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Fuji Speedway Welcomes SUPER GT
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The first race event at the all-new Fuji International Speedway saw 44 competing cars take to the brand new track on Monday, May 2nd in preparation for the inaugural race at the Hermann Tilke-designed facility on Wednesday May 4th.
The day's action consisted of two sessions, a 90-minute in the morning and a 1 hour 45-minute in the afternoon.
At the end of the day, it was a brace of no fewer than 6 Toyota SUPRAs that occupied the head of the leader board. These were followed by a pair of HondaNSXs, ahead of the first of the NISMO entries.
In a day that wasn't entirely indicative of competitors' performance, the championship-defending #1 machine lay down in twelfth place.
The scream of European V-12s pierced the air as the crowd-pleasing Lamborghini Murcielago was joined by not only the Ferrari 550 Maranello, but also the returning McLaren F1 GTR from the Hitotsuyama Racing stable. The three supercars made an awesome wail amongst the pack of V8-powered musclecars from Japan as both the GT500 and GT300 machines spent the entirety of both sessions out on track together.
Leading the Toyota steamroller at the top of the timesheets, the #38 ZENT Cerumo Supra set a blistering pace around the reconfigured 4.563-kilometer track in the hands of Yuji Tachikawa. His 1:33.872, set on the car's 43rd of 46 laps completed in the afternoon, was 0.121 quicker than Takeshi Tsuchiya's best in the #36 TEAM TOM'S entry. Driving the #37 sister TOM'S car, Tatsuya Kataoka blasted around in 1:34.136, just 0.264 off the day's best.
Overall, the top 12 in GT500 was covered by a scant 0.990 seconds, giving some insight as to just how close things promise to be tomorrow in qualifying for Wednesday's big race.
GT300 was an entirely different affair, with the championship-defending #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX nearly a second ahead of the 2nd-placed car in the class. Its 1:40.744 was a huge margin over the 1:41.655 set by the #27 direxiv ADVAN 320R (Vemac). Meanwhile, the #43 ARTA Garaiya was a mere five-hundredths in arrears in third. These were followed by the pair of Ferrari F360s and, in a season-best, the #52 pro miu Taiyo Sekiyu KUMHO Celica.
Tomorrow's qualifying action promises to be a battle royal as teams jostle for grid position ahead of the inaugural event at the legendary Fuji International Speedway.
2005 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round2Fuji Speedway Practice
Session 1 : 2005-05-02 AM | Weather: Fine | Course: Dry | ||||||||
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| 1 | 38 | 500-1 | ZENT CERUMO SUPRA | Yuji Tachikawa Toranosuke Takagi |
1'35.134 | 1'33.872 | BS | |
| 2 | 36 | 500-2 | DYNACITY TOM'S SUPRA | Takeshi Tsuchiya James Courtney |
1'35.746 | 1'33.993 | BS | 30 |
| 3 | 37 | 500-3 | DYNACITY TOM'S SUPRA | Tatsuya Kataoka Sakon Yamamoto |
1'35.499 | 1'34.136 | BS | |
| 4 | 39 | 500-4 | DENSO SARD SUPRA GT | Andre Couto Ronnie Quintarelli |
1'35.407 | 1'34.152 | BS | |
| 5 | 35 | 500-5 | Yellow Hat YMS Supra | Naoki Hattori Shigekazu Wakisaka |
1'35.616 | 1'34.233 | DL | |
| 6 | 6 | 500-6 | ESSO Ultraflo Supra | Juichi Wakisaka Akira Iida |
1'34.905 | 1'34.434 | BS | |
| 7 | 32 | 500-7 | EPSON NSX | Tsugio Matsuda Andre Lotterer |
1'36.747 | 1'34.572 | DL | |
| 8 | 100 | 500-8 | RAYBRIG NSX | Sebastien Philippe Jeremie Dufour |
1'36.208 | 1'34.577 | BS | |
| 9 | 22 | 500-9 | MOTUL PITWORK Z | Michael Krumm Masataka Yanagida |
1'35.853 | 1'34.639 | BS | 10 |
| 10 | 34 | 500-10 | BANDAI SUPRA | Seiji Ara Naoki Yokomizo |
1'35.770 | 1'34.725 | DL | |
| 11 | 3 | 500-11 | G'ZOX HASEMI Z | Toshihiro Kaneishi Erik Comas |
1'35.551 | 1'34.854 | BS | 20 |
| 12 | 1 | 500-12 | XANAVI NISMO Z | Satoshi Motoyama Richard Lyons |
