 First Victory Driving Honda NSX for Takahashi/Iida Toyota MR2 Teammates Suzuki/Tachi Claim GT300 Series Championship
Round 6 CP MINE GT RACE It was sure to be a fantastic day for Honda, with four NSXs controlling the race from the green light. Kunimitsu Takahashi got the No.100 NSX off to a good start from the pole and led into the first corner, followed by Tom Coronel, Ryo Michigami and Jyuichi Wakisaka in the No.64, No.16 and No.18 Hondas, respectively. Then, suddenly on lap 3, Coronel,Michigami and Wakisaka all overtook Takahashi and opened a gap to create a three-car battle for the lead. Takahashi maintained a strong 4th. Keiichi Tsuchiya was running 5th in the No.39 TOYOTA SUPRA and Erik Comas 6th in the No.23 SKYLINE GT-R. In the GT 300 class, Massimiliano Angelelli led from the pole in his No.19 TOYOTA CELICA, followed by Shingo Tachi (No.25) and Morio Nitta (No.44) both in TOYOTA MR2s. Michigami closed in tight on the leader, Coronel, piling on the pressure. But the Dutch driver showed amazing skill at holding off Michigami's challenge. On lap 10, one of the championship contenders, Norberto Fontana in the No.36 SUPRA, suffered a spin and dropped his position from 10th to 15th. As the race entered the middle stages, Wakisaka caught up with Michigami and the two put on an exciting battle for 2nd place. Their serious dickering for 2nd continued around the course, creating a sight surely not soon to be forgotten by the 46,200 spectators (announced by the organizer). Meanwhile, Takahashi, who continued his lone running in 4th, was the first of the top teams to pit for a routine stop on lap 26. Partner Akira Iida returned to the track in 15th, but set out immediately to fight his way up through the field and regain good positioning. By mid-race, the No.100 NSX was running in 6th, and the climb to the top continued. When Coronel stopped to hand over the wheel of the No.64 car to Koji Yamanishi on lap 44, Iida moved into 3rd.Only three laps later, on lap 47, Iida took the lead. The young, 20-year-old, Yamanishi was holding steady and running a strong 2nd ahead of veterans Osamu Nakako in the No.16 NSX and Katsutomo Kaneishi in the No.18 NSX. Then suddenly, after showing superiority throughout most of the race, two of the front-running NSXs disappeared from the field. First, Kaneishi went off the track. He was able to rejoin the race, dropping back his position, but problems from the stint forced him to the pits and retirement from the race on lap 70. Next, the engine of the No.16 NSX driven by Nakako caught fire, forcing him to stop with only 3 laps remaining. (Another fire earlier in the race, lap 39, caused the No.5 SUPRA driven by Marc Goossens to retire as well.) With Nakako's misfortune, the No.39 SUPRA driven Tatsuya Tanigawa moved into 3rd followed by Masami Kageyama in the No.23 SKYLINE GT-R. Teammate and elder brother Masahiko Kageyama, in the No.2 SKYLINE GT-R, kept 5th place ahead of the No.6 SUPRA of driven by Pierre-Henri Raphanel / Shinichi Takagi. Young Takagi, who drove in the second half, ran well in front of three Nissan drivers, Takuya Kurosawa, Tetsuya Tanaka and Satoshi Motoyama in the No.12, No.3 and No.50 SKYLINE GT-Rs, respectively. The top runners finished in this order. The veteran driver of more than 40 years, Kunimitsu Takahashi marked his 70th victory and became the oldest winner in the championship series. In the GT 300 class, Tachi overtook Angelelli on lap 14 and then kept the No.25 car at the head of the class in spite of a 70kg handicap weight. Even with the stop for refueling and driver change to Keiichi Suzuki, the No.25 MR2 kept the lead for the remainder of the race. The driver pair of Angelelli / Manabu Orido also kept their No.19 CELICA in 2nd place, finishing ahead of the 3rd running NISSAN SILVIA of Hideo Fukuyama / Nobuyuki Ohyagi. Fukuyama showed some fine racing skill, moving up from behind in the second half of the race. The victory by Keiichi Suzuki and Shingo Tachi earned them the 1998 GT 300 class championship, making 20-year-old Tachi the youngest champion in the series. |
