2015.07.31

GT reboots!! Long-awaited Round 4, Fuji this time is a mid-summer 300km race!

Round 4 Fuji Speedway : Preview

2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT had a month and a half break due to its third round being held overseas in Thailand. Round 4 "FUJI GT 300km RACE" will be held at Fuji Speedway on August 8 and 9. Spell of hot days are continuing since June this year across the Japanese archipelago. Round 4 Fuji and the following Round 5 Suzuka are held during August and are truly back-to-back battle in the mid-summer. Hot weather can be stressful, but, on the other hand, it's the season of "summer vacation." How about going out to SUPER GT at Fuji which is expected to showcase hot battle that will blow out the heat?

 

Fuji Speedway hosts two races again this year. Round 2 in May was a 500km race and the race distance was longer than usual, requiring two pit-stops, and the teams were allowed to have a third driver. Upcoming Round 4 on August 8 - 9 is a usual 300km race. Endurance racing characteristics wane, but, in turn, the importance of qualifying increases, so the hot battles can be expected on the field from Saturday.

Speaking of "Hot," the key word of Round 4 must be "Heat." Of course, the teams, manufacturers, and tire suppliers must be assuming that it will be a race under a hot condition. Every year, the performance of Michelin tires, which is "strong in a hot condition (of track surface temperature)," becomes prominent during this time of the year. However, other tire suppliers are well aware that capturing a win during this time of the year will have a direct impact to the title. Heat will lower the engine power, but it can also decrease the driver's concentration although the driver care has improved in recent years with the use of air conditioner in the GT cars, cool suits, etc. Measures taken by the teams and manufacturers around in this area may become a key to the competition. Thus, if it will be in the expected "hotness," then the race should become even. However, if it becomes "cooler" than expected or "hard rain" like last year, then the situation can change drastically.

Fans coming to the circuit should also have sufficient measures against the heat (prevention for heat stroke, etc.) as well as be well-prepared for a sudden change of weather to fully enjoy the tactics, work, etc. of the teams.

 

 

GT-R squad was just fast and predominant at the Round 2 Fuji completing GT-R 1-2 finish by No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) and No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliveira). These two teams would be in the list of victorious candidate for the upcoming race once again.

But there is no way that other teams and manufacturers would just leave the situation as is. At the GTA official test (at Sportsland SUGO) held on July 25 and 26, it was No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (Daisuke Ito / James Rossiter) and No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) that marked the fastest lap time of each day. In addition, the RC F fleet showed its speed by dominating the top 4 of Day 2 overall. Of course, it was only a test and the condition was different from the rivals, therefore, you cannot make a simple comparison just from the lap times, however, it is the time of the season where the handicap weight of top ranking cars would get heavy plus the fleet is expected to show uplifted performance with the home-track advantage of Fuji.

For the NSX CONCEPT-GT camp, on the other hand, this mid-summer Fuji was the only race it won last year. Indeed, the rain had a significant impact to the race, thus the win, and maybe there was a "luck" involved too, but NSX CONCEPT-GT, unlike the predecessor NSX, boasts "high-speed performance" as its advantage. If the teams that showed good lap times at the SUGO test, like No.100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa) and No.64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Daisuke Nakajima / Bertrand Baguette), qualify in the top part of the pack, then the victory can be well in the shooting range of the camp.

 

 

 

 

In the GT300 class, it has been a back-to-back win by Nissan GT-R with No.10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto / Katsumasa Chiyo) and No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi) winning Round 2 Fuji and Round 3 Thailand, respectively. It looks like the Round 4 will be fought out by these two GT-R's again. Also, the hybrid cars, namely No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuichi Nakayama) and No.55 ARTA CR-Z (Shinichi Takagi / Takashi Kobayashi), are usually competitive on the track of Fuji. However, things may not be that easy as these cars have to carry a heavy handicap weight on them, more than 70kg on No.3 and No.10 cars and 60kg on No.31 car.

Then, the odds can be on other cars in terms of winning the race at Fuji such as the teams fielding Mercedes Benz SLS which has not score a win yet this year, No.11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Bjorn Wirdheim), No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU SLS (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), and No.65 LEON SLS (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou), or the teams with Audi R8 LMS that has been showing good performance this season, No.21 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Richard Lyons / Tomonobu Fujii) and No.86 Racing Tech Audi R8 (Christian Mamerow / Shinya Hosokawa).

Expectation is on the rise with No.2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Kazuho Takahashi / Hiroki Katoh) too as it marked the overall fastest lap time of each day at the recent SUGO test, creating an atmosphere of that the car is finally in shape to exert its full potential. No.77 KsFrontier Direction 458 (Kyosuke Mineo / Taiyo Iida) which has the alluring speed on the straight is also another very interesting contender on the field.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Upcoming Round 4 Fuji and Round 5 Suzuka 1000km race held consequently in hot August are the decisive battle field for the drivers and teams who are in the title contention. For the teams with the back-breaking handicap weight, not simply a win or lose but to stay in the position which it can gain even one point more would be important. Fans are also expected to be by the side to witness how the team you root for or focus on will showcase a battle in such severe condition.

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