2017.06.18

[Official test at SUGO: Day 2] No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 marks top lap time of 2-day testing. No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG at overall top in GT300.

Official test: Sportsland SUGO 6/18 (sun)

Last day of the third official SUPER GT test of the year was held at Sportsland SUGO on June 19 in a complete turnaround of weather with thick clouds extending over the sky. Teams were consuming different testing menu and ran their car vigorously to prepare for the fourth round of the series approaching in a month. Day 2 started out with No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi) marking the fastest lap time of the official test already by the morning session at 1 min 11.424 sec. Similarly in the GT300 class, No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) marked the overall top time of two days also during the morning session.

 

 

 

Three makers share Top 3 in morning session again on Day 2

Honda NSX-GT was at the center of attention on Day 1 held on previous day for marking the top time, but the second day started with No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) firstly clocking the fastest time in the 1 min 11 sec mark in the early stage of morning session. No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) and No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo) followed behind No.23 car to complete a top 3 dominance by Nissan GT-R.
However, No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500, driven solely by Yuhi Sekiguchi due to absence of Yuji Kunimoto, marked the top time of all three sessions up to that point by lapping at 1 min 11.424 sec in the middle phase of the session. No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Sasaki) marked an impressive lap time and placed second fastest on the timing monitor. Cars fitted with Yokohama tires continued to look remarkable on the field as was in previous day.

Shunichi Fujishiro, an engineer in charge of developing tires for SUPER GT at Yokohama Tire, commented, "We brought in different types of new tires in terms of rubber as well as structure this time. There is a strong impression of the upcoming race in July (Race on 7/23) to be either super hot in a dry condition or cold rain, but, actually, last year was dry but cold condition just like today. That's why the no-tire-change strategy worked and brought in the victory, but who knows how it will be this year... So we still need to make sure we execute the testing menu even in a cold-weather condition."
The session completed with No.19 and No.24 cars keeping the one-two formation along with No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takashi Kobayashi. Lap time marked by Nojiri.) at third place, so the top three places were once again shared by three makers on the day.

 

 

S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R marking top time in race-simulating run in afternoon

Official test is usually scheduled with a 2-hour session in the morning and afternoon, totaling eight hours in two days, however, since the official test at Fuji this year had to cancel the second day due to snow fall, the afternoon session was scheduled for three hours by extending by an hour from a usual session.

Extended 3-hour session created equal condition. In addition, the afternoon session provided an optimum condition for testing tires in a long run since there was no suspension except for a red flag that was brought out to collect the No.6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli) after Caldarelli crashed at SP Out Corner at around two hours into the session. Since the cars were running an extended number of laps, the best in terms of lap time was No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R wearing Michelin marking 1 min 11.906 sec, but there was not much of a gap from the cars behind, No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (De Oliveira) wearing Yokohama, No.64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette) with Dunlop tires, and No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure) with Bridgestone, and, thus, we may see fierce competition between different tire makes at the upcoming race. It will not only be a battle of tires but of three automakers considering the LC500 squad, which showed strong performances in the early stage this season, could only place fifth overall by No.38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Hiroaki Ishiura) as the highest among the squad.

 

 

 

 

GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG takes the fastest of 2 days in GT300

Mother-chassis cars were expected to be advantageous at SUGO in the GT300 class, but it turned out to be FIA-GT3 cars continuing to marking impressive time from the day before. In the morning session, it was all FIA-GT3 cars in the top 6 with No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) being the only car in lower half of the 1 min 18 sec mark followed by No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido / Kazuki Hiramine / Tsubasa Takahashi), No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou), and No.7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller / Seiji Ara) in upper half of the 1 min 18 sec mark.

FIA-GT3 cars continued to be in a good tune in the afternoon session also, which was topped by No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi) with 1 min 18.524 sec. No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG and No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG trailed behind with lap times in the 18 sec mark, and it was again a domination by FIA-GT3 cars over the top six places. Can FIA-GT3 cars keep the momentum going at the fourth round of the series, which the race will be held on July 23? Or, will the mother-chassis cars and other JAF-GT cars charge back? That's definitely another point to keep the eyes on.

 

    

 

 

"I drove alone throughout two days, but, it was cool too, so physically it was no problem at all. It was rather a good training. We had a really good test. All cars with Yokohama tires are looking strong, so it looks like the competitive landscape is changing. It was good not only in one-shot lap time but also in a long run. I hope the condition will be like today since Yokohama is a bit sensitive to the change in condition, but anyways I shouldn't be laying back because I think the result we got today will not be simply repeated at the race in July."

 

"The balance of the car was good. As for the tires, some were matching well and some weren't, but we were able to find good tires after all. Although we got the top time, I can't understand why the mother-chassis cars and JAF-GT cars were not clocking good lap times, and that's becoming our concern. Tires were not performing at full with this condition for us either, but were the mother-chassis cars struggling with the tire or was it an impact from the handicap weight...? Anyways, we will aim for the top place among the FIA-GT3 cars and do our best at the race in July."

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