Day 2 of the auto-makers’ joint test was conducted at Fuji Speedway on March 24th in a sunny day. Top times of the day were marked by No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F and No.77 KSF Direction Ferrari 458 in GT500 and GT300, respectively.
Session 1 - 09:30-11:50 (extended by 20 min)
Weather: sunny Track: dry
Temperature: 6℃ - 8℃ / Track temperature: 10℃ - 17℃ (6℃ / 10℃ at start)
Session 2 - 13:30-15:40 (extended by 10 min)
Weather: sunny Track: dry
Temperature: 9℃ - 10℃ / Track temperature: 17℃ - 21℃ (9℃ / 19℃ at start)
Hirakawa in KeePer TOM'S RC F bests the morning
As in the previous day, the main part of the testing menu for the Day 2 was selection/confirmation of tires for the Round 2. During the first hour of the morning session, the cars went out on the track, ran a few laps, came back to the pit, changed the tires, and then left the pit again, and they were doing that repeatedly. At about 30 minutes into the session, No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Andrea Caldarelli / Ryo Hirakawa) put its lap time in the 1 min 28 sec-mark and then cut it even further to 1 min 28.232 sec in the next lap. This was certainly an impressive lap time as it broke the track’s record lap time up until that point. The car bettered the lap time even more with the next set of tires and marked 1 min 28.182 sec, which eventually became the best time of the morning session. It was Andrea Caldarelli who sat in the driver’s seat of No.37 KeePer TOM’S RC F to check new tires in the morning of previous day, but on Day 2 the role was handed over to rookie Ryo Hirakawa. The fact that the performances of the two drivers were even proves how high the overall competitiveness of the team is.
Three Lexus’ of No.37, No.38, and No.6 cars formed the top group followed by No.64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Daisuke Nakajima / Bertrand Baguette). No.8 ARTA NSX CONCEPT-GT (Kosuke Matsuura / Tomoki Nojiri) that crashed the day before was taken back to the factory to start repairing job quickly, thus, it did not participate in testing on Day 2. GT-R fleet, on the other hand, filled the lower part of timing monitor in the morning session due to having a different testing menu.
IMPUL GT-R showed up strong in the afternoon
A few teams continued checking the new tires in the afternoon and the timing monitor changed rapidly in the early part of the session, but, by the time the session passed one hour mark, a large part of the cars were doing a long distance simulating the race. No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliveira) sat at the top of timing monitor during the period with a lap time of 1 min 28.976 sec, only car to go under 1 min 29 sec. No.6, No.38, and No.37 cars followed this with lap times in the lower part of 1 min 29 sec-mark, but by then all cars were running the long distance in a racing simulation, therefore, no changes were seen in this order until the end of session. After finishing the morning session of Day 2 at top, No.37 KeePer TOM’S RC F remained at the overall top time of Day 2 as well as the overall fastest of the two days. Nonetheless, it is uncertain whether this result will lead to an advantage of No.37 KeePer TOM’S RC F at the real battle in May.
General Manager Kunihiko Kakimoto, who takes the helm of entire Nissan fleet, concluded the two days, “It looks like our cars are not bad in terms of how the Fuji specification (less-drag specification) is finishing up. Anyways, it’s only a test and each team has different menu. Plus, the handicap weight at Fuji changes depending on how you look at the result of the season opener. Ah, it’s always the same, you never know about the race until you are actually on the field, and I think that’s what it is.”
KSF Direction Ferrari 458 fastest in both sessions in GT300
Looking at the other half of the series, No.77 KSF Direction Ferrari 458 (Naoki Yokomizo / Kyosuke Mineo / Taiyo Iida) marked the top time of both morning and afternoon sessions as well as the overall of not only Day 2, but two days in the GT300 class.
No.7 Studie BMW Z4 (Jorg Muller / Seiji Ara) and No.65 LEON SLS (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) out of FIA GT3 machines followed the Ferrari, and No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuichi Nakayama / Kota Sasaki) was the fastest out of JAF-GT300 cars, finishing fourth in overall of two days. Out of the mother-chassis cars, No.25 VivaC 85 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya / Takamitsu Matsui) was eighth overall.
Ryo Hirakawa (No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F)
To be honest, in some part I’m not too sure why I was able to get the time, so I couldn’t be simply happy about it. It’s not that the car felt bad, but it’s not quite good in terms of balance... But, anyways, I was able to confirm the quickness when you give a push, so I was thinking it would be a big relief if we can run fast in the long-run in the afternoon. In the morning we were repeating short-runs as we check the tires the team brought in and we were able to find a good set of tires, and then in the afternoon we were doing testing in a long distance with the race in mind. We were able to run at a consistent pace even with a heavy load of fuel, and, although the balance is not perfectly addressed, it’s improving a step by step. It all depends how much we can make the car faster from here. I’m getting more enthused about the real race in May, but firstly it’s Okayama (season opener) in two weeks. We should hold on tight there because, I think, Fuji will be OK even if we get a little heavier considering the outcome of today, so it would be great if we can get into the top group at the season opener.
Naoki Yokomizo (No.77 KSF Direction Ferrari 458)
Tire test was the top priority at this test, and we had a lot of menu, but we were able to consume them smoothly. Lap time just came out in the middle of that process and it was not like I did an attack lap with qualifying in my mind. The car came, Yokohama brought in 19-inch tires, and the two matched very well and that’s what it was. It’s only second time testing and we are still in the progress of understanding the performance of the car. The car hasn’t been completely updated to the 2015 spec yet either... I think the dumpers will be ready by the opening round and that’s when the 2015 spec will finally be a complete. That’s the situation we are in, so what we got was more than what we expected. However, the rivals in FIA GT3 as well as JAF-GT300 should have their cars finished up, so if they had gotten out the performance at full... That’s why we should never be relieved by this result, but our car still has some room to improve, so I’m getting more excited towards the season opener.
4/13-14 | Round1 OKAYAMA | |
5/03-04 | Round2 FUJI | |
6/01-02 | Round3 SUZUKA | |
8/03-04 | Round4 FUJI | |
Postponed | Round5 SUZUKA | |
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9/21-22 | Round6 SUGO |
10/19-20 | Round7 AUTOPOLIS | |
11/02-03 | Round8 MOTEGI |