ALL JAPAN FUJI GT RACE
5.1 sat / 2 sun
Round 2 All Japan FUJI GT Race 
Keeping in tune with the same fine weather on Saturday, blue skies welcomed nearly 50,000 spectators (48,100 announced officially) Sunday morning for the second round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car (GTC) Championship at Fuji International Speedway.
Even though it was the Toyota SUPRAs that showed dominating performance during qualifying in the Saturday sessions, race day brought on a new scenario. When the green light came, the dash to the first corner was won by Takeuchi in the No.38 SUPRA, followed by Masahiko Kageyama in the No.39 SUPRA, Akira Iida in the No.100 NSX and P.H.Raphanel in the No.6 SUPRA. The No.2 Nissan SKYLINE driven by Aguri Suzuki, the No.18 NSX piloted by Jyuichi Wakisaka (previous race winner) and the No.30 McLaren F1GTR with Yoji Yamada at the wheel got into a bind going into the first corner and went off the track. Suzuki managed to recover and rejoin the race, but Wakisada and Yamada both ended their day caught in the gravel with no way out. The Nissan charge was led by Kazuyoshi Hoshino in the No.12 SKYLINE GT-R playing team pace maker running in 10th place. Iida took his No.100 NSX to the lead in the 9th lap, overtaking Takeuchi at the first corner in the lap. After running hard for 10 laps, 6th running Raphanel slipped into the pits for mechanical work. After a series of stops to try and fix the problem, the French driver retired his car from the race due to power steering problems.
The GT 300 class experienced much misfortune as well. A number of contenders retired early on. Pole sitter Takeshi Tsuchiya was forced to pit his No.15 Nissan SIVLIA after the opening lap, ending the day with an overheated engine. Akira Ishikawa's No.72 Mazda RX-7 dropped from the field for the same reason in the 3rd lap. Hideo Fukuyama, who started from third on the grid in the No.81 SILVIA, had difficulties with his transmission and was forced to retire as well. On a lighter note, the No.7 RX-7 driven by Haruhiko Matsumoto suffered a spin on lap 16 while running 2nd in the class.
Iida built a substantial lead over the rest of the field, putting a significant gap between himself and the rest of the field.
From lap 15 the fan were given an excellent thrill of racing spirit as Kageyama in the No.39 SUPRA, Yamanishi in the No.64 NSX and Masanori Sekiya in the No.36 SUPRA battled for third with challenges both in the corners and going down the straights. The conditions remained exciting for a number of laps until the veteran Toyota driver did a half-spin on lap 24, dropping his position. The No.12 SKYLINE driven by Hoshino ran steadily, building a pace that brought him into 6th place by lap 20.
When he crossed the line at lap 30, Iida had built a strong of more than 10 seconds over second contending Takeuchi, with Yamanishi running 3rd followed by Kageyama and Hoshino. Eric Comas, driving the No.1 GT-R, was in 6th. Driver changes and routine pit stops began on lap 30 as well. Soon afterward, misfortune came to the Honda NSX team for Tom Coronel / Yamanashi in the form of a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a misjudgment by Yamanishi, who allegedly passed another driver when a yellow flag was being shown. This penalty dropped him from 2nd to 9th.
An intense slipstream battle broke out between Anders Olofsson in the No.1 SKYLINE GT-R, Tsuchiya in the No.39 SUPRA and Masami Kageyama in the No.12 GT-R somewhere around lap 40. Soon after this, the leader (Iida) took to the pits for driver change, fuel and tires. He went nearly the full distance allowed by GTC regulations before passing the wheel to co-driver Kunimitsu Takahashi. (One driver can run up to two-thirds of the race laps.) Takahashi joined the race with a 51-second lead over the 2nd place running Yuji Tachikawa in the No.38 SUPRA, who was forced to restart from a long pit work. He was followed by Olofsson and then Daren Manning in the No.37 SUPRA. Manning was working on a full day after winning the F3 earlier in the day. Kageyama and Tsuchiya fought hard for third, but the skirmish came to a sudden end when Tsuchiya experienced turbo charger problems on lap 53, and was forced to retire for the day.
The final thrills for the day came from Daren Manning. Running in his first GTC race, the British driver put on a great show of talent, closing the gap between himself and the No.1 car of Olofsson and overtaking in the last laps to claim a 4th place finish. In the end, it was the 59-year-old veteran,Takahashi, who controlled the final stages of the race ahead of the much younger and upcoming 23-year-old Tachikawa.
The retirement of many of the machines in the GT 300 class gave way for a very eventful day. The checkered flag went to Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi, followed by Manabu Orido / Takahiko Hara in the No.19 CELICA and Masaki Jyounai / Naohiro Kohno in the No.71 PORSCHE who worked hard to come up through the field and grab the 3rd place finish.
The crowd also witnessed a thrilling slipstream battle for first in the GT300 class between the No.71 PORSCHE of Kawano, the No.910 PORSCHE of Tamamoto, the No.26 PORSCHE of Suga and the No.19 CELICA of Hara. In the latter stages of the race, Firman, driving a Mitsubishi FTO, showed that he'll be someone to contend with this season as he fought his way up to 3rd, overtaking the No.910 PORSCHE . Even though it was the first time behind the wheel of a touring car for the British driver, he ran steadily faster and quicker through the end of the race. Following car inspections at the end of the race, the winning No.71 PORSCHE was disqualified due to a technical violation, thus classifying the Mitsubishi driver pair of Nakaya/Firman in 2nd. GT500 Class  GT300 Class |
