SUZUKA GT300km
in SUZUKA Circuit

Round 1 SUZUKA GT300km
29 March '97
Qualify Report

The first qualifying Practice session of the SUZUKA GT 300km took place under cloudy skies. For this season's opening race of the championship, highly tuned cars were entered such as NISSAN SKYLINE GTR, TOYOTA SUPRA, PORSCHE 911GT2 and FERRARI F355.

For all that, it seemed a single combat between TOYOTA SUPRA and NISSAN SKYLINE GTR for pole position during the session. Masahiko Kageyama in a SKYLINE, Pedro de la Rosa in a SUPRA and Kazuyoshi Hoshino in a SKYLINE showed a superb performance to mutually list their names on the leader board.

But it was Masanori Sekiya who claimed a superb record lap time to get first place with 2'05.426 while Aguri Suzuki in a SKYLINE followed closely with another record breaking time of 2'05.881.

For the GT-300 class, Morio Nitta in a PORSCHE 964RSR signed the fastest time with 2'13.928. As the second qualifying session got under way in rainy conditions, pole position was won by Masanori Sekiya/Toshio Suzuki.




SUZUKA GT300km Qualify Certifications
3/29 Sat. | Wether:Cloudyrain | Course:Dry
Pos.No.C.Pos.MachineDriverDriverTime
1 37 GT500-1 Castrol Tom's SUPRA Masanori Sekiya* Toshio Suzuki 2'05.426
2 2 GT500-2 ZEXEL SKYLINE Aguri Suzuki* Eric Comas 2'05.881
3 556 GT500-3 KURE R33 Masahiko Kageyama* Masahiko Kondo 2'05.892
4 12 GT500-4 CALSONIC SKYLINE Kazuyoshi Hoshino* Satoshi Motoyama 2'05.946
5 36 GT500-5 Castrol Tom's SUPRA Michael Krumm Pedro De La Rosa* 2'06.107
6 39 GT500-6 DENSO SUPRA GT Olivier Grouillard* Masami Kageyama 2'06.683
7 3 GT500-7 UNISIA JECS SKYLINE Masahiro Hasemi* Tetsuya Tanaka 2'06.718
8 30 GT500-8 SOGOKEIBI PORCHE Yoji Yamada Kazuo Mogi* 2'08.269
9 5 GT500-9 5ZIGEN SUPRA Eiichi Tajima* Marc Goosens 2'08.847
10 13 GT500-10 ENDRESS ADVAN GTR Mitsuhiro Kinoshita* Yasushi Kikuchi 2'08.921
11 38 GT500-11 Castrol CERUMO SUPRA Hironori Takeuchi* Katsutomo Kaneishi 2'08.965
12 8 GT500-12 PowerCraft TRD SUPRA Bertrand Gachot* Paul Belmondo 2'09.280
13 10 GT500-13 Chateraise PORSCHE GT2 Kaoru Iida Ralph Firman Jr.* 2'09.717
14 26 GT300-1 TAISAN STARCARD RSR Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta* 2'13.928
15 4 GT500-14 AlphaComputer PORSCHE Tatsuhiko Kanaumi* Mitsutake Koma 2'14.460
16 25 GT300-2 ATLUS TSUCHIYA MR2 Takeshi Tsuchiya* Masaoki Nagashima 2'15.003
17 19 GT300-3 RS*R SILVIA Manabu Orito Hideo Fukuyama* 2'15.259
18 7 GT300-4 SUPER G RX7 Shinichi Yamaji* Haruhiko Matsumoto 2'15.390
19 6 GT300-5 WISE DUNROP BP MR-2 Hironori Kato* Takahiro Fujita 2'15.789
20 51 GT300-6 COBRA PORSCHE Masamitsu Ishihara Katsunori Iketani* 2'15.892
21 910 GT300-7 NINE-TEN PORSCHE Seiichi Sodeyama* Kiyoshi Misaki 2'16.264
22 777 GT300-8 PCJ SHIOMI CLINIC RSR Katsuya Makita* Katsuji Shiomi 2'18.160
23 20 GT300-9 AI AUTO GAB PORSCHE Kenji Takahashi* Hiroaki Suga 2'18.926
24 91 GT300-10 BIRDYCLUB MR-2 Masahiro Matsunaga* Junko Mihara 2'19.187
25 9 GT300-11 PCJ 5ZIGEN RSR Tsunefumi Hioki Masaharu Kinoshita* 2'19.750
26 72 GT300-12 WAKO'S BMW M3 Norio Makiguchi Takeshi Asami* 2'20.147
27 81 GT300-13 DAISHIN SILVIA Nobuyuki Oyagi Tsuneaki Mankumo* 2'20.620
28 21 GT300-14 DUNLOP BP BMW Yasushi Hitotsuyama* Takayuki Kinoshita 2'20.638
29 333 GT300-15 Castrol PORSCHE Masatomo Shimizu Yoshimi Katayama* 2'21.501
30 70 GT300-16 Gaikokuya ADVAN Porsche Yoshimi Ishibashi Nobuo Komiyama* 2'21.931
31 55 GT300-17 Castrol RX7 Toshihiro Fukazawa Masaaki Nagashima* 2'22.902
32 16 GT300-18 YB BMW 318i COUPE Motoji Sekine* Hiroyuki Irii 2'25.431
33 17 GT300-19 KAGEISEN:RX7 Toshihiko Nogami* Toshiaki Koshimizu 2'25.901
34 45 GT300-20 Friend Nitto Seaside SILVIA Takeshi Yuasa* Kiyoaki Hanai 2'29.486
27 GT300-21 TEAM FCJ FERRARI Tetsuya Ota* Anders Oolofsson 2'26.450
75 GT500-15 NISSAN 300ZX-GTS Yuji Tachikawa* Tsuyoshi Takahashi 2'59.502
No.37 Castrol Tom's SUPRA - 167.38km/h

Qualifying Limit (130%) : 2'43.453
Bolded Time : Corse Record