Honda NSX and Nissan Silvia Mark Strong Victories

No.64 Mobil 1 NSX

Round 6 GT CHAMPIONSHIP in TI
Race Report / 26 Sep. '99

The start of the race was given in front of a massive turnout of 48,800 fans (announced by organizer). Hidetoshi Mitsusada kept his No.64 Honda NSX in the lead from the pole into the first corner, followed by Akira Iida (No.100 NSX), Katsutomo Kaneishi (No.18 NSX) and Takuya Kurosawa (No.36 Toyota SUPRA). Iida pushed hard and slipped by Mitsusada before the end of the lap. On lap 2, the No.37 SUPRA driven by Ukyo Katayama bumped with another car causing his car to spin and lose precious time. It wasn't long before the top three NSXs broke away from the rest of the field quickly opening the gap between themselves and the fourth place running SUPRA driven by Kurosawa. The championship points leader, Erik Comas, was running eighth in the No.1 SKYLINE GT-R, unchanged from his grid starting position.

On lap 27, the Lamborghini DIABLO GT1 driven by Hisashi Wada retired from the race after running off the track. Mitsusada quickened his pace around the 30th lap, whittling down the gap separating him from the lead NSX of Iida. He found a hole on lap 32, reversed their positions and proceeded to dominate the race until the routine stop for driver change. Some fine work by the pit crew made sure that Tom Coronel rejoined the race with good positioning, and by lap 44 the Dutch driver had the No.64 NSX back in the lead.

Michael Krumm did well to bring the No.2 SKYLINE GT-R up through the field, and some energetic pit work by the Nismo team put co-driver Aguri Suzuki into contention for the podium following routine stops mid-race, running in third behind the No.100 NSX of Kunimitsu Takahashi (Iida's co-driver). Aguri put on a good show, at times lapping faster than anyone else in the field.

Moving into the latter stage of the race, Coronel continued to stretch his lead far ahead of the rest of the field, while Masanori Sekiya in the No.36 SUPRA showed a burst of energy that closed the gap between him and the third running Suzuki. Suzuki, himself, still running strong, was not far behind the second running No.100 NSX driven by Takahashi. The final laps were highlighted by the intense driving of Takahashi, Suzuki and Sekiya as each fought to maintain and improve their standings. On lap 72, Suzuki caught and passed Takahashi, followed by Sekiya and Wakisaka (No.18 NSX). Sekiya pushed hard to rundown the No.2 SKYLINE, but in contending with pressure from Wakisaka, the two cars bumped on the final lap giving Wakisaka third and sending Sekiya into fourth. The cars finished in that order.

No.15 Xanavi ARTA SILVIA

In the GT 300 class, the young duo of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Yuji Ide drove the No.15 SILVIA from pole to victory only occasionally falling from the lead. In spite of a heavy 80kg handicap weight, Ide showed good form in maintaining a quick pace throughout his drive. The winning team of the previous round, Hideshi Matsuda/Dominik Schwager, took second in their Porsche 996 GT3R. Schwager was forced to stop the car on lap 52 due to a sheared accelerator cable.

"I had a very good feel of the circuit. In the test sessions held at the end of August, we were the fastest, and I won the GT All-Star Race held here last year," Coronel commented after the race. "In this race nobody made mistakes. Not the car, not the mechanics, not the drivers. Mitsusada did a good job as well. He gave me the car in the first position. And then for me it was just bring the car home."

For the GT 500 championship points standing, Comas maintained his first place lead, but the gap between Sekiya/Kurosawa has been reduced. The championship will be decided in the last round race to be held at Twin Ring Motegi next month.

In the GT 300 class, winners Tsuchiya /Ide moved into the lead for the championship. Just as with the GT500class, the series championship will be decided by the last race.