00-04-01 Round1 Qualify Report HONDA NSX took one-two-three places! The qualifying sessions of the "Motegi GT Champion Race" took place under fine blue skies at Twin Ring Motegi. For this season's opening race of the championship, a number of highly tuned new cars have been entered such as the 2000 versions of the NISSAN SKYLINE GT-R, TOYOTA SUPRA, HONDA NSX, TOYOTA MR-S and PORSCHE 986BOXTER The competition for pole position was a battle among HONDA NSXs, the No.18 car driven by Juichi Wakisaka/Katsutomo Kaneishi and No.16 car driven by Osamu Nakako/Ryo Michigami, and the No.1 SKYLINE GT-R piloted by Erik Comas/Masahiko Kageyama. Erik Comas put on an impressive performance showing the high potential of the new SKYLINE GT-R in the morning session. Several minutes after the green light, he claimed a superb 1'48.600". But Juichi Wakisaka in the No.18 HONDA NSX pushed hard in his qualifying performance and took first place on the leader board, breaking the course record set last year by Takuya Kurosawa in a TOYOTA SUPRA with a time of 1'47.976. Ryo Michigami moved into third place with a time of 1'48.713 in the No.16 NSX. In the GT300 class, a new PORSCHE 911GT3R driven by Atsushi Yogo/Hisashi Wada showed the high performance of the new Porsche, establishing a new course record of 1'57.280. The afternoon session was dominated the trio of HONDA NSXs, Nos.18, 16 and 100. Wakasaki, apparently not satisfied with the time in the morning session, went on to put in a fantastic time of 1'46.968, beating his record time set earlier in the day. He was followed by Michigami (No.16 NSX,1'48.442) and Akira Iida (No.100 NSX, 1'48.574). Fourth place in the session went to the No.12 SKYLINE GT-R driven by Kazuyoshi Hoshino/Satoshi Motoyama. Motoyama completed a fine trip around the circuit at 1'49.075. The afternoon session saw the return of the No.2 SKYLINE GT-R of the NISMO team, which was out due serious damage caused by a hard crash during the morning free practice session of Friday; a replacement car was delivered from the NISMO factory in Tokyo in the early afternoon. The driver at the time of the accident, Ukyo Katayama, sustained bruises and was replaced by Yuji Ide. His partner, Michael Krumm moved the No.2 SKYLINE into 15th on the grid (1'50.242) while working to set-up the car and qualify at the same time. The No.26 PORSCHE 911GT3R of Hideshi Matsuda/Hideo Fukuyama was the fastest in the GT300 class. Matsuda claimed a 1'56.733 lap followed by the No.910 PORSCHE 911GT3R of Yogo/Wada (1'57.022) and the No.81 SILVIA of Nobuyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Aoki (1'57.369). At the end of both sessions, it was Juichi Wakisaka/Katsutomo Kaneishi in the No.18 HONDA NSX triumphant with the pole position. "Our best lap was as expected. I drove just as usual and the car performed normally when we set the best lap," said Wakisaka at the end of the day. Hideshi Matsuda/Hideo Fukuyama in the No.26 PORSCHE 911GT3R came out on top in the GT300 class. Hideshi Matsuda confided, "I was all pumped up for qualifying because the birthday of our team owner is the day after tomorrow. I hope to keep this good shape for the race." POLE POSITION Katsutomo Kaneishi, Juichi Wakisaka, Hideshi Matsuda, Hideo Fukuyama (from left)