Hi-Land GT Championship in SENDAI Hi-land Raceway

Supra, Skyline GT-R and NSX
Battle for the Pole

Round 3 Hi-Land GT Championship
28 June 97
Qualify Report


Plagued by rainy conditions throughout the day, Saturday's qualifying session was filled with excitement as cars from different manufacturers contended in a three-way battle for pole position. Eric Comas claimed the fastest lap in his Skyline GT-R in the early stages of the morning session. But as the rain began to abate, the Toyota Supra driven by Toshio Suzuki found a groove and took the lead. The veteran driver Kunimitsu Takahashi put up a good fight as well, placing his Honda NSX third on the grid.

Many drivers suffered spins on the track under the difficult course conditions. One of the favorites, Satoshi Motoyama, who is teamed with Kazuyoshi Hoshino in a Skyline GT-R, went off at the chicane suffering damage to the front bumper.

Rain fell again throughout the afternoon session. For the exception of Takuya Kurosawa, who had a bad morning due to engine problems with his NSX, none of the teams could better their morning times. Kurosawa was the only driver who managed to break the two-minute barrier in the second session. At the end of the day, it was the team of Toshio Suzuki and Masanori Sekiya, in their Toyota Supra, taking pole position.

No.21 M.Hitotsuyama / K.Yamamoto

In the GT-300 class, Dunlop tire users seemed to have an advantage with good times put in by Seiichi Sodeyama in a Porsche 993RSR and Hiroki Katoh in a Toyota MR2. But Kenji Yamamoto clocked the best lap time in his BMW during the last stage of the session.
Hi-Land GT Championship Qualify Certifications
SENDAI Hi-Land Raceway (4.0296km)
6.28 Sat. | Wether: Rain | Course: Wet | SEIKO TIMING
PoNoC-PosMachineDriverTime
1 37 500 1 CASTROL TOM'S SUPRA Masanori Sekiya Toshio Suzuki 01:58.379
2 2 500 2 ZEXEL SKYLINE Aguri Suzuki Eric Comas 01:58.553
3 100 500 3 RAYBRIG NSX Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida 01:58.590
4 38 500 4 CASTROL CERUMO SUPRA Hironori Takeuchi Katsutomo Kaneishi 01:58.881
5 36 500 5 CASTROL TOM'S SUPRA Michael Krumm Pedro De La Rosa 01:58.962
6 18 500 6 avex DOME MUGEN NSX Takuya Kurosawa Katsumi Yamamoto 01:59.038
7 39 500 7 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT Masami Kageyama Tatsuya Tanigawa 01:59.178
8 556 500 8 KURE R33 Masahiko Kageyama Masahiko Kondoh 01:59.389
9 5 500 9 5ZIGEN SUPRA Eiichi Tajima Marc Goossens 01:59.762
10 30 500 10 SOGOKEIBI PORSCHE Yohji Yamada Kazuo Mogi 01:59.970
11 8 500 11 POWER CRAFT SUPRA Wayne Gardner Naoki Nagasaka 02:00.495
12 10 500 12 CHATERAISE PORSCHE GT2 Kaoru Iida Ralph Firman 02:00.836
13 510 500 13 RH CERUMO SUPRA Bertrand Gachot Paul Belmondo 02:00.851
14 34 500 14 STP TAISAN PORSCHE GT2 Keiichi Tsuchiya Hideshi Matsuda 02:01.507
15 13 500 15 ENDLESS ADVAN GTR Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Mitsuo Fujimura 02:01.703
16 3 500 16 UNISIA JECS SKYLINE Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka 02:02.694
17 21 300 1 DUNLOP-BP-BMW Mikio Hitotsuyama Kenji Yamamoto 02:06.772
18 910 300 2 NINETEN PORSCHE Seiichi Sodeyama Tomohiko Sunago 02:07.413
19 6 300 3 WISE DUNLOP BP MR-2 Hiroki Katoh Takahiro Fujita 02:07.437
20 81 300 4 DAISHIN SILVIA Nobuyuki Ohyagi Takayuki Kinoshita 02:07.607
21 25 300 5 TSUCHIYA MR2 Takeshi Tsuchiya Masaoki Nagashima 02:07.759
22 7 300 6 RE Amemiya SuperG RX7 Shinichi Yamaji Haruhiko Matsumoto 02:08.184
23 27 300 7 TEAM FCJ FERRARI Tetsuya Ohta Steven Andskar 02:10.325
24 19 300 8 RS*R SILVIA Manabu Orido Hideo Fukuyama 02:10.583
25 26 300 9 TAISAN STARCARD RSR Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta 02:10.879
26 72 300 10 WAKO'S BMW M3 Norio Makiguchi Takeshi Asami 02:11.161
27 20 300 11 AI AUTO GAB PORSCHE Kenji Takahashi Hiroaki Suga 02:11.547
28 91 300 12 BUDDY CLUB MR-2 Masahiro Matsunaga Junko Mihara 02:15.019
29 16 300 13 YB BMW 318i coupe Motoji Sekine Toshiya Fujishjima 02:15.627
30 70 300 14 GAIKOKUYA ADVAN PORSCHE Yoshimi Ishibashi Nobuo Komiya 02:16.344
31 55 300 15 Castrol RX7 Toshihiro Fukazawa Masaaki Nagashima 02:18.651
32 28 300 16 TEAM FCJ FERRARI Masahiro Yamazaki Masami Sugiyama 02:20.942

12 500
CALSONIC SKYLINE Kazuyoshi Hoshino Satoshi Motoyama 02:07.666

88 500
JLOC DIABLO GTR Takao Wada Hisashi Wada 02:09.350

71 300
SIGMATECH 911 Kaoru Hoshino Masaki Johnai 02:11.591
----------------------------------- QUALIFIED-----------------------------------

17 300
KAGEISEN:RE ROADSTAR Toshihiko Nogami Tomoyuki Hosono

51 300
COBRA PORSCHE Tetsushi Toda Katsunori Iketani

4 500
DUNLOP PORSCHE Tatsuhiko Kanaumi Mitsutake Koma

DNQ 130% 2'34.059