2024.03.23

【Official Tests at Fuji Session 1】 In the rain, au TOM'S GR Supra shows its pride to take top time! GT300 top finisher is the PACIFIC VSPO NAC AMG

Official Tests at Fuji Speedway March 23 (Sat.) 　Session 1

On March 23 at Fuji Speedway, site of Round 2 of the series, became the venue for this year’s second SUPER GT Official Test event. With opening round of the series at Okayama (April 13th and 14th) fast approaching, the teams were anxious to work on their machine setting data and choosing and checking their tires, but much of their plans were thwarted by this day’s morning rain. Still, the teams set to work on their rain-condition settings and tire checks, as well as giving their drivers with little running time a chance to put in practice laps on the wet track surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　From early morning there was heavy cloud cover, and light rain began to fall about one hour before the start of the morning session.

　The first session started at 9:00 in the morning, and from the early stages the rain began to fall harder, soon bringing full Wet conditions out on the track. Only a few of the GT500 class cars took to the track for the first 10 minutes or so of the session. Two cars that will be running on Bridgestone tire from this season, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) and the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli), began to run their laps aggressively. After that, when all the cars were out on the track and running, both the air temperature and the track surface temperature remained very low, causing some cars to spin out and some to run off the track before their tires could be warmed up.

　After about 30 minutes into the session, the rain seemed to lighten, and the cars started to bring down lap time. Two TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 that had been fast in wet conditions last week at the Okayama tests, namely last year’s champion, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita), and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) again move up to the top spots on the timing monitor.

　Among the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars, it was the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) that moved up to take the 2nd position behind car No. 36. At the turning point of the session after an hour and 30 min., Tsuboi in car No. 36 recorded a top time of 1’36.174, followed by car No. 16 in 2nd position and the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) moving into 3rd position.

　As the session approached its last hour, car No. 14 recorded a time of 1’36. 576 to move up into 2nd position. After that, a crash by a GT300 class car brought out a red Flag to stop the session. Eventually, the session would end that way with the top order remaining car No. 36 in 1st position followed by No. 14 and No. 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　In the GT300 class, the early stages saw most of the cars waiting it out in the pits. Despite that, teams with new machines this season, including the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Marco Sorensen), and the No. 45 PONOS FERRARI GT3 (Kei Cozzolino/Lilou Wadoux) went out early to begin putting in serious work of the track.

　After that, the other cars began their runs. About one hour into the session, the No. 88 Lamborghin* (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) posted a top time, while the No. 6 VELOREX FERRARI 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) moved into 2nd position.
*The No. 88 team name is to be announced at a later date.

　In the middle stages of the session, Tomibayashi in the No. 9 PACIFIC VSPO NAC AMG (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yuta Fujiwara) beat car No. 88’s time with a new top time of 1’44.003 sec. As the rain fell harder in the final stages of the session there would be no other changes in the top order. As more cars began to lose their grip in the wetter parts of the track, with 50 minutes left in the session, car No. 45 ran off the track at the exit of the second corner and crashed into the barrier on the out-side. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the session. Although there was apparently no serious injury to the driver, Wadoux, there was considerable damage to the front end of car No. 45.

　This Red Flag stoppage brought the session to a close. The top three finishers in the GT300 class ended up being car No. 9 in 1st position, followed by cars No. 88 and No. 6. Behind the top three came the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Shunji Okumoto).

 

 

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