2001-06-24 Race Review Hot Day, Hot Supras Battle! Introduction Weather : Free practice started at 8:45am under a mostly cloudy sky. The cloud cover kept things cool for a while, but it had mostly disappeared by the time the free practice was over. Free Practice : Once again, the Supras dominated the GT500 time sheet. Even with a weight handicap of 50kg, the AU CERUMO Supra of Yuji Tachikawa and Hirono Takeuchi was second fastest, only 1/10 second behind the TOKUHON TOM'S Supra of Wayne Gardner and Takeshi Tsuchiya. The #64 Mobil 1 NSX of Dominik Schwagger/Tsugio Matsuda was third followed by Hiroki Kato and Sebastien Philippe in the TAKATA DOME NSX. In GT300, Ide and Yanagida in the UNISIA JECS Silvia were well hooked up and posted a best lap time of 2:11.599, nearly 7/10 sec. quicker than the second best time by Malagamuwa and Barbosa in the Mosler MT900. As the cars did warm-up laps and headed for the grid, the 43,000 fans were being driven to a fit of excitement by the sounds of the engines, the waves from the drivers, and, of course, the smiles of the ever so popular race queens. The outside temperature was hovering at 32 degrees C and the humidity had everybody drenched with sweat within minutes of standing on the hot tarmac. The track temperature was 41 degrees C, actually cooler than many teams had expected. The green light for the start was given on the first time around and Takeuchi led the field into the corner in the #38 AU CERUMO Supra. Kato had a slow start from 4th and suffered an intermitent power steering problem after contacting Dominik Schwagger going by on the inside of the first corner. Schwagger was charging hard from the start, trying several times to squeeze by the #22 Xanavi Hiroto Skyline GT-R being driven by Tetsuya Tanaka. The Toyotas proved to be too powerful to run with in the early stages and Takeshi Tsuchiya forced his way by Schwagger going in to lap 5. The driver changes started on lap 22 and continued for the next ten laps. There were no mishaps other than the malfunction of the cool suit system of Tachikawa's Supra which would prove to be disasterous later in the race. Katoh and Philippe had an excellent change and were able to make up several positions with their stop. On lap 28, Wayne Gardner had the bad fortune of having his brake pedal fail as he approached turn 7 in fourth gear. Unable to slow the car at all, he went screaming off the track, through the gravel and into the tire barrier on the outside of the turn. He was able to turn the car slightly so that the force of the impact was absorbed by the left front bodywork and was thankful to have escaped without injury. You really scared us with that one, Wayne! On lap 38, Tachikawa caught up with Noda and an intense battle for the lead ensued. Tachikawa dove to the inside of the first turn and passed Noda only to have overshot his braking after which Noda smartly passed him back on the exit of the corner. Then Noda was held up by GT300 leader Yanagida momentarily and Tachikawa capitalized by taking a faster line onto the back straight and pulling level with Noda. Noda wasn't about to give up the lead without a fight and outbraked Tachikawa into the next turn. Unfortunately, Noda's Supra slid to the outside of the turn and Tachikawa was waiting hungrily on the inside to squeeze by. Ten laps later, Tachikawa pulled grogily into the pits, overcome with heat exhaustion and had to be pulled from his car. Takeuchi took the wheel again while the team drenched Tachikawa with ice water. Tachikawa went to the circuit doctor for examination but is doing just fine. By the end of the race, Philippe had caught up to Noda and wanted to pass for the lead, but Noda wasn't going to hear of it. Philippe commented after the race that Noda had made several daring moves to get around lap traffic and hold onto his lead. Noda took the checkered flag 5 seconds ahead of Philippe and celebrated with a series of wheel-spinning "donuts" after his cool down lap. Matsuda in the #64 NSX passed Michael Krumm in the #22 Skyline on the last lap to finish third, but was sorely dissapointed when the stewards assessed a time+60 seconds penalty after the race for passing in a yellow flag zone. Erik Comas and Masami Kageyama moved up to fourth and Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Ryo Michigami rounded were promoted to fifth place. The GT300 race was utterly dominated by Yuji Ide and Hironori Takeuchi in their #3 Silvia. Ide had opened up a gap of mor than 30 seconds by the time he pitted for the driver change and Takeuchi kept up the pace, finishing the race 45 seconds ahead of the #77 Cusco Subaru Imprezza of Tatsuya Tanigawa and Katsuo Kobayashi. Morio Nitta suffered a huge setback when he spun his ARTA Apex MR-S on lap 5. He and co-driver Shinichi Takagi didn't give up for a minute and eventually tangled with Kobayashi on the final lap while trying to steal second place. Both cars continued with Kobayashi barely being able to hold off Takagi at the checkered flag. The Amprex Elf RX-7 GT300 team from Malaysia was running short on luck all weekend. Their race ended after only 7 laps when the car rolled to a halt at the end of the pit wall. It is likely that they would have been challenging for a spot on the podium and we will look forward to seeing them under better conditions at next years race. The event was very exciting and is sure to continue growing in popularity in the years to come. There is already a huge following of loyal local fans in addition to the many Japanese fans who flew over to show their support for their favorite teams. The circuit facilities are also fantastic and the staff deserve recognition for their professionalism and hospitality throughout the weekend. #6 ESSO Ultraflo Supra (GT500) Juichi Wakisaka: "We had hoped to get the pole position yesterday but when we couldn't, we decided to take advantage of having a lower weight handicap for the race. After the start, however, the pace of the #38 car was very fast. When we won before at Fuji, we stayed right on their tail into the pits and were able to get out ahead of them after the driver change, so I decided to do the same thing. Unfortunately, I got held up by some backmarkers and I am afraid that I made things a little bit difficult for Noda's stint." Hideki Noda: "As a result of the excellent work of our mechanic staff, we were able to get out after the driver change in front of the #38 car. Shortly afterwards, however, I began to experience some problems with the brakes and #38 passed me thereafter. I didn't give up and stayed right with him and when he started having trouble, I was able to take advantage of the situation. I have to give credit for the victory to the team for their excellent work and to the fans who, during my battle with the #38 car, rose to their feet and cheered me on which gave me the strength to push on even with the brake troubles that I was having." #3 Unisia JECS SILVIA (GT300) Yuji Ide: "There was more rubber on the track and the grip was better than we had expected. The car was tending to oversteer quite a lot, but I think that it wasn't as bad as what some of the other cars were going through. I tried to save the tires at the beginning while the car was still heavy. After about the tenth lap, I starting pushing harder and was able to open up the gap to about thirty seconds before the pit stop." Masataka Yanagida: "On the way to Malaysia, a friend jammed a piece of Durian candy into my mouth and broke one of my front teeth, but now I can forget about all of the problems I had on this trip because we won!" BACK HOME Copyright 2001 JGTC.net. http://www.jgtc.net