Hi-land GT Championship in SENDAI Hi-land Raceway




EXCITING BATTLE
THROUGHOUT ENTIRE RACE

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

Coming off the green, the three leading cars of No.37 TOSHIO SUZUKI (TOYOTA SUPRA), No.2 ERIK COMAS (NISSAN SKYLINE GT-R) and No.100 KUNIMITSU TAKAHASHI (HONDA NSX) indulged in a fantastic slipstreaming battle that soon had them pulling away from the rest of the pack, led by fourth running No.38 HIRONORI TAKEUCHI also in a SUPRA.

An ex-Honda works rider from motorcycle grand prix racing in the early 60s, TAKAHASHI's skill matched the high performance of his NSX well as he pushed hard on the second place COMAS. But Comas, too, no beginner at the racing game, maintained his concentration and poured pressure on the leading SUPRA. Yet another amazing scenario featuring No.12 KAZUYOSHI HOSHINO in a SKYLINE GT-R was also taking place. No.12 co-driver SATOSHI MOTOYAMA went off the track during qualifying in the saturday morning session, damaging the car and causing HOSHINO to start from 33rd on the gird. But he battled hard from the onset, courageously moving his SKYLINE up to mid-pack in the early stages of the race.

COMAS overtook TOSHIO SUZUKI on lap 8, and then progressively increased his lead with each passing lap. Gear box problems struck TAKAHASHI's NSX causing him to drop his position, and the other NSX of No.18 KUROSAWA/YAMAMOTO was forced to retire from the race due to an oil leak. Bad luck also hit the NISSAN teams. HOSHINO suffered electrical problems and No.556 KAGEYAMA was knocked into a spin when bumped by another car. Then, not more than 10 laps later, another bumping incident caused No.3 TETSUYA TANAKA (SKYLINE GT-R) to negotiate a half-spin. However, the day looked good for COMAS as he strongly controlled the race, now followed by TOSHIO SUZUKI, No.36 PEDRO DE LA ROSA (TOYOTA SUPRA) and No.39 MASAMI KAGEYAMA (TOYOTA SUPRA).

After the top group had made their routine pit stops at the midway point, AGURI SUZUKI, who was passed the wheel of the leading SKYLINE from COMAS, was still on top. But MICHAEL KRUMM, driving the Supra in place of DE LA ROSA, had moved into second place and quickly reduced the gap between himself and the leading SKYLINE. The SUPRA of TOSHIO SUZUKI spent excessive time getting tires changed , and MASANORI SEKIYA found himself a position back when he finally took charge for the second half of the race. As AGURI SUZUKI choose to use hard compound tires, he was soon in trouble suffering from less grip. When KRUMM finally caught up to the leader in the last stage, he did his best to overtake the SKYLINE. But the ex-Formula 1 driver maneuvered skillfully to hold off KRUMM's charge, and spectators were given some thrilling side-by-side skirmishes in the closing laps of the race. Then, with only two laps to go, KRUMM slipped by AGURI SUZUKI and held on to the lead to take the checkered flag for his team.







In the GT-300 class, No.25 TAKESHI TSUCHIYA and MASAOKI NAGASHIMA, driving a turbo-charged TOYOTA MR2 for the race, moved to the front early on and built up a substantial lead until the checkered flag. Second place went to No.19 MANABU ORIDO and HIDEO FUKUYAMA, who gave a fine performance moving up their NISSAN SILVIA in the latter half of the race.

