Perfect day for Nissan

Round 4 CP MINE GT RACE
Qualify Report / 11 Jul. '99

The 76-lap race started under cloudy skies, and to the delight of a fantastic spectator turnout of 42,200 fans (organizer-announced figure).

Toshio Suzuki in the No.37 SUPRA made a fine start from the pole position and held onto the lead going into the first corner. Following in order were Raphanel in the No.35 SUPRA, Masahiko Kageyama in the No.39 SUPRA and Noda in the No.6 SUPRA. Excitement came early as Yamanishi in the No.64 Honda NSX spun his car on the first lap.

Suzuki's car was performing well and with each passing lap increased the gap between him and the nearest pursuant, Raphanel. A terrific battle for third was raging on not far behind Raphanel as Noda and Kageyama scrapped with each other for positioning. Noda won out in the end, and then set his sights on closing the gap with Raphanel. Raphanel, however, was not in a place to contest as the No.35 suffered problems with the ABS system. The times separating cars in the top-running group slowly increases, but around lap 23 a back marker obstructed the leaders causing them to slow and bunch up again.

From lap 30 on it seemed to become a race of endurance as many of the cars leading the field retired suddenly. On lap 30, Noda and the No.6 SUPRA spun and retired to the pits. Two laps later, the No.36 SUPRA driven by Sekiya entered pit lane and stopped in his garage and Raphanel in the No.35 car, having troubles with the ABS, suffered a spin. Then on lap 33, Firman stopped track-side when the engine of his Mitsubishi FTO overheated.

The further the race evolved, the more eventful it became. After the new group of top runners had completed their routine pit stops, it was Katayama driving in the lead in the No.37 SUPRA, followed by Comas in the No.1 SKYLINE GT-R, Nakako in the No.16 Honda NSX, and Krumm in the No.2 SKYLINE GT-R. Comas and Krumm both drove hard, increasing their rhythm to chase down the cars running ahead of them. However, bad luck hit the NISMO team, and Krumm stopped his car on lap 72 because of transmission problems. As a consequence, the No.3 SKYLINE driven by Tanaka moved into fourth behind the NSX of Nakako,followed by Gardner in the No.6 SUPRA and Masami Kageyama in the No.12 SKYLINE.

Unknown to the crowd, top runner Ukyo Katayama began suffering brake problems and Erik Comas, now closing the gap on the No.37 SUPRA,was driving without fourth gear due to a gearbox problem early in the race. By lap 60, there was less than 1sec between the two cars, and the spectators went ecstatic as Comas pulled up for a side-by-side dual with Katayama as they circled the circuit. After a great seesaw battle, Comas overtook Katayama for a final time on lap 71 and drove on to claim the win. The remaining runners in the top group finished in the order mentioned above. With this victory, Comas returned to the lead of the championship points standing.

In the GT 300 class, the young driver pair of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Yuji Ide piloted their No.15 Nissan SILVIA to victory, leading from start to finish and maintaining a good gap between them and the second place No.25 Toyota MR2 driven by Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi, which competed with the heaviest handicap weight of 80kg.

Winners' Podium