2016.04.26

[Round 2 Preview] Real battle starts from here! Don't take your eyes away from unavoidable fierce battle at Round 2 Fuji.

While the heat from the excitement at the season opener in Okayama still remains, the Round 2 "FUJI GT 500km RACE" is already set to open its curtain during the long holiday in May on the 3rd (Tuesday/Holiday, Qualifying) and 4th (Wednesday/Holiday, Race). The stage is the globally known, high-speed circuit, Fuji Speedway. Nissan GT-R conquered both races held at Fuji last year, LEXUS RC F should be aiming for its first win of the season at the home track of Toyota, and Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT would want to pay back for the defeat it suffered at the season opener. GT300 class is also expected to showcase intense battle on the track with the new model cars playing the core roles of the battle.

 

At the season opening round held at Okayama, the two-consecutive champion No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) showed its dignity and flipped the game over to take its first win of the season. As a consequence, the car will need to load maximum handicap weight (40kg), but the momentum the team will bring in to the Round 2 Fuji will be something nobody can ignore. In addition, the GT-R fleet not only won the two races held at Fuji Speedway last year, but also dominated the top positions. With the restriction imposed on the aerodynamics development this season, there are voices that predict GT-R's advantage because the performance from last year will be carried over to a reasonable extent. For CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliveira), that lagged behind at the opening round and ended last year's two races at Fuji in disappointment, this could be a must-win race.
Round 2 Fuji is also crucial to the LEXUS RC F fleet that have not been able to win at its home track in Fuji last year and the year before. While the restriction is applied on aerodynamics development, the fleet is taking on the season with a concept to out-power the rivals by focusing on improving the engine performance. Among the fleet, the team to keep the eyes on should be No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura), having Yuji Tachikawa, who holds an impressive record of most wins at Fuji, as its ace driver. No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter / Ryo Hirakawa) driven by Ryo Hirakawa, who showed his never-give-up attitude at the season opener, may become an interesting presence in the battle.

Unlike others, the Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT camp was not able to show runs as they wished for at the season opener in Okayama. But there is no way Honda will stay quiet. Considering Honda engines showed strong performances at the season opening round of Super Formula recently, it should be a matter of time until the NSX CONCEPT-GT, which uses the same engine, makes a giant leap. Let's hope to see No.100 RAYBRIG NSX CONCEPT-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa) having the winner of Super Formula season opener, Naoki Yamamoto, as its ace driver and No.17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure), driven by two drivers who favor Fuji, fired up to fight strong.

 

 

 

Upcoming Fuji event held during the Golden Week is an endurance race with a race distance of 500km. Normally, cars make two pit stops during the race. This means there will also be two pit works, and the work by mechanics would have more impact to the result than usual. Moreover, which driver should it be to drive two stints? When should the car make a pit stop? How should the tires be utilized? etc., all the brain game by team managers and engineers will also be important.
Amid such condition, expectations would be put on the performances of the rookies as well as the drivers with less experience in GT500. Season opener saw Hirakawa (No.37 KeePer TOM'S RC F) in his second year as a regular driver and GT500 rookie Katsumasa Chiyo (No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R [Satoshi Motoyama / Chiyo]) engaged in an intense battle for ten laps in the final phase. Such battle of the will is what everyone would want to see at upcoming Fuji. In addition to the two drivers, we should keep our eyes on the performances of Daiki Sasaki (Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R [Sasaki / Masataka Yanagida], who clinched his first win at last year's Round 4 Fuji, and 2015 F3 champion Nick Cassidy (No.36 au TOM'S RC F [Ito / Cassidy]), who enjoys support from the endurance expertise of Ito and TOM'S, during the race.

 

 

 

Talks in paddock said the season opening round would see domination by the JAF-GT300 cars because Okayama circuit is a technical track, but new model cars of FIA GT3 disproved such talks by having Mercedes AMG GT and BMW M6 GT3 dominating the top 3 of the race. Fans should continue to stay close to see whether European cars will take a full advantage of the power in their performance, especially No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou), hyped up by the team's inaugural win, No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), which has been strong at Fuji over the years, and No.7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller / Seiji Ara) that must be keen to grab its first win. The only Prancing Horse in SUPER GT, No.51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Akihiro Tsuzuki / Morio Nitta), finishing the season opener at fifth, is definitely a dark horse of the race.

 

 

For other part of the pack, GT-R's, namely No.0 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto/Ryuichiro Tomita) and No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazumi Hoshino / Jann Mardenborough), as well as No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido / Kazuki Hiramine) must be wanting to take every opportunity to put them back on track at Fuji. Also in JAF-GT300, No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuichi Nakayama) should not be forgotten as the power of hybrid system would give the car advantage at Fuji.

 

 

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