Honda NSXs Shove Supras Aside,
Take Top Four Places on the Grid

No.64 Mobil 1 NSX

Round 6 GT CHAMPIONSHIP in TI
Qualify Report / 25 Sep. '99

The Saturday qualifying sessions for the "GT Championship in TI" event, the sixth round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (GTC), were tossed about by the winds under a clearing sky after the passing of Typhoon 18. A total of 37 cars took to the technical 3.703km track at the Aida TI Circuit to battle for pole position. The qualifying sessions were divided into the usual three segments: first 20 minutes reserved for the GT 500 class only, followed by a 20-minute segment for the GT 300 cars, and then a final 20 minutes with both classes on the track. The center of attention for the race now seems to be the fight for the championship, a contest between Erik Comas, driving the No.1 Skyline GT-R, and the driver pair of Masanori Sekiya and Takuya Kurosawa, driving the No.36 Toyota.

The green light lit for the start of the first session at 10:20. Sekiya entered the track immediately after the green signal, while Comas waited momentarily driving out onto the course six minutes later. Sekiya was the first major contender to set a best time and made the first claim for the pole position. But the NSXs of the Honda teams rolled onto the track at 10 minutes after the session began, and immediately showed their intentions for the weekend. All of the Hondas were equipped with ABS systems for the first time, which led to a significant show of performance throughout qualifying. Tom Coronel drove the No.64 NSX to a 1'28.959 lap to move to the top of the timing monitor, followed by Jyuichi Wakisaka, Akira Iida and Ryo Michigami in the Nos.18, 100 and 16 Honda NSXs, respectively. An impressive show of power by the Honda teams, with NSXs dominating the top four places. Masami Kageyama, in the No.12 Skyline GT-R, was the fastest Nissan driver in the morning session with a fine 1'30.299. The No.1 GT-R (Comas) was running with heavy 80kg handicap weights. Comas worked hard but could only establish a mediocre time of 1'30.561 on the technical circuit, giving him a preliminary ninth slot on the grid.

When the GT 300 class drove onto the track after the initial GT 500 session, a fight for the pole broke out immediately between two Nissan Silvias and a Subaru Impreza. Hideo Fukuyama made an excellent effort in the No.81 Silvia in spite of a heavy 70kg handicap weight, claiming the best lap in the early stage of the session. But it wasn't before long that Tatsuya Tanigawa, in the No.77 Impreza, clocked the fastest lap. Then it was Takeshi Tsuchiya's turn in the No.15 Silvia. Carrying the heaviest handicap weight possible (80kg), Tsuchiya put his skills to work and lapped an impressive 1'35.381 to take the class lead. Tanigawa's time (1'36.399) held for second, ahead of Fukuyama in the No.81 Silvia with a 1'36.538.

The second qualifying session in the afternoon gave witness to a true skirmish for the pole. Michigami set the pace five minutes after the green, putting in clean lap that took his No.16 NSX to the top of the field. And with that, the battle broke out. Iida and Wakisaka in the No.100 and No.18 NSXs, respectively, and the Supra drivers Sekiya (No.36), Yuji Tachikawa (No.38), Toshio Suzuki (No.37) and Pierre-Henri Raphanel (No.35) all drove well, improving over their lap times recorded in the morning session. But the day went to Honda, with four NSXs running strong and occupying the top four grid positions.

For the Nissan teams, Comas drove strong and hard, putting in an drive with the No.1 Skyline GT-R. Even carrying the heavy handicap weight, he ran fastest of the Nissan drivers, putting in a best time of 1'29.533 in the afternoon session for an eighth place start on the grid."

No.15 Xanavi ARTA SILVIA

In GT 300 class, Hideshi Matsuda, the winner of the previous round, put on a good show in afternoon after ending with a tentative seventh position start from the morning session(1'36.876). Timing a fine 1'35.547, he moved up to second on the grid in the class, the pole slot going to Takeshi Tsuchiya in the No.15 Silvia. In spite of a maximum handicap weight, the young Nissan driver finished the day in first with a time of 1'35.431."

At the end of the day, the driver pair of Tom Coronel-Hidetosi Mitsusada had driven the No.64 NSX to the pole position, followed by the NSXs of Takahashi-Iida (No.100), Wakisaka-Kaneishi (No.18) and Nakako-Michigami (No.16 NSX), making up the front-four Honda formation ahead of Sekiya-Kurosawa in the No.36 Supra.

"Thanks to the ABS system, I was able to concentrate on my driving," said Coronel after the sessions. "We were in good form in the test sessions held here at the TI Circuit at the end of August, and I won the GT All-Star Race held here last year. "