2016.07.29

[Round 5 preview] Battle of speed in mid-summer! Don’t miss sizzling HOT Fuji!!

Round5 Fuji Speedway : Preview

“SUPER GT Summer triple” is making its second stop at Round 5 “FUJI GT 300km RACE” on August 6th (Saturday/Qualifying) and 7th (Sunday/Race) while the resonance of excitement from Round 4 SUGO still remains. The stage is the same as Round 2, Fuji Speedway, but the race distance is 300km as in a usual series race this time against 500km of semi-endurance Round 2, which means we can expect to enjoy a battle of speed on the high-speed circuit. As the season heads to the turning point, every race from here will be more important to all teams. Like last year where the leader changed in the final phase of the race, we should expect to see a sizzling hot race once again this year at Fuji in mid-summer.

 

No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Masataka Yanagida) made an impressive come-from-behind win at previous SUGO, completing three consecutive wins from the season opener by Nissan GT-R (Round 3 Autopolis was cancelled due to affect from earthquake). Round 5 Fuji will be held on a track which the GT-R fleet has been strong in recent years, therefore, to name a candidate for victory, it should be from the GT-R fleet if you are making a conservative prediction. However, for top ranking No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli), this will be a race which they would be aiming to finish in the top group instead of a win considering they have to carry 84kg of handicap weight.

There is a team that will be looking to “take revenge” at upcoming Round 5 Fuji and that is No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Joao Paulo de Oliveira) that fell short to win the Round 2 with only four laps remaining. They have been unfortunate this season in other races too besides Round 2, but the handicap weight is quite light at 14kg. They would want to regain the presence in the championship contention by winning here. No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo) would be another team wanting a result of “win” as they are not by no means bad in terms of how they are racing. Winner of previous round, No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Masataka Yanagida), is also the winner of last year’s Fuji 300km. Sasaki himself indicated after winning SUGO that he is expecting a back-to-back win or a high score, “The flow is coming to our way as we take on Fuji where we won last year.”

 

 

Fuji Speedway is an affiliated circuit of Toyota and is the home track of the Lexus RC F squad. However, RC F has not scored a win at Fuji in its three years of participation to the series and that must be frustrating. At Round 2 earlier this year, expectation rose when No.38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) clinched pole, but it fell behind the GT-R fleet. Strong contention from the RC F squad is predicted at this year’s last race at Fuji. In addition to No.38 car, No.19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto) and No.36 au TOM'S RC F (Daisuke Ito / Nick Cassidy) with a lighter handicap weight would be the teams to watch. Expectations are also on No.6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F (Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli), which was showing pretty good momentum at previous round, and No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Heikki Kovalainen / Kohei Hirate).

 

 

Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT squad could not exert their full potential and ended with disappointing result at Round 2 in Fuji. However, they have made significant improvement through the tests held in June and July. Though it did not show in the race result, No.17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure) and No.15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT (Hideki Mutoh / Oliver Turvey) showed impressive performance in the qualifying as well as the race at the previous round. They would want to prove full recovery of NSX CONCEPT-GT at upcoming Fuji and show explosive performance in the second half of the season.

 

 

 

In recent GT300 class, there is a clear distinction that the JAF-GT300 cars and the mother-chassis cars are advantageous at technical circuits and the FIA GT3 cars have advantage at so called power tracks. Since Fuji Speedway where the Round 5 will be held is a power circuit with a long straightaway, cars boasting a big power engine or top speed are likely to be in good positions.

 

 

Round 2 winner No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Jann Mardenborough) as well as runner-up No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Takashi Kobayashi) should surely be in the fight for top place. In addition, defending champion No.0 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andre Couto / Ryuichiro Tomita), No.7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller / Seiji Ara), and No.51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Akihiro Tsuzuki / Morio Nitta) have a good record at Fuji and it would be no surprise to see these cars finishing victoriously or at a position in the top group.
Out of the JAF-GT300 cars, No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Yuichi Nakayama) stands out as it has the power of hybrid and the momentum from winning the previous race. Contrastingly, despite showing good performance at the Round 2 Fuji with a pole and a third finish in the race, 66kg of handicap weight makes the situation a bit difficult at the power circuit for point leader No.25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya / Takamitsu Matsui). The car is more likely to take a strategy to finish in a higher position to gain more points as much as possible.

 

   

 

 

August is the time for summer vacation for many, but it is also a time where the championship of SUPER GT reaches its climax. The stage of Round 5 and the second stop of “SUPER GT Summer Triple,” Fuji is rather easy to access with only about an hour from the Tokyo metropolitan area as well as Chukyo area. You should come out to the circuit and feel the excitement, hear the loud sound of engine, and smell the burns of oil and tires. If you are unfortunately cannot come out to the circuit or if you want to sit back and see it thoroughly once again, then don’t miss the broadcast by J SPORTS or the digest in SUPER GT Plus!

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