2016.04.09

VivaC 86 MC comes from behind to win GT300 class pole

Round1 Okayama International Circuit : Qualifying GT300

The official qualifying for the OKAYAMA GT 300 Km RACE, opening round of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at the Okayama International Circuit, in Okayama Pref. on April 9th. In the GT500 class, Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F took pole position with a course-record time for the second year in a row. It was also his first personal pole. In the GT300 class, Takeshi Tsuchiya in the No. 25 ViVaC 86MC also won the class pole with a new course record.

 

As the GT300 class Q1 entered its second half, just over eight minutes into the session, No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Yuichi Nakayama) beat the standing top time in the 1'26 range at that point with a time of 1'26.911. Then the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi) bettered that with a lap of 1'26.705. Moving into third position on the board at this point with a time also in the 26-second range was No. 31's fellow Prius team car, the No. 30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Kota Sasaki). Next, the No. 51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Morio Nitta) brought its time down to 1'26.615 to move to the top of the board.
With just under five minutes left in the session, Hideki Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT made a valiant attack to just nudge car No. 51 out of the top position on the board. At this point, car No. 61 left the track and returned to the pit. Eventually, no one would top car No. 61's time of 1'26.560 before Q1 ended and it remained the top time.
Meanwhile, the positions from 6th on down changed constantly, right down to the checkers that ended the session, and in the end it was the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) that claimed the sixth spot with a time of 1'27.033 ahead of the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Nakayama Yuhki) and others. The order from 8th position down at the end of the session were the new FIA GT3 cars No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa), No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller), No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Jann Mardenborough), No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Bjorn Wirdheim) and the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka). Just managing to qualify for Q2 in 13th and 14th positions were two GT300 Mother chassis-based cars, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) and No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh). In the end, the time difference between the top No. 61 and the last Q2 qualifier, car No. 2, was a mere 0.915 sec., meaning that less than one second separated all 14 qualifiers. Just 0.142 of a second behind No. 2 in 15th position stood the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido), unable to qualify for Q2. Furthermore, Q1 was the end of the line in the qualifying for the other three LAMBORGHINI Lucan GT3 cars that had done so well in tests until this point. Also unable to reach Q2 by finishing Q1 in 17th position was last year's champion, the No. 0 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto). This stood as further proof of the high level of competition in this year's GT300 class. Unable to compete in the qualifying in this class were the No. 26 AUDI R8 LMS that suffered machine trouble in the practice session and the No. 9 GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 that caught fire and came to a stop during the Circuit Safari event.

 

 

In the GT300 class Q2, serious time attacks began with less than seven minutes remaining in the session. The first to excite the arena was a native of Kurashiki city here in Okayama Prefecture, Shinnosuke Yamada, who was making his SUPER GT debut at the Okayama race in the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86. His time of 1'27.101 put him at the top of the time board. But, that spot was soon taken away by another Kurashiki city Okayama native, Naoya Gamou in the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT with a time of 1'25.624. Next, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) also recorded a time in the 25-second range that fell just short of Gamou's time to put him in 2nd position. Then, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) and the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara) came in with times in the high 1'25 range but failed to better Gamou's.
What's more, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga) and No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) also improved on their own times but stayed in the 26-second range. It looked as if car No. 65 would come away with the GT300 class pole.
However, a last-minute come-from-behind drama was waiting to unfold. Tsuchiya in the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC put everything he had into one last attack and came home with a time of 1'25.586 that beat the new course record just set by Gamou in car No. 65. This gave car No. 25 its second pole position. For Tsuchiya it was his eighth GT300 class pole overall.
Qualifying 2nd and 3rd were two FIA GT3 cars, the No .65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT and No. 7 Studie BMW M6, while in 4th came the JAF-GT300 car No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, and the places from the 5th-position No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 down to the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R in 10th went to FIA GT3 regulation cars, making this opening round a tight competition for all cars, regardless of the regulation they classify under. The closeness of their performance will make tomorrow's race all the more exciting.

 

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