2014.09.26

First ever SUPER GT in Thailand! Who will grave their name as the winner of undiscovered track!?

Round 7 Chang International Circuit: Preview

This year’s SUPER GT’s overseas event will be hosted at Chang International Circuit (formerly known as Buriram United International Circuit) in Thailand on October 4th and 5th. Chang International Circuit is a brand new circuit which finished its construction just recently, and the SUPER GT Round 7 “BURIRAM UNITED SUPER GT RACE” will be the first big race hosted at the circuit for unveiling of the circuit. It is a circuit of unknown to drivers, teams, and tire makers, of course, therefore, the development as well as the winner of the race are just unpredictable. On the other hand, the series is reaching its climax with only two races remaining including upcoming Round 7. Given that the candidates for the title can be narrowed down depending on the outcome of the Thai event, it is certainly a race to watch.

 

Stage of Round 7 Chang International Circuit is about 6 hours by car from the capital Bangkok. It is located in Briram, a suburban city near the Cambodian border. Since the Round 7 being the inaugural race, obviously, it is an unexperienced track to all SUPER GT drivers and they can only get a grip of the circuit through documents like circuit map.

The 4.554-km track is designed by Hermann Tilke, who has crafted many F1 circuits. First half of the track is high-speed area, consisted of a straightaway of approximately 1000 meter (with a light curve in middle) after coming from the main straight and through the first corner, a U-turn, and then another straight. After the high-speed section the track goes into the infield with continuous technical corners. After a short straightaway, sharp final turn connects with the main straight to finish up the layout. From just looking at the terrain, there are no large ups and downs. It is only assumed from the circuit map, but it seems similar to Twin Ring Motegi but flatter.

 

 

Then, in terms of the track characteristics, would it be advantageous to NSX-CONCEPT GT? We should keep our eyes on the likes of No.18 Weider Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Frederic Makowiecki), which finished on podium at Round 6 Suzuka 1000km and is aiming for come-from-behind champion, and No.17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Toshihiro Kaneishi), which lead the field in the early part of the race.

Also, with the handicap weight becoming points x 1kg, No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) at the top of driver ranking and No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Daisuke Ito/Andrea Caldarelli) may become stronger than past few races. Considering that both of these teams have to change the way to fight the final round significantly depending on the result of upcoming race, they would surely want to finish in the upper position, podium if possible.

In fact, the chance to clinch the title still remains with No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) at third in the ranking and even more. Teams down to No.1 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate) at seventh in the ranking with 25 points behind the leader have sufficient possibility for the title depending on just how this race will end up. They should be coming in with win or die attitude.

 

 

Round 7 is inaugural to not only the track, but also to the country of Thailand. In another words, this is a race which will be remembered in the history. Of course there is the title contention, but the glory of inaugural win is also attractive. It is very likely that all teams will be fighting at maximum.

No testing was done in advance since the new track was just completed recently, therefore, the tire manufacturers are bring tires based on very little data and presumptions only. Local temperature is still about 27 to 30 degrees even in October and it is in the end of rainy season. There was an instance where tires were either “Perfect fit” or “Way off” at Sepang Circuit in Malaysia in the past, and, if this turns out to be the same, then it can be a chaotic race...

 

 

 

In GT300 class, it seems that the point leader No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU Z4 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) and No.11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Bjorn Wirdheim) at second are a step ahead of everybody. However, that situation can change drastically based on this race in Thailand.

From the track layout point of view, No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Kota Sasaki/Takuto Iguchi) can be the best suited considering its vehicle characteristics. Hybrids can be advantageous too. Especially, No.55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi/Takashi Kobayashi) at eighth in ranking can break into the title contention at the final round if it captures its second win of the season here. Obviously, No.60 TWS LM corsa BMW Z4 (Akira Iida/Hiroki Yoshimoto) is likely to be in hunt for consecutive wins. After all, basically no handicap weight will be applied to the final round even if winning the Round 7 (the assumption for requirement is that the car has entered in all races). Then, it would be a loss if not winning the upcoming race. The chance to win the glory of becoming the very first winner of the track could add more heat to the battle on the track.

 

 

Two local teams of Thailand are participating in this race. One of the two is No.194 arto-MC86 (Takeshi Tsuchiya/NATTAVUDE CHAROENSUKHAWATANA) which will be fielding the 86 model with the mother-chassis for GT300 class, which was unveiled at Round 6 Suzuka. Although it will be a difficult challenge for the team to fight its debut race on an unknown track right after shakedown, expectation is high to see how it perform on the track. The other team, No.99 i MOBILE AAS (VUTTHIKORN INTHRAPHUVASAK/Alexandre Imperatori), will participate with a Porsche. They should be capable of showing good race especially with Imperatori taking the wheel who has won a race in SUPER GT in the past.

 

 

Who will claim the winner at the historical inaugural race in a new country, Thailand? And, where will the title contention head to? How will the race turn out at the undiscovered circuit? There are many features to focus on in the Round 7 “BURIRAM UNITED SUPER GT RACE.” If you cannot get to the venue, you can enjoy the race on J SPORTS as well as GT Plus broadcast on the TV Tokyo network. J SPORTS, which broadcasts all SUPER GT races, will broadcast the qualifying from 4:45PM on Saturday, October 4th and the race from 4:30PM on Sunday, October 5th.

Page Top