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2002-11-16 |
Qualify Review
Close Contest for Final Pole of the Season Won by Wakisaka
with Fine High-speed Lap in Toyota Supra
Yanagida Powers His Way to GT300 Pole with Nissan Silvia
The curtain for the final round of the 2002 AUTOBACS Japan GT Championship (JGTC) rose at Suzuka Circuit on November 16th with the qualifying sessions for the "SUZUKA GT 300km." All 47 cars entered for the round were on the track fighting it out for best positions on the starting grid during the Saturday sessions. Bright sunny skies meant excellent conditions for the teams to work in, and 16 GT500 cars and seven GT300 cars broke the previous classes' course records. The overall best times of each class were from Juichi Wakisaka and the No.6 Toyota Supra (1'55.810") for the GT500 and Masataka Yanagida and the No.3 Nissan Silvia (2'07.121") for the GT300.| Morning Qualifying (Wether:Fine, Air Temp.:13C/Truck Temp.:18C, Course:Dry) |
The first qualifying session got the green light at 10:30a.m. Early onto the track were Dufour in the No.39 Supra, Yamanishi in the No.87 Mercedes Benz CLK and Apicella in the No.88 Lamborghini Diablo. These three cars had the track to themselves for nearly five minutes. At around 10 minutes into the session, one of the main pole candidates, Firman and the No.64 Honda NSX, left the pits. The best time up until this point was a 1'57.282" put in by Dufour. But team activity increased quickly and a number of the drivers began their trials in earnest. Firman ,carrying a 60kg handicap weight, shot around the track in 1'56.217" at 16 minutes into the session, putting the car on top temporarily. Other impressive times in the first qualifying were a pair of 1.56.579"s by Kaneishi in the No.8 NSX carrying 30kg of extra weight and Tachikawa in the No.1 Supra carrying 70kg. 1'56.696" by Lyons in the No.18 Honda (70kg). But the best time of the session came with just two minutes left, Junichi Wakisaka shot around the circuit in a marvelous lap of 1'55.811" carrying a handicap weight of 50kg in the No.6 Supra. Of the Michelin tire users, Kurosawa got in a time of 1'56.980"in the No.37 Supra.
In the GT300 class, Mifune and the No.5 Mosler got the GT300 class off to a good start in the morning, setting a fine 2'08.104" about five minutes on. But the name did not stay at the top of the timing monitor long, being replaced by Aoki in the No.81 Silvia with a lap of 2'07.609". Nitta, carrying a 50kg handicap in the No.31 Toyota MR-S, set a lap of 2'08.765", and Matsuda got in a decent time for the Porsches, 2'08.802". Kwan, too, faired well with the No.15 BMW in the morning session, claiming a fine 2'08.719" and putting the car at 5th at that time.
Mifune dropped his best time nearly as second 13 minutes after the start of the session, timing a respectable 2'07.205". Yanagida kept the No.3 Silvia in close contention just a tenth of a second off Mifune's time with a lap of 2'07.308". Behind him was Sawa and the No.71 Toyota with a 2'07.508". In the last moments of the session, Yanagida seemingly ignored the fact that he was carrying the handicap limit in the GT300 class (80kg), as he sped around the track in 2'07.121".
The quickest driver in the session was Yanagida, followed by Mifune, Aoki and Nitta. Nitta also did well to improve his time by seven-tenths (2'08.052") in the first session.
This year's frequent pole sitter and leader in the Driver's Championship points, the No.62 Vemac, is not only carrying the maximum 80kg handicap weight, the car has been imposed additional performance adjustments (i.e., smaller air restrictors and extra weight) in accordance to regulations following its good results in the last two rounds.
The only real incidents in the morning happened about eight minutes before the end of qualifying. The No.2 Honda and No.62 Vemac went off the track and into the gravel at the 130R and the No.22 Skyline GT-R suffered a spin in the Chicane as nearly the same time.
| Afternoon Qualifying (Wether:Fine, Air Temp.:14C/Truck Temp.:16C, Course:Dry) |
The afternoon session started at 3:00p.m. The first cars out in the afternoon were the GT300 class. Not much change was seen from the standings following the end of the morning session, although Sawa and the No.71 Toyota did manage to improve on the morning time, putting a best lap of 2'07.317" and Shibahara bettered the morning time of the No.62 Vemac, showing the car's strong