GT Championship 1997 Round 2

All Japan FUJI GT Race in FUJI Speedway

A DAY OF ACROBATICS

Round 2 All Japan FUJI GT Race
4 May 97
Race Report

A dense fog over the circuit led to a delay in the start of the race, which finally got underway at 14:25.

From start to finish, fog continuously plagued the field, causing a need for the Safety Car twice during the day. Coming off the green, the 37 TOYOTA SUPRA of Toshio Suzuki suffered a spin at the first corner, T.Suzuki recovered and resumed the race at the end of the pack, but that was only the beginning of a day of acrobatics in the field. Aguri Suzuki, in a 2 SKYLINE GT-R, made a lightning move from 12th to 2nd and found himself hot on the tail of pole leader 36 Michael Krumm as they entered the first corner. The 39 SARD SUPRA driven by Masami Kageyama followed close by 3rd just ahead of Eiichi Tajima in 5 SUPRA.

But it was the 88 LAMBORGHINI DIABLO driven by Takao Wada that caught the eyes of the 51,000 spectators, as they stared in wonder while he jumped from 18th on the starting grid to 5th in the first lap. The 25 TOYOTA MR2 driven by Takeshi Tsuchiya also attracted a great deal of attention, as this GT-300 car initially moved into 7th place ahead of many upper-class competitors. Unfortunately for 88 Wada and 25 Tsuchiya, their cars were forced to retire in the middle stage of the race due to vibration and drive shaft problems, respectively.

On the third lap of the race, Akira Iida lost control of his 100 Honda NSX and crashed out. Then the first Safety Car appearance while the track was cleared of clash barrier. Simultaneously, fog filled the circuit again, and the race was finally restarted in the same order from lap 10.

Midway through the race, tire choice became a strategic move among the teams, and both 36 Michael Krumm and 2 Aguri Suzuki entered their pits for tires. Once the top runners had finished their routine stops for petrol and driver changes, it was the 39 Sard Supra, now piloted by Tatsuya Tanigawa, that came out leading the pack just ahead of Tetsuya Tanaka in a 3 SKYLINE GT-R. Pedro de la Rosa, in a 36 TOM'S SUPRA, followed close in 3rd even after an extra pit stop for tires.

The Safety Car made its second entrance to the field shortly afterward, and remained on the track up until the final stage of the race. Then, with only 7laps to go, drivers got the green light, and the dash for checkered flag was on. 3 Tanaka fought bravely to reduce the gap between his GT-R and the leading 39 SUPRA driven by Tanigawa, but his effort fell short and a fine second finish was the maximum reward. Pedro de la Rosa crossed the line 3rd in his 36 TOM'S SUPRA.

In the GT-300 class, the PORSCHEs of 26 Keiichi Suzuki, 71 Kaoru Hoshino and 51 Katsunori Iketani and the MAZDA RX-7 of 7 Shinichi Yamaji all battled hard for the lead early on. But the 26 PORSCHE 964RSR driven by veteran Keiichi Suzuki and co-driver Morio Nitta skillfully made its way through the difficult conditions to take the lead and checkered flag, followed by the class winner of Round1, the 19 Nissan Silvia driven by Manabu Orido and Hideo Fukuyama.