| 6/29 sun. | Wether: Fine | Course: Dry | Start: 14:23'00 | Finish: 16:19'00 | SEIKO TIMING |
| SENDAI Hi-land Raceway : 4.02960km / 63Laps |
Po No C-Pos Machine Driver Time Lap
1 36 500 1 CASTROL TOM'S SUPRA Michael Krumm Pedro De La Rosa 1:56:50.842 63
2 2 500 2 ZEXEL SKYLINE Aguri Suzuki Eric Comas 1:56:54.014 63
3 37 500 3 CASTROL TOM'S SUPRA Masanori Sekiya Toshio Suzuki 1:57:12.061 63
4 38 500 4 CASTROL CERUMO SUPRA Hironori Takeuchi Katsutomo Kaneishi 1:57:33.217 63
5 39 500 5 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT Masami Kageyama Tatsuya Tanigawa 1:57:43.432 63
6 5 500 6 5ZIGEN SUPRA Eiichi Tajima Marc Goossens 1:58:10.117 63
7 8 500 7 POWER CRAFT SUPRA Wayne Gardner Naoki Nagasaka 1:58:41.469 63
8 510 500 8 RH CERUMO SUPRA Bertrand Gachot Paul Belmondo 1:56:55.789 62
9 3 500 9 UNISIA JECS SKYLINE Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka 1:57:01.578 62
10 34 500 10 STP TAISAN PORSCHE GT2 Keiichi Tsuchiya Hideshi Matsuda 1:57:05.727 62
11 13 500 11 ENDLESS ADVAN GTR Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Mitsuo Fujimura 1:57:27.104 62
12 30 500 12 SOGOKEIBI PORSCHE Yohji Yamada Kazuo Mogi 1:58:41.220 62
13 10 500 13 CHATERAISE PORSCHE GT2 Kaoru Iida Ralph Firman 1:57:04.630 61
14 25 300 1 TSUCHIYA MR2 Takeshi Tsuchiya Masaoki Nagashima 1:57:44.259 60
15 19 300 2 RS*R SILVIA Manabu Orido Hideo Fukuyama 1:58:16.458 60
16 26 300 3 TAISAN STARCARD RSR Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta 1:58:38.426 60
17 910 300 4 NINETEN PORSCHE Seiichi Sodeyama Tomohiko Sunago 1:57:35.328 59
18 7 300 5 RE Amemiya SuperG RX7 Shinichi Yamaji Haruhiko Matsumoto 1:57:42.727 59
19 81 300 6 DAISHIN SILVIA Nobuyuki Ohyagi Takayuki Kinoshita 1:57:52.480 59
20 71 300 7 SIGMATECH 911 Kaoru Hoshino Masaki Johnai 1:58:20.834 59
21 72 300 8 WAKO'S BMW M3 Norio Makiguchi Takeshi Asami 1:57:09.187 58
22 27 300 9 TEAM FCJ FERRARI Tetsuya Ohta Steven Andskar 1:57:31.744 58
23 21 300 10 DUNLOP-BP-BMW Mikio Hitotsuyama Kenji Yamamoto 1:57:21.127 57
24 556 500 14 KURE R33 Masahiko Kageyama Masahiko Kondoh 1:57:51.975 57
25 20 300 11 AI AUTO GAB PORSCHE Kenji Takahashi Hiroaki Suga 1:58:02.605 57
26 16 300 12 YB BMW 318i coupe Motoji Sekine Toshiya Fujishjima 1:58:50.938 57
27 12 500 15 CALSONIC SKYLINE Kazuyoshi Hoshino Satoshi Motoyama 1:57:46.853 55
28 91 300 13 BUDDY CLUB MR-2 Masahiro Matsunaga Junko Mihara 1:57:57.052 *55
29 28 300 14 TEAM FCJ FERRARI Masahiro Yamazaki Masami Sugiyama 1:58:46.555 54
30 100 500 16 RAYBRIG NSX Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida 1:58:33.579 49
6 300 WISE DUNLOP BP MR-2 Hiroki Katoh Takahiro Fujita 39
55 300 Castrol RX7 Toshihiro Fukazawa Masaaki Nagashima 34
88 500 JLOC DIABLO GTR Takao Wada Hisashi Wada 24
18 500 avex DOME MUGEN NSX Takuya Kurosawa Katsumi Yamamoto 12
70 300 GAIKOKUYA ADVAN PORSCHE Yoshimi Ishibashi Nobuo Komiya 9