2016.10.26

Autopolis Makers Test Day 3: Test runs cancelled due to fog on third and final day

Plans called for the final day of the SUPER GT manufacturers’ tests to be held at Autopolison on October 26, but dense fog covered the course from early morning limiting visibility to the point that the test session on the track had to be cancelled.

 

 

Pit road opened to avid SUPER GT fans

From morning, the Autopolis track was covered in dense fog that made it feel as if you were in the middle of a cloud. On this day, the Honda NSX-GT was fitted with Bridgestone tire like the day before. As for the Lexus LC500 and the Nissan GT-R, plans were for them to run on Yokohama tires.
However, visibility on the track was down to about merely 30 meters, causing the morning test session that was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. to be postponed until the afternoon in hopes of an improvement in the weather.

Despite the bad weather conditions, however, many fans had gathered at the Autopolis circuit in Oita Prefecture hoping to get a good look at the new GT500 cars for the 2017 SUPER GT season. In light of this, Autopolis and the three makers generously agreed to open the pit road to the fans from 10:30 a.m. There the 2017 models Nissan GT-R and Lexus LC500 that were supposed to be tested that day were put out on display. This gave the fans an unexpected chance to see the new cars up close and enjoy taking pictures.

Also, the drivers that were scheduled to test the machines this day, Nissan’s Daiki Sasaki and Masataka Yanagida and LEXUS GAZOO Racing’ Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuji Kunimoto came out to the pit road to meet and have their pictures taken with the eager fans. Meanwhile, the Honda NSX-GT had repairs to be done on it and thus remained in the garage being worked on for the duration.

 

 

The weather unfortunately fails to improve in the afternoon

After waiting for the weather to improve, the test session began at 12:06 in the afternoon. The track surface was wet and the air temperature was 18 degrees C. with a cold wind blowing from the west, making the perceived temperature even colder. Although the first turn could be seen from the pit area, the first hairpin turn could not.

The Nissan GT-R went out on the track with Daiki Sasaki at the wheel to take it through one test lap before returning to the pit. After returning to the course and running the straight, he returned to the pit again on the next lap. The LC500 and NSX-GT meanwhile waited for the fog on the track to clear. Instead, however, the fog thickened until the red flag had to be brought out to stop any further use of the track for the time being.

Just before 1:00 p.m. the heads of the three makers’ project teams and the tire makers staff gathered for a meeting. There they reached the unfortunate conclusion that any remaining tests that day should be cancelled.

 

 

After three days at Autopolis for the tests this time, Honda’s Koudai Tsukakoshi commented: “Of the Honda drivers, I probably got the most running time on the track. On the first day, we worked through our test program. Yesterday we had some rain but we were still able to do a fair amount of testing done and gathered some significant results. We were able to verify how the machine conforming to the (next season’s) new regulation ran, but there is still a lot more work left to be done. There have been some changes in the design of the cockpit that I still didn’t feel quite comfortable with. For Honda, next season will be one when we have to get back to the point where we are competitive again for sure, I believe,” he concluded, promising with confidence that he and the 2017 machine could the job.

NISMO’s manager Yutaka Suzuki commented: “It is unfortunate that the weather wasn’t good today. On the first day we were able to work through our test schedule to some degree, and yesterday we were able to run tests in wet conditions, so I feel it was a good test overall. There are still some issues we have to work on, and we have found things to do before the next tests at Fuji [Speedway], so we will try to get well prepared for it,” he concluded, appearing as if they had come away from Autopolis with some meaningful results.

 

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