1'34.962 | 1'34.862 | BS | 20 |
| 13 | 8 | 500-13 | ARTA NSX | Daisuke Ito Ralf Firman |
1'36.133 | 1'35.074 | BS | 20 |
| 14 | 25 | 500-14 | ECLIPSE ADVAN SUPRA | Manabu Orido Dominik Schwager |
1'36.750 | 1'35.222 | YH | 70 |
| 15 | 12 | 500-15 | CALSONIC IMPUL Z | Benoit Treluyer Yuji Ide |
1'36.347 | 1'35.261 | BS | |
| 16 | 20 | 500-16 | McLAREN F-1 GTR | Eiichi Tajima Yasushi Hitotsuyama |
1'36.920 | 1'36.096 | DL | |
| 17 | 21 | 500-17 | NOMAD FERRARI 550 GTS | Takuya Kurosawa Hidetoshi Mitsusada |
1'37.477 | 1'36.574 | DL | |
| 18 | 18 | 500-18 | TAKATA DOME NSX | Ryo Michigami Takashi Kogure |
1'36.823 | 1'37.450 | BS | |
| 19 | 88 | 500-19 | JLOC MURCIE RG-1 | Koji Yamanishi WADA-Q |
1'39.327 | 1'38.945 | YH | |
| 20 | 0 | 300-1 | EBBRO M-TEC NSX | Haruki Kurosawa Shinya Hosokawa |
1'40.900 | 1'40.744 | DL | 20 |
| 21 | 27 | 300-2 | direxiv ADVAN 320R | Yasuo Miyagawa Shogo Mitsuyama |
1'41.888 | 1'41.655 | YH | |
| 22 | 43 | 300-3 | ARTA Garaiya | Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi |
1'42.229 | 1'41.703 | MI | 10 |
| 23 | 10 | 300-4 | MACH-GO FERRARI DUNLOP | Go Mifune Taku Bamba |
1'43.539 | 1'41.919 | DL | |
| 24 | 11 | 300-5 | GPH FERRARI DUNLOP | Tetsuya Tanaka Paolo Montin |
1'42.724 | 1'42.071 | DL | |
| 25 | 52 | 300-6 | Proµ TAIYO OIL KUMHO CELICA | Hironori Takeuchi Katsuyuki Hiranaka |
1'43.351 | 1'42.115 | KH | |
| 26 | 7 | 300-7 | Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 | Shinichi Yamaji Hiroyuki Iiri |
1'42.811 | 1'42.401 | YH | 30 |
| 27 | 46 | 300-8 | Dream Cube's ADVAN Z | Kazuki Hoshino Takayuki Aoki |
1'43.196 | 1'42.494 | YH | |
| 28 | 62 | 300-9 | WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC350R | Shinsuke Shibahara Tadao Uematsu |
1'42.902 | 1'42.606 | YH | |
| 29 | 2 | 300-10 | Privée Zurich Apple RD320R | Kazuho Takahashi Akira Watanabe |
1'44.891 | 1'42.615 | YH | |
| 30 | 77 | 300-11 | CUSCO SUBARU ADVAN IMPREZA | Katsuo Kobayashi Tatsuya Tanigawa |
1'43.733 | 1'42.617 | YH | |
| 31 | 30 | 300-12 | RECKLESS MR-S | Kota Sasaki Tetsuya Yamano |
1'42.697 | 1'43.065 | MI | |
| 32 | 19 | 300-13 | WedsSport Celica | Hiroki Kato Nobuteru Taniguchi |
1'44.440 | 1'42.803 | YH | 10 |
| 33 | 47 | 300-14 | CCI Recaldent ADVAN Z | Go Shimizu Tomonobu Fujii |
1'43.679 | 1'42.820 | YH | |
| 34 | 31 | 300-15 | APEXERA MR-S | Minoru Tanaka Kazuki Nakajima |
1'43.964 | 1'43.169 | MI | 15 |
| 35 | 5 | 300-16 | ProµMACH5B-1320R TEAM KYUSYU | Tetsuji Tamanaka Katsuhiko Tsutsui |
1'45.023 | 1'43.252 | YH | |
| 36 | 9 | 300-17 | Gulf ADVAN FORTUNE MT | Junichiro Yamashita Eiji Yamada |
1'45.173 | 1'43.478 | YH | |
| 37 | 777 | 300-18 | Ryozanpaku TEAM TAKAMIZAWA ADVAN GT3 | Kazuyoshi Takamizawa Sunako Jukucho |
1'44.242 | 1'43.539 | YH | |
| 38 | 13 | 300-19 | ENDLESS ADVAN Z | Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama |
1'43.635 | 1'43.962 | YH | 40 |
| 39 | 26 | 300-20 | DIRECTION TAISAN Gemballa GT3R | Yutaka Yamagishi Kaoru Ijiri |
1'44.560 | 1'43.638 | YH | |
| 40 | 72 | 300-21 | FK/massimo ADVAN PORSCHE | Hiroshi Wada Akira Hirakawa |
1'47.456 | 1'45.372 | YH | |
| 41 | 112 | 300-22 | ARKTECH RodeoDrive WAKO'S GT3 | Atsushi Yogo Keita Sawa |
1'45.502 | 1'45.554 | YH | |
| 42 | 111 | 300-23 | ARKTECH with TeamLeyJun 968GT4 | Hiroya Iijima Guts Jyonai |
1'46.497 | 1'46.707 | YH | |
| 43 | 70 | 300-24 | Gaikokuya ADVAN PORSCHE | Yoshimi Ishibashi Hirofumi Takei |
1'50.363 | 1'48.653 | YH | |
| 44 | 913 | 300-25 | FIELDS ADVAN CORVETTE C6 | Hideo Fukuyama Shogo Suho |
1'49.790 | 1'51.193 | YH | |
| 110 | 300 | ARKTECH TOTALBENEFIT BOXSTERGT | Ichijo Suga Takashi Ohi |
DNR | DNR | YH | ||
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Tire = BS:Bridgestone / YH:Yokohama / DL:Dunlop / MI:Michelin / KH:Kumho WH = Handicap Weights (kg) |
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