the routine stop earlier, and thanks to that we got the car back onto the track ahead of Comas."
No.71 SIGMA DUNLOP CELICA
The No.5 Vemac didn't make it to the smooth start of the race, Tamanaka bouncing the car off the wall just in front of pit lane on the formation lap. Pole sitter Nitta kept the No.43 Garaiya in the lead from the start, followed by Kobayashi in the No.77 Subaru, Kataoka in the No.71 Celica and Tanaka in the No.11 Ferrari. The Garaiya was running well and Nitta worked steadily to build a gap to protect his lead. As the race developed, the No.11 Ferrari retired due to fuel problems and then the No.77 Subaru has to give up the race after 22 laps with a clutch problem.
Nitta couldn't maintain his pace during the middle part of the race due to a slight problem in the gearbox. Kataoka overtook the Garaiya on lap 26.
Again, it was the routine stop having a major affect on the day. When the top runners came out of the pits, the No.71 Celica driven by Sawa was in the lead followed by Tanaka in the No.19 Celica. Takagi returned the Garaiya to the track running fourth. Later he left the track momentarily, but managed to keep his position ahead of Kinoshita in the No.3 Fairlady Z. Tanaka worked hard to close the gap between the two Celicas, and then on lap 63, a spectacular scene.... The Celicas entered the "90degree" corner running nearly side-by-side, and both went into a spin, amazingly without touching each other. Sawa restarted the No.71 Celica, but Tanaka couldn't rejoin the race and gave up the day.
At the finish line it was the No.71 Celica (Kataoka and Sawa) first, followed by the No.43 Garaiya (Nitta and Takagi) and the No.3 Fairlady Z (Kinoshita and Yanagida) in that order.
Tatsuya Kataoka: "I'm very happy to win my debut race in the JGTC. As we had worn tires, the team changed the set-up. Then, this morning, it was apparent that the set-up was working well during the warm-up this morning. It was then I thought we would win today."
Keita Sawa: "We won the Suzuka 1000km before this race, and we felt that we could make a good run this time. Our aim was for a pole-to-victory sweep this round, so I was a bit disappointed with qualifying. But we changed the set-up after qualifying and found a good set-up that let us maintain tire performance."
Round 7 of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC will be held at Auto Polis on October 25 and 26.
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