2016.03.20

[Official test at Okayama: Day2] KeePer TOM'S RC F marks the top time. Lamborghini GT3 fastest in GT300.

Blessed with a clear sky from early morning, the final day of SUPER GT's first official test of the year kicked off at Okayama International Circuit on March 20. As in the previous day, two hours of testing session each in the morning and afternoon, totaling four hours of run, were set for the day. Teams put distance on dry track simulating the season opener in three weeks and continued their effort in selecting and checking the tires for the opening round.

 

 

 

Sky cleared up on Day 2. Chain of trouble strikes GT-R camp.

Sky turned blue on the second day of official test. Considering the track never reached so called the best condition, with rubber from the tires sticking on the track surface, during the morning session of previous day with wet track surface, although it turned to a dry condition in the afternoon, it was fortunate for the teams that Day 2 was blessed with dry condition from the morning. Session started with a Safety Car (SC) drill at beginning, during which unexpected events occurred such as cars coming to a stop.

It was No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R and No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R that came to a stop during the drill. Hironobu Yasuda in No.12 car voluntarily stopped the car after feeling abnormality, enabling minimum damage and quick repair, but, since GT500 rookie Katsumasa Chiyo in No.46 car drove through one lap, the trouble spread to other places, hindering the car to make almost any run in the morning. In addition, similar problem occurred on No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R too, thus, the Nissan's pit area was like a battlefield that day. General Manager Toshikazu Tanaka, who oversees all Nissan teams from this year, looked a little anxious as he said, "It was a trouble in the propeller shaft. It didn't happened on NISMO's car, but I think that's because the drivers are using it well. I hope we can say 'We were lucky it was a test (where the trouble occurred)'..."

Trouble could have damped the GT-R fleet considering that the best position out of the fleet was No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R's fifth place. Similarly, eighth place by No.100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa) was the best position out of the NSX CONCEPT-GT camp.

Previous day's dominance by the RC Fs continued in the morning session of Day 2, and No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Ryo Hirakawa) marked 1 min 18.918 sec, breaking his own pole-position (record) time he recorded last year. After marking the best time the day before, No.6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F set the second fastest lap time during the session. Team Manager Juichi Wakisaka, who leads LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S from this season, said, "Our mechanics are working briskly and the performance shown by the drivers are good enough. The team is facing towards one direction. Instead of saying engineering is this and that, my role is to motivate the team, that's what I think. Of course, I will say what I need to say from my point of view to avoid any misunderstanding during the meeting between drivers and engineers. Lexus are fast yesterday and today, but the Lexus + Bridgestone has been fast at season opener for last few years, so, this year, we will work with Bridgestone from here to make the car faster so we won't lose against the rivals when we move on to the races in hot (season)." Wakisaka's eyes are already catching the mid-season.

 

 

 

 

Two-day holiday drew a huge crowd to Fan Appreciation Day. Motorcycle Police lead parade run.

This official test was held in conjunction with the Fan Appreciation Day of Okayama International Circuit. Huge crowd of fans gathered from early morning enjoying not only the run by GT machines but also Circuit Safari, open pit, etc.
Afternoon session opened with a starting practice. "Rehearsal" of the parade run by local police, which is becoming a regular event of SUPER GT, also took place during the practice, and two motorcycle polices from Okayama Prefectural Police Headquarter dashingly lead the pack of GT machines. The day turned out to be a worthier day for the fans who came to see the test as they got to see the same scene as the season opener.

 

 

 

 

 

CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R pushes back in the afternoon

It was No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira) that broke the 1 min 20 sec-barrier first in the afternoon session. Daiki Sasaki in No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R followed with 1 min 20 sec flat.

It is the tire made by Bridgestone that was fitted on to No.12 car as well as RC F that marked the fastest lap time up to that point. Masayuki Matsumoto, who oversees the 4-wheel motorsports tires from this season, talked about how the development is progressing this season, "In terms of the development of the tires for this season, this is the same for any season though, we aimed to brush up, make improvements in every metrics we had until last year, instead of making something special like 'magical tires'. Performance in hot season? Well, we had pretty good feedback at the test we had at Sepang during the offseason. So, we are taking that into our development towards the races at Fuji and Suzuka in August and checking various points during the test in Japan."

At the end, the 1 min 19.397 sec marked by No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R became the top time of afternoon session. It ranked at third place overall of Day 2. In addition, with the RC F fleet lining up from second to sixth places, the cars with Bridgestone tires once again dominated top 6 of the afternoon session. Overall top time of Day 2 went to No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter / Ryo Hirakawa) with the lap time it marked in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 takes the Day 2 overall top time in GT300.

With the attention gathering on even more in anticipation of a high number of new models debuting in the class, the GT300 class saw No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido / Kazuki Hiramine / Takayuki Aoki) and No.11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Bjorn Wirdheim) marking the top times in the morning and afternoon, respectively. No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Hiramine) was also the overall top time of the day.

Although the official test has been the first full-fledged practice run after conducting just a shakedown at Fuji, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 is having three entries this season, with teammate No.83 triple a LAMBORGHINI (Shinya Hosokawa / Kimiya Sato / Koji Yamanishi) plus No.63 Direction Racing (name of car undecided, Adrian Zaugg / Naoki Yokomizo / Kei Cozzolino), and it will be very exciting to see how these cars will perform this season.

Complex competitive landscape of GT300 class seems to get even more complex considering the GT300 mother-chassis cars that debut last year, like No.2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Kazuho Takahashi / Hiroki Katoh) and No.18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuhki Nakayama / Shinnosuke Yamada), are also marking good lap times.

No.7 BMW M6 GT3 was unable to replace the parts broken from the problem that occurred the day before and did not make any runs on the day. Despite marking the top time on the previous day, No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT as well as No.30 car finished their run after the morning session. They left the circuit without making any runs on the track in the afternoon.

 

 

   

 

 

Not only our No.37 car but the whole Lexus camp was doing well. First of all, this is all because everything worked well after the hard work done to update the engine, of course, but also around the chassis in spite of the restriction (of stricter technical regulations) during the winter time. Of course, the evolution of the tire is a significant factor too. Not only the Lexus but all cars including the rivals with Bridgestone were fast. (From just looking at the test) I think the qualifying and race will be very close fight at the season opener in April. Some people tells me "It's back-to-back win (if you win)' since I won there last year, but I'm not putting my mind on that not much more than I need. To be honest, I'm not thinking of pushing over the limit for winning the season opener. Of course, I will go for the win, but I will not take the risk, like banging against other Lexus. Without a doubt, the goal is the championship. We let our rival (maker) to take away in two straight years, so I want to bring it back (to Lexus) whatever it takes. That's my goal.

 

We did a shakedown at Fuji, and this was the first full-fledged drive. Orido drove extensively and found a good set for the race. I was working on a simulation for the qualifying and drove with lighter (fuel) weight. Of course, since it was a qualifying simulation, I pushed it pretty hard, and it was somewhat satisfying attack. But I couldn't create that much of a gap (against the rivals). So, honestly, I'm a bit confused right now. I think the rivals for sure will improve the time to the 1 min 25 sec-mark at the real battle at the opening round. We need to make the car faster no matter what at the Fuji test next weekend (March 26 - 27). Nonetheless, I'm happy to get the fastest time at the first test.

 

 

 

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