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2002-07-27
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Qualify Review
No.1 Supra Sits at the Front of the Pack
Vemac Dominates GT300 Qualifying
The qualifying sessions for the "JAPAN SPECIAL GT CUP," the fifth round of the 2002 AUTOBACS Japan GT Championship (JGTC) were held under Japan's blistering summer sun on July 27 at Fuji International Speedway(Shizuoka Prefecture), but the intense heat was not enough to keep fans from swarming to the track qualifying day. The No.360 Ferrair Modena and the No.4 Chevrolet Corvette withdrew their entries from the GT300 category, leaving 45 GT cars to compete for the poles in the two classes.
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Morning Qualifying (Wether:Fine, Air Temp.:32C/Truck Temp.:52C, Course:Dry) |
In the first qualifying session held in the morning, it was the No.39 Supra driven by Dufour to sit at the top of the timing monitor first. The French driver put in a time of 1'25.781" immediately after the green light. It wasn't long after, however, before the No.16 Honda NSX with Michigami at the wheel replaced him. Michigami was then pushed down the monitor following a fantastic lap of 1'25.616" by the 18-year-old Shimoda driving the No.33 Supra, the entire circuit applauding his feat after he crossed the finish line.
As the session worked into later stage, top position on the monitor began changing at a dizzying pace, names switching nearly each time a car crossed the line, First the No.76 McLaren driven by Hattori, then the No.25 Supra with Ara behind the wheel and the No.1 Supra driven by Tachikawa.
At the end of the morning session, it was the No.1 Supra sitting in the provisional pole with a time of 1'24.729" thanks to Tachikawa's grand performance in spite of carrying 30kg of handicap weight. He was followed by the No.25 Supra, Ara lapping a best time of 1'24.920, the No.22 Nissan Skyline driven by Motoyama with at time of 1'25.179" and the No.36 Supra driven by Tsuchiya (1'25.205). Tsuchiya also managed to impress notwithstanding a heavy 60kg handicap.
In the GT300 class, Yogo put the No.26 Porsche GT3R at the front of the class initially with a time of 1'33.205". Close behind was the No.31 Toyota MR-S driven by Nitta (1'33.481"), but Matsuda and the No.910 Porsche quickly moved in with a second fastest time of 1'33.351". The next wave of attacks brought the No.24 Porsche driven by Kinoshita to the top of the class with a time of 1'33.040", and hot on his tail the No.71 Toyota driven by Sawa with a time of 1'33.072".
Then the No.62 Vemac rolled out onto the track midway through the session. Shibahara behind the wheel, the car dominated from the outset, putting in a superb lap time of 1'32.597" and seeming to be in a class all its own. Yanagida did his best with the No.3 Silvia to challenge the Vemac and moved into second position with a time of 1'33.038" in spite of carrying a handicap weight of 70kg., but he was penalized for a half-spin in a section where the Yellow Flag was out and dropped to sixth in the official results, putting the No.24 Porsche in second, followed by the No.71 Toyota.
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Afternoon Qualifying (Wether:Fine, Air Temp.:31C/Truck Temp.:44C, Course:Dry) |
The second qualifying session started with mixed classes running first, then the GT300 class and the GT500 cars running last, exactly opposite of the morning session.
The first on the track was Erik Comas and the No.23 Skyline GT-R. The car had suffered fuel pressure problems in the morning session, but finished with a smooth quick lap of 1'26.455" that put the car in first in the mixed slot time. But it wasn't long before the No.1 Supra driven by Tachikawa and the No.25 Supra with Ara behind the wheel claimed better times. Comas bettered his time to a 1'25.517 in the final session and ended the day 11th on the grid.
A special highlight of this round is the introduction of the new Nissan 2002 Skyline GT-R equipped with a twin-turbo V6 engine. All three Nissan cars running in the GT500 class have been switched to the new model this round.
The two McLarens did well to improve their times and grid positions in the second session, Hattori and the No.76 car moving into fifth and Kurosawa and the No.30 car to sixth. But few other cars in the GT500 class managed to improve on their morning times. The end result was a pole position for Takeuchi/Tachikawa and the No.1 Supra.
"The car ran very, just as we had planned. It was good that we were able to take the pole. I missed the pole here at Fuji in the previous race (Round 2) due to a personal mistake. We feel that the winning the title requires a win here in this round. So we're relieved to be starting from pole position," said Tachikawa after the sessions. Takeuchi commented, "TRD revised the car giving it a new geometry after the Sepang race. Thanks to that, it was a comfortable drive, and I'm confident we'll be able to drive hard in the race."
In the GT300 class, Kinoshita moved the No.24 Porsche to the top of the monitor in the afternoon session with a time of 1'34.088", and then the No.910 Porsche driven by Matsuda moved into first after lapping at 1'33.555". Kinoshita fought back, improving his best lap to 1'32.993" and moved back to the top of the time monitor.
The Vemac, already sitting with provisional pole for the class, again waited until the session was half finished before coming out onto the track. It was a repeat of the morning session when it did. Shibahara amazed the crowd with superb lap times of 1'32.172" and 1'31,765 before stopping for the day with the pole position in the bag. Shibahara and Mitsuyama will have their second pole start of the season.
Shibahara commented later, "The car has run well since the Thursday free practice sessions. We are using new tires that fit very well beginning from this event. Since we had no problem in setting good lap times, we were thinking it would be possible to take pole position."
Mitsuyama added, "I thought Shibahara could take the pole. Our feeling on the setup was that it is quite close, the conditions were very good for me too."
Two Silvias gave excellent performances in the last stage of the session: Yanagida placed the No.3 Silvia at the second on the grid with a best lap of 132.894" and Aoki in the No.81 car will start from third(1'32.924).
The 57-lap race will get underway with the green given at 14:45, Sunday July 28.
(From left) Yuji Tachikawa/Hironori Takeuchi (No.1), Shinsuke Shibahara/Shogo Shibahara (No.62)
Copyright 2002 JGTC.net. http://www.jgtc.net
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