2015.04.24

Max speed battle for the pride! Watch SUPER GT at Fuji on May 2&3 during the long holiday!!

Round2 Fuji Speedway : Preview

While the echoes of excitements from the season opener in Okayama created by the cars of three manufacturers of GT500 taking the lead one after another is still resonating, the action will be back again already at the AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 2 "FUJI GT 500km RACE" held at Fuji Speedway on May 2nd and 3rd. In the midst of Golden Week, the fans are guaranteed a fierce battle on the super high speed circuit by GT500 class cars with increased maturity as well as GT300 cars with wider variety of models and entries.

 

Stage of Round 2, Fuji Speedway, is a super high speed circuit with a globally known 1.5 kilometer long straight. In order to draw a win here, cars must have the speed to overtake rivals on this long straight. In the past the track had been favored by Supra and SC430, Toyota/Lexus cars with boasting top speed. However, the drastic change in the technical regulation of GT500 class last year brought new models to the class, and it seems like the trend has been reset by the change.
Nissan GT-R squad outperformed the rivals at last year's Round 2. The squad was a step ahead of the rivals, whose the maturity of car setting and the aerodynamics for high speed track were not at a satisfactory level. In fact, GT-R dominated the top three in qualifying and the race was won by CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R.
But things may change this season. Considering it is a Toyota affiliated track, victory is a must for the Lexus RC F fleet. Aiming to regain the honor, the fleet will deploy a new set of aerodynamics parts. At the manufacturers' joint test in March, Lexus dominated the top three best lap times with No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Andrea Caldarelli / Ryo Hirakawa) at top. In top eight, Lexus was able to have five cars in the pack.

 

 

In another side of the picture, the NSX CONCEPT-GT squad, which failed to leave a result last year due to numerous problems, is looking for a payback this year. No.64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Daisuke Nakajima / Bertrand Baguette) marked a fourth fastest time at the Fuji test during the off-season, and, in terms of the top speed, it held down the RC F fleet by marking 307.430 km/h and took the top position. NSX CONCEPT-GT is clearly a car capable of winning the race at Fuji.
In the GT-R squad, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliveira), the winner of last year, recorded the top time of Day 1 at the recent Fuji Test. Nonetheless, the squad did not show any other notable performance, but a test is a test, it can be very possible that the actual strength was hidden behind.
All above comes to a conclusion that it is even harder to predict the winner than last year. The situation in GT500 class has become indeed chaotic in a sense.

 

 

Situation changed rapidly at the season opener especially with the rain falling and stopping repeatedly. A young duo of 25-year-old and 21-year-old, Caldarelli and Hirakawa, respectively, driving KeePer TOM'S RC F superbly pulled off a win in such difficult condition. This will necessitate the car to mount handicap weight at the second round in Fuji, but, considering the momentum it has, back-to-back win or consecutive podium finish is very possible. Also, No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli), which had to step down from the top position due to a brake problem, should be coming in with a determination to grab the victory this time.
Out of the NSX CONCEPT-GT squad, No.100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa), which led the race at the season opener, and No.15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Takashi Kogure / Oliver Turvey) are certainly the cars that are likely to be seen in the battle for the top place. Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT, which was showing good runs at the test, should also be added to the list.
Looking in the RC F fleet that is considered as the top candidate this year, No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) and No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Kohei Hirate / Heikki Kovalainen) would be the cars to watch. This time the race is longer than the usual 300km race and battled out in 500km. Teams are mandated with two pit stops, thus, the ace driver will be driving longer if the usual strategy were taken. Also, eyes must be kept on ZENT CERUMO RC F driven by Tachikawa, who is respected as a Fuji meister, and DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F with a strong driver combination of a former F1 winning driver and Hirakawa, who was partnering with Tachikawa until last year.

 

 

 

Although the pole position was taken by an FIA-GT3 car, No.10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsumasa Chiyo / Andre Couto), the race was led by two JAF-GT hybrid cars at the season opener. At the end, No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuichi Nakayama) won the race and No.55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi / Takashi Kobayashi) finished second. Excelling hybrids are also strong at Fuji. Both cars have to carry handicap weights, but they are highly likely to get engaged in the battle for top position. Especially, TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT will add Kota Sasaki as their third driver. It will be interesting to see how the holder of most pole positions in GT300 class will perform on the track.

 

 

And, there are the two Audi R8s. They finished third and fourth at the opening round and are well in the position to target the top position. In addition, it is also fascinating that No.21 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Richard Lyons / Tomonobu Fujii) will be joined by Stephane Ortelli, an Audi works driver who has an experience of winning the Le Mans 24 Hour, as their third driver. In other part of the field, No.77 KsFrontier Direction 458 (Naoki Yokomizo / Kyosuke Mineo / Taiyo Iida), which marked an impressive time at the Fuji test, should be mentioned as a dark horse.
Defending champion No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) lacked brilliance a little bit at the season opener, finishing fifth in the race. No.11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Bjorn Wirdheim), which was engaged in close battle with No.0 car last year, also fell short at the season opener, settling for twelfth in the race after making a wrong selection of tires despite qualifying second. Considering the title contention, upcoming Fuji should be the point to fight aggressively for both cars.
Contrastingly, the cars that showed impressive performance at the season opener were the GT300 mother-chassis cars that began full entry to the series from this season. As how it is reputed as a car for the corners, the high speed track of Fuji might be a difficult stage, but No.2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Kazuho Takahashi / Hiroki Katoh), which is known for its expertise in car development, as well as No.25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya / Takamitsu Matsui) may bring in new ideas on their respective cars. Flexibility of the mother chassis car to adopt innovative ideas is another interesting point to see.

 

  

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