JAPAN SPECIAL GT Cup in FUJI Speedway
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Hell and Heaven
Round 4 JAPAN SPECIAL GT Cup  
In spite of a cloudy sky threatening rain, Fuji International Speedway welcomed 50,300 race fans for the Sunday event (organiser announcement). The outset of the race began with a exhilarating high-speed battle between the SUPRAs, NSXs and SKYLINE GT-Rs. The Toyota team of Hironori Takeuchi and Katsutomo Kaneishi (38 Castrol CERUMO SUPRA) led from the start, closely chased by the teams of Michael Krumm/Pedro de la Rosa (36 Castrol TOM'S SUPRA), Wayne Gardner/Tom Kristensen (8 POWER CRAFT SUPRA) and Bertrand Gachot/Paul Belmondo (510 RH CERUMO SUPRA). Lap 6 brought an early end to the competition for one of the top-rated PORSCHE entrants in the GT-500 class as the team of Keiichi Tsuchiya/Hideshi Matsuda (34 STP TAISAN ADVAN GT-2) went out at the first corner. Shortly following this, 8 Gardner lost his position in response to a penalty. 38 Takeuchi did well under pressure and kept ahold of the lead with 36 Krumm following in second.
There was tension in between the Nissan drivers as well. Masahiko Kageyama (556 KURE R33) and Aguri Suzuki (2 ZEXEL SKYLINE) held the top positions in the SKYLINE group, and fought side by side around the circuit. But a worst results confrontation happened when the two cars bumped; sending 556 Kageyama off the track and causing 2 Suzuki to pit for repairs to the front of the chassis. At the end of lap 17 the Safety Car took to the track for 5 laps; perfect timing for the team of Masami Kageyama/Tatsuya Tanigawa (39 DENSO SARD SUPRA), who had dropped from the pace with an unscheduled pit stop. 39 Kageyama was called back in once more for a routine pit while the Safety Car was out. After the pit, 39 Tanigawa joined the parade led by the Safety Car. The race got back under the green flag on lap 24. 38 Takeuchi still held his lead over 36 Krumm, 37 Sekiya and 100 Iida. A few laps later, the routine pit stops began with many cars pitting for fuel, tire and driver changes. After all of the cars had finished pitting, it was 39 Tanigawa steadily moved up to the top during the stops made by the other teams. But 38 Kaneishi showed superb lap-by-lap effort to reduce the gap. 38 De la Rosa and 37 Toshio Suzuki, who took over for Sekiya, also did well to close in on the leader. In the last stage of the race, 38 Kaneishi was imposed with a 10 sec penalty due to an illegal overtake. An accident at the last corner during lap 52 brought out the Safety Car again, and the race finished under parade laps.
  In the GT-300 class, the team of Takeshi Tsuchiya/Masaoki Nagashima (25 TSUCHIYA MR2) in a TOYOTA MR-2 gave an outstanding performance through the first half of the race, but the two PORSCHE RSRs of Keiichi Suzuki/Morio Nitta (26 TAISAN STARCARD RSR) and Seiichi Sodeyama/Hideyuki Tamamoto (910 NINETEN PORSCHE) moved in from the halfway mark.
No.39 DENSO SARD SUPRAMasami Kageyama & Tatsuya Tanigawa 
No.26 TAISAN STAR CARD RSRKeiichi Suzuki & Morio Nitta |
On lap 16 the HONDA NSX of Takuya Kurosawa/Katsumi Yamamoto (18 avex DOME MUGEN NSX) began to slow and stopped midway through the lap due to problems with a wheel hub. The NSX of Kunimitsu Takahashi/Akira Iida (100 RAYBRIG NSX) ran well, keeping the number six position in the field ahead of the SKYLINE GT-R group.
The real eye-catcher was the FERRARI F355 of Tetsuya Ohta/Anders Olofsson (27 TEAM FCJ FERRARI). Carrying the same number as the F1 car of Michael Schumacher, the car ran well in the race, even taking the lead at one time. But oil pressure problems prevailed late in the race, causing them to give way to the team of 26 Suzuki/Nitta, who took the GT-300 class win.