 |
2001-04-14 |
Qualify Review
- Hard battle for pole between Toyota, Honda and Nissan
The curtain rose for the opening round of the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) at TI Circuit Aida in Okayama Prefecture on April 14. Being the first race of the season, none of the cars carried handicap weight (a unique control system adopted by the JGTC to equalize machine performance). All 74 drivers pushed the 37 cars to the limit in effort to display their real potential. An intense day it was, with intense fighting for pole position witnessed throughout both morning and afternoon qualifying sessions: 16 different cars broke the circuit record lap time.
The procedure for the qualifying sessions has changed slightly from previous years. This year, each session is divided into three 20-munute segments as before, but the afternoon session is executed in opposite order. The first 20 minutes combines the GT 500 and GT 300 classes, the second 20 minutes is for GT 300 and the final 20 minutes for GT 500.
Jeremie Dufour, at the wheel of the No.39 Toyota Supra, gave an impressive performance in his debut appearance in JGTC, clocking the fastest time early on in the morning session (1'25.873). "The team did an excellent job," commented Dufour after the session. "The car is well improved since the private test sessions in November, and I'm quite satisfied. We're close to the pole position."
Another newcomer in the series, Sebastien Philippe also displayed good form driving the No.18 Honda NSX to successively faster laps. And Erik Comas, a familiar favorite in the series, claimed the second fastest lap in the No.23 Nissan Skyline GT-R. For a time, the three French drivers monopolized the top three places, but the formation was not long lasting.
Dominik Schwager marked a quick 1'25.890 in the No.64 Honda NSX to move into third place in the battle for grid position. The German driver remarked after the sessions, "I know that the cars running in front of us chose soft tires. We decided on a medium compound, which I think is a good choice for the race. I was hoping to get a time in that placed us in the top four, but the gap was extremely small. I'm quite satisfied the set up."
The fastest lap of the day (1'25.621) was recorded by Ryo Michigami, locking the No.1 Honda NSX into the first pole of the season. "After trying a variety of tires, we chose to go with a soft compound," Michigami explained. "The tires will keep in the race, and I was thinking that we needed good positioning in qualifying. The good time was the result of a number of conditions being well matched at the right moment. Starting from pole position, we will be able to win if we can keep the lead through the end of the first lap."
Michael Krumm, in the No.22 Skyline GT-R, timed the fastest lap in the afternoon session to take fifth position overall.
The new Lamborghini Diablo entered by JLOC arrived at the circuit at 2AM Saturday morning, and the team worked hard through the night to get it ready. Unfortunately, neither of the drivers, Naohiro Furuya and Marco Apicella, got out in the morning session, but Furuya was able to do a "shakedown" during the afternoon session.
The fastest car in the GT 300 class was the No.31 Toyota MR-S with Morio Nitta behind the wheel, claiming a fine 1'34.205. Starting from pole position in the class, he and co-driver Shinichi Takagi will be the pair to beat. It is the best start of the season for the duo, who have their sights set on winning the GT300 class championship this year. "When I completed the first quick lap, I was going to try for one more," said Nitta after the sessions. "But I hit some oil on the track in the last corner and ended up spinning. I think I could have improved the time even more. We experienced some understeer in the afternoon session, and it became impossible to improve the time."
Tetsuya Yamano in the No.7 Mazda RX-7 (1'34.402) and Hideshi Matsuda in the No.24 Porsche 996 GT3R (1'34.537) will line up in second and third on the grid.
Another highlight for GT 300 is the debut of the Mosler MT900R. Dilanta Maragamuwa and Takeshi Asami will be driving this newcomer to JGTC. The car showed its high potential at the Daytona 24 Hours event in February. "As this is the first-time participation in JGTC racing there are a lot of things to do," said Asami. "But I think the car will be very quick in the corners once we have the right setup." The car qualified 11th in the class.
 |
BACK |  |
HOME |