*Red : GT500 / Blue : GT300

Po	No	C.Pos		Machine	1st Driver	2nd Driver	Time/Diff.
1	39	500	1	DENSO SUPRA GT	Masami Kageyama	Tatsuya Tanigawa	2:09'53.311
2	3	500	2	UNISIA JECS SKYLINE	Masahiro Hasemi	Tetsuya Tanaka	0'03.523
3	36	500	3	Castrol TOM'S SUPRA	Michael Krumm	Pedro De La Rosa	0'30.534
4	2	500	4	ZEXEL SKYLINE	Aguri Suzuki	Marco Apicella	0'32.626
5	12	500	5	CALSONIC SKYLINE	Satoshi Motoyama	Fuminori Mizuno	0'53.852
6	37	500	6	Castrol TOM'S SUPRA	Masanori Sekiya	Toshio Suzuki	1Lap
7	10	500	7	Chateraise PORSCHE GT2	Kaoru Iida	Ralph Firman Jr.	1Lap
8	4	500	8	Alpha Computer PORSCHE	Tatsuhiko Kanaumi	Mitsutake Koma	1Lap
9	26	300	1	TAISAN STARCARD RSR	Keiichi Suzuki	Morio Nitta	1Lap
10	19	300	2	RS*R SILVIA	Manabu Orito	Hideo Fukuyama	2Laps
11	7	300	3	SUPER G RX7	Shinichi Yamaji	Haruhiko Matsumoto	2Laps
12	27	300	4	TEAM FCJ FERRARI	Tetsuya Ota	Anders Olofsson	2Laps
13	51	300	5	COBRA PORSCHE	Masamitsu Ishihara	Katsunori Iketani	2Laps
14	71	300	6	SIGMATECH 911	Kaoru Hoshino	Masaki Johnai	2Laps
15	81	300	7	DAISHIN SILVIA	Nobuyuki Oyagi	Tsuneaki Mankumo	3Laps
16	910	300	8	NINE-TEN PORSCHE	Seiichi Sodeyama	Tomohiko Sunago	3Laps
17	72	300	9	WAKO'S BMW M3	Norio Makiguchi	Takeshi Asami	3Laps
18	21	300	10	DUNLOP BP BMW	Yasushi Hitotsuyama	Kenji Yamamoto	3Laps
19	55	300	11	Castrol RX7	Toshihiro Fukazawa	Masaaki Nagashima	3Laps
20	38	500	9	Castrol CERUMO SUPRA	Hironori Takeuchi	Katsutomo Kaneishi	4Laps
21	17	300	12	KAGEISEN:RX7	Toshihiko Nogami	Tomoyuki Hosono	4Laps
22	79	300	13	NAC WEST SYLVIA	Masanori Sugiyama	Hiroyasu Aoyagi	4Laps
23	91	300	14	BUDDYCLUB MR-2	Masahiro Matsunaga	Junko Mihara	5Laps
24	16	300	15	YB BMW 318i Coupe	Motoji Sekine	Hiroyuki Iiri	5Laps
25	11	300	16	Murauchi Kamei SKYLINE	Hiromoto Ishimori	Kinji Suzuki	6Laps
26	70	300	17	Gaikokuya ADVAN Porsche	Yoshimi Ishibashi	Nobuo Komiya	9Laps
`-------- 26 machines finished --------`
	30	500		SOGOKEIBI PORCHE	Yoji Yamada	Kazuo Mogi	42Laps
	556	500		KURE R33	Masahiko Kageyama	Masahiko Kondo	42Laps
	5	500		5ZIGEN SUPRA	Eiichi Tajima	Marc Goosens	39Laps
	25	300		Tsuchiya MR2	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Masaoki Nagashima	35Laps
	6	300		WISE DUNLOP BP MR-2	Hironori Kato	Takahiro Fujita	30Laps
	13	500		ENDLESS ADVAN GTR	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita	Mitsuo Fujimura	28Laps
	8	500		RyowaHouse SUPRA	Bertrand Gachot	Paul Belmondo	23Laps
	45	300		Friend Nitto Seaside SILVIA	Takeshi Yuasa	Kiyoaki Hanai	16Laps
	20	300		AI AUTO GAB PORSCHE	Kenji Takahashi	Hiroaki Suga	11Laps
	88	500		JLOC DIABLO GTR	Takao Wada	Hisashi Wada	5Laps
	28	300		TEAM FCJ FERRARI	Masahiro Yamazaki	Masami Sugiyama	4Laps
	100	500		RAYBRIG NSX	Kunimitsu Takahashi	Akira Iida	2Laps
	18	500		avex Dome Mugen NSX	Takuya Kurosawa	Katsumi Yamamoto	1Laps

Fastest Lap : No.36 Michael Krumm - 1'31.640 (37/66) 175.600km/h