00-05-04 Round2 Race Report Honda NSX Leads from Pole to Checkered Flag! Fuji International Speedway welcomed a huge crowd of 48,500 spectators (announced by organizer) for the second round of the All-Japan GT Championship race on May 4th. The start of the 67-lap race was given under cloudy skies. Pole sitter Juichi Wakisaka in the No.18 Honda NSX made a fine start and lead the field into the first corner. But the signs of the eventful day ahead quickly unfolded in the opening lap. Four Toyota Supras, Nos.32, 39, 35 and 37, were caught up in a serious multi-car accident coming out of the second corner. The No.32 car was able to return to the pits, but all three of the other Supras were forced to retire ending the day early for Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Toshio Suzuki, Masami Kageyama and including Ralf Firman (co-driver of Kageyama), who never got the chance to take the wheel. Wakisaka increased his lead lap by lap over the No.6 Supra driven by Hideki Noda running in second, followed by Michael Krumm in the No.2 Skyline GT-R and Akihiko Nakaya in the No.21 McLaren F1 GTR. In the GT 300 class, Hideshi Matsuda, piloting the No.26 Porsche, and Atsushi Yogo fought an exciting slipstream battle for the lead. Of the cars running in this class, bad luck struck Marco Apicella in the Porsche Boxter first with engine problems forcing him to pullover at the track-side green zone and drop out of contention on the 18th lap. As the race entered the middle stages, Noda, Michigami in the No.16 NSX, Hironori Takeuchi in the No.38 Supra, Satoshi Motoyama in the No.12 Skyline GT-R, Dominik Schwager in the No.64 NSX and Aguri Suzuki in the No.8 NSX gave spectators a fantastic show with side-by-side battles for positioning. The top teams pitted for routine stops from lap 29 through 40, changing drivers, tires and refueling. An excellent effort was made by the NISMO crew, sending the No.1 Skyline GT-R back out onto the track in 25sec and the No.2 car back out in an amazing 22.7sec. Masami Kageyama joined the race with the No.1 car in fourth place, but only temporarily. He was passed by Kazuyoshi Hoshino in the No.12 car and then Yuji Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra and finished the race in sixth. The leader, Wakisaka, passed the wheel to co-driver Katsutomo Kaneishi after lap 38, and Kaneishi kept the winning pace through the end of the race. Ukyo Katayama drove the latter session of the race in the No.2 Skyline after receiving the wheel from Krumm and finished second overall. (This was Katayama's first JGTC race, as he was absent from Round 1 due to a hard crash in pre-qualifying.) The driver pair of Hideshi Matsuda and Hideo Fukuyama battled for the GT300 class win throughout the latter half of the race, and it was Fukuyama that crossed the finish line first. No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX Juichi Wakisaka : "There wasn't a sufficient margin between our time And the second-place team in the qualifying sessions. But I drove Well, I had good control and got the rhythm. I'm very glad we could Win the race." Katsutomo Kaneishi : "I slowed the rhythm down from the beginning of My drive but the team ordered me to slowdown even more. It was Important for me to concentrate until the end of the race. I realized We had clinched the victory when I passed through the last corner of the last lap." No.26 Shell TAISAN ADVAN GT3R Hideshi Matsuda : "The team did some fantastic pit work, and we got some data today." Hideo Fukuyama : "I'm glad we won the race. We owe this win to the fine pit work."