2016.04.09

KeePer TOM'S RC F's Hirakawa takes pole position with course record for second year in a row!

Round1 Okayama International Circuit : Qualifying GT500

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.

 

The official qualifying for Round1 of the 2016 SUPER GT started at 14:50. After the finish of the 15-minute GT300 class Q1 session, the GT500 class Q1 started at 15:10. In this 15-minute session, only the eight fastest cars would qualify for Q2. As soon as the course opened, the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) took to the track along with the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Takuya Izawa), which had suffered machine trouble in the official practice. After test runs, both cars returned to the pit.
For a while, all the cars waited in their pit areas, until the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R took to the track with just under nine minutes remaining in the session. Next, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuhi Sekiguchi) also went out on the track. Then, with just under eight minutes remaining in the session, all the remaining cars started out onto the track, led by the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda).
After thoroughly warming up their tires, the first to begin their timed laps were the cars on Michelin tires. First, Matsuda in the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R posted a time of 1'19.055, and then a 1'18.918 on the next lap. But that time was soon beaten by with a time of 1'18.885 Katsumasa Chiyo in the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R, making his GT500 debut this season. Among the cars on Bridgestone tires that had performed so strongly in the morning practice, the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Heikki Kovalainen) posted the fastest time in sector three but failed to beat the times of the GT-R cars on Michelin tires.
When the session was over, the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R had qualified for Q2 with the fastest time. The No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was second fastest, while 3rd place went to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F and 4th to the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Hiroaki Ishiura), giving all the top spots to GT-R and RC F machines. Meanwhile, as in the official practice, the NSX CONCEPT-GT cars were having a difficult time keeping pace. The fastest among them was the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Hideki Mutoh) in 11th place, meaning that none of the NSX CONCEPT-GT cars qualified for Q2 in the GT500 class.

 

 

After a GT300 class Q2 session full of exciting time attacks, the GT500 class Q2 session started at 15:55. Despite the Q2 session being shorter than Q1 with only 12 minutes to run, the GT500 class cars still sat waiting in their respective pits after the session started. With less than eight minutes left in the session, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuji Kunimoto) was the first of the eight Q2 qualifiers to go out on the track.
The first to begin its timed laps was the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F (Kazuya Oshima) that had run so strongly in the official practice. With its first attack it posted a fast time of 1'18.571, and then on the next lap brought that down to 1'18.268! This time in the low 18-second rage surprised everyone around the circuit. The No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) and No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) also recorded times in the 18-second range. The GT500 class attacks continued in a higher speed range than ever before.
Even as excitement spread around the circuit with the succession of 18-second range times, the biggest surprise was yet too come. Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F that until then had stood near the bottom of the time board warmed up his tires well and then threw everything into one all-out attack. When the lap was finished, Hirakawa had claimed the Okayama season opener's pole position for the second consecutive year with an amazing time of 1'18.126. For Hirakawa this was his third GT500 pole position, and for the Lexus RC F it was the third consecutive pole at Okayama and its eighth in the GT500 class.
Qualifying 2nd came the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F, which will surprisingly make tomorrow's front row on the starting grid the same as last year's. In 3rd place was the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, while 4th position went to the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R, putting two GT-R cars on the second row for Sunday's race.

 

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