2001-05-21 Race Preview The Toyota Supra displayed overwhelming performance during the second round of the JGTC at Fuji, but count on a strong challenge from Honda, Nissan and other makers in upcoming Round 3. With the Supras required to carry heavy handicap weights imposed as the result of winning and finishing well in the second round, the NSXs will be looking to reclaim top positions and the podium at Sportsland SUGO, a circuit where the performance of the Honda has always been spectacular. The third round was held at SUGO as well last year, and the Honda NSX dominated the weekend; clearly reigning in the Saturday qualifying sessions and the race on Sunday. Juichi Wakisaka, now driving a Supra for the ESSO TOYOTA TEAM Le Mans and co-winner of this year's second round with Hideki Noda, drove the Honda NSX of the Mugen Dome Project team in the race last year. To the surprise of all, Wakisaka drove his Honda into pole position by setting a circuit record lap time while carrying heavy handicap weight (90kg). The winners of last year's race, Daisuke Ito and Dominik Schwager, will be driving NSXs again this year, but paired with different drivers: Ito and co-driver Akira Iida will take the wheel of the No.100 NSX of Team Kunimitsu with MOONCRAFT, while Schwager will be driving the No.64 NSX of Mobil 1 NAKAJIMA RACING, the same as last year, but with Tsugio Matsuda. A Skyline GT-R driven by Michael Krumm and Tetsuya Tanaka earned the first podium finish for Nissan this season in the second round at Fuji. NISMO teammates Erik Comas and Masami Kageyama ran well in the race as well, finishing fourth. SUGO is not known as a favorable track for the Skyline GT-R, but the reliability and speed of the car's race setup are points that cannot be underestimated. A careful will surely be set on the two McLaren F1 GTRs as well, one each entered by TEAM TAKE ONE and HITOTSUYAMA RACING. Andre Cooto produced a superb qualifying performance to put his SOK McLaren in third on the grid in the second round, and co-driver Hideki Okada controlled the early stages of the race. HITOTSUYAMA RACING's Akihiko Nakaya performed well in Round 2, and ran in second place in the race at SUGO last year until an unfortunate retirement. The first round at TI Aida was dominated by Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi, who showed the performance of the Toyota MR-S with a pole-to-finish victory for ARTA with A'PEX, while the second round at Fuji was dominated by two Nissan Silvias, the No.81 car driven by Nobuyuki Oyagi and Takayuki Aoki (TEAM DAISHIN) and No.3 car of Yuji Ide and Masataka Yanagida entered by HASEMI MOTORSPORTS. But competition in the class is keen, with impressive cars and drivers fielded by every team. Be on the lookout for challenges from the Subaru Impreza of CUSUCO RACING driven by Katsuo Kobayashi and Tatsuya Tanigawa, the Porsche 996 GT3Rs of TEAM TAISAN ADVA with driver pair Hideshi Matsuda /Kazuyuki Nishizawa and 910 RACING with driver pair Hisashi Wada/Jukucho Sunako. Tetsuya Yamano and Haruhiko Matsumoto pilot a Mazda RX-7 for RE Amemiya Racing and are always one of the front runners in the class. A unique car running in the JGTC that is worthy of noting is the Mosler MT900R entered by TEAM SRILANKA and driven by Dilantha Malagamuwa and Takeshi Asami. This American GT car is powered by a Chevy engine mounted mid-ship. The team is backed by strong support from the American constructor. The green light for Round 3 is scheduled for May 27th at Sportsland SUGO. BACK HOME Copyright 2001 JGTC.net. http://www.jgtc.net