The schedule for the JGTC 2004 ALL-STAR SPRINT has been changed. Originally two 24-minute races were planned for Sunday afternoon, but qualifying sessions of 10 minutes for each class have been set up instead. Therefore, the first Sprint race has been cancelled and a 25-lap race will be the feature event this afternoon in place of the second 24-minute race. The venue for the Sprint is as scheduled, the infield 1.45 Mile track. For this race, a driver change is not mandatory.

Qualifying

At 13:15, the 10-minute qualifying session for GT300 cars started. The No.43 Garaiya was the fastest car in the field, Morio Nitta claiming a best lap of 57.276. The second fastest was the No.16 Honda driven by Hiroyuki Yagi with his best lap of 57.288.
"We decided to share the driving duties today: Shinichi will run in the race and I did the qualifying. As it is hard to overtake in this track, I concentrated on getting pole position. Otherwise, Shinichi would have a tough race" commented Morio Nitta after the session.

At 13:35, the qualifying session for the GT500 class began. As with qualifying for the 200-mile race, the NISMO-entered No.1 Fairlady Z was quickest. Only Richard Lyons took the wheel and set a best lap of 53.345. "Running on this configuration, some parts of the track were very bumpy indeed" said Lyons after the session. "The session was short, but I always enjoy driving the car so I was happy to be out there. The race this afternoon will also be short though it should be very exciting for the fans. We'll be going out there with a clear objective - to stay in front and take the win."
Second place went to the No.32 Honda NSX driven by Andre Lotterer, his best time a 53.388.

Race (Interior Test Course 1.45miles x 25Laps)

Due to problems on the car, the No.1 (engine), No.22 (steering), and No.12 (electrics) cars didn't start the race. Also, the No.35 Supra withdrew from the event just after the start and before making one full lap. Consequently, only 14 cars started the 25-lap race.

Lotterer in the No.32 Honda NSX made a fine start to take the lead from the front row. Following him were Sebastien Philippe in the No.18 NSX, James Courtney in the No.37 Supra and Shinji Nakano in the No.100 NSX. As the track is very narrow, overtaking as is usually seen in the JGTC was not in evidence this afternoon. However, the Californian GT fans were treated to some spectacular scenes as the top runners began the 7th lap; the No.63 Vemac driven by OSAMU sent out tire smoke at the end of main straight when Mitsuhiro Kinoshita in the No.80 Fairlady Z was trying to overtake. OSAMU went straight into the chicane. Fortunately he rejoined without any damage but was imposed a Drive-through penalty for "Short-cutting" the chicane.

At the mid-point of the race, James Courtney in the No.37 Supra started to close on the 2nd-placed car of Sebastien Philippe, the No.18 Honda NSX. Courtney was right up with him and piling on the pressure as the French Honda driver tried everything to hold Courtney off. However, the Australian fought hard to keep Philippe in sight. The decision came down to some dramatic swapping of places in the middle laps, but the Toyota man finally overtook the NSX to take second place. Meanwhile, top runner Lotterer was way ahead of the others and finished with about a ten second gap over Courtney.

In the GT300 class, Shinichi Takagi in the No.43 Garaiya was running alone from the beginning of the race and never gave way to the others. Second place was always secure in the hands of Haruki Kurosawa in the No.16 NSX. Overtaking was seen in the closing laps of the event when the two Nissan Fairlady Zs (No.80 driven by Mitsuhiro Kinoshita, No.81 Masataka Yanagida respectively) passed the No.19 Celica driven by Takayuki Aoki.

GT500 Winner

No.32 PIAA NSX

Andre Lotterer: "The race this afternoon was good, I had no problems. It was kind of bumpy but we had made a solution for that yesterday so it was not a problem for us - you just have to wait for the car to settle down before putting the power down; if you don't the car will jump around.
It's disappointing the Nissans didn't run today. I feel sorry for the fans who didn't come yesterday and didn't have a chance to see them in action this afternoon. After coming all the way from Japan to show what cars we're racing and how competitive the series is, it's kind of a waste."

GT300 Winner

No.43 ARTA Garaiya

Shinichi Takagi: "As this is a track where overtaking is quite difficult, pole position was an absolute necessity for victory. As Nitta had taken pole, I wanted to make sure I kept the position. As the temperature in the race was higher than in qualifying and we do not have any data about those conditions, I was a little worried about what might happen in the race. We had planned to go faster than we actually did but the tires began to lose their performance in about the last five laps. It was difficult to control the car and I went off track, knocking a few of the cones. However, I was able to keep my position until the flag because our advantage was over four seconds to the next car."