2016.07.23

GT300 class brings first pole position for Matsui in the VivaC 86 MC!

Round4 Sportsland Sugo : Qualifying GT300 Review

The official qualifying for the “SUGO GT 300km RACE,” Round 4 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on the afternoon of July 23 at Sportsland SUGO (one lap: 3.704 km) in Miyagi Prefecture. In the GT500 class qualifying, No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F driven by Kazuya Oshima won pole position while beating the existing course record time by a big margin. In the GT300 class, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC driven by Takamitsu Matsui won the team their first SUPER GT class pole, also with a record-breaking time.

 

 

The GT300 class Q1 started at 14:30. In this 15-minute session, the fastest 14 qualifiers would move on to Q2. At the start of the session, it was the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Shinnosuke Yamada) that immediately took to the track, followed shortly by the rest of the cars. The No. 61 SUBARI BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) that had suffered a crash in the morning practice was fully repaired by this time and able to take to the track as well.
After spending the early laps warming up their tires, it was mostly the case that the cars would begin making their full-fledged time attacks with about one-third of the 15-minute session remaining, after what in most cases would have been three or four warm-up laps. In the early stages of these attacks, the No. 51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Morio Nitta) beat the existing GT300 course record (1’19. 076) with a new record time of 1’18.903. This became the initial target time for the following cars, and almost immediately the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine) raised the target time to 18.736. Next, it was the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Yuichi Nakayama) that bettered that time by a big margin with a time of 1’18.170. This was followed by other cars turning in times in the 18-second range, but none reached the lower 18-second range. As a result, Nakayama’s time of 18.170 remained the fastest in Q1.
The order for 2nd position and downward changed rapidly after that. The No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh), which had suffered transmission trouble in the morning practice and got almost no running time, showed no bad effects as it went on to finish the session with the 2nd fastest time of 1’18.496. And, at the end of the session the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT recorded a time of 1’18.610 to finish 3rd fastest. This knocked the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) that had been in 2nd position down to 4th in the end.
With the air temperature remaining low for this time of the year, the conditions were very good for the cars’ engines, and that surely contributed to the fast times. In all, twelve cars, from the leading No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT to the No. 360 RUNUP Group&DOES GT-R (Shota Kiyohara) in 12th position beat the existing GT300 class course record.
To claim the borderline Q2 qualifying position of 14th, the No. 48 DIJON Racing GT-R (Takayuki Aoki) beat out another Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, the No. 0 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita). Also, the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa) and the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino), winners of the first and second rounds of the season, failed to qualify for Q2.

 

 

Because of the accident in the GT500 class Q1 session, the GT300 class Q2 session started later than scheduled at 15:27. In the shorter 12-minute Q2 session compared to the 15-minute Q1, it becomes more difficult to warm up the tires properly. So, understandably, the cars began to take to the track soon after the start of the session and run laps to warm up their tires.
There had been fear of rain before the start, and in fact there were moments when some light rain did fall intermittently. This further accelerated the pace of the GT300 cars attacks. With four minutes remaining in the session, Takamitsu Matsui in the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC moved to the top of the time board with a 1’18.169 lap, but that was soon outdone by the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga) with a lap that finally broke the 1’18 barrier with a time of 17.995. But, on his next lap in the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC, Matsui brought the time down to 1’17.499 to take back the top position. Then, continuing with yet another lap, Matsui brought his best time down to 1’17.493. At this point, car No. 31 had already returned to the pit and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) had already finished its last lap, unable to break the 1’18 barrier. This settled the matter. Matsui had grabbed his first SUPER GT pole position in only his second season.
Qualifying 4th was the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuhki Nakayama), meaning that JAF-GT300 cars and the mother chassis had swept the top four positions. In 5th position came the No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka), followed in order by the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi), No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) and the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi), all having beaten the former course record.
Looking solely at these results, it appears that the JAF-GT300 cars had an advantage at SUGO in the GT300 class. But, tomorrow’s race may well be a different story. On the challenging SUGO course, however, it is said that there are always dangers waiting, so you can never be sure what will happen. If something happens to bring out the Safety Car, a big lead can vanish in a moment. You can always be sure that the race at SUGO will be fast and with thrilling battles.

 

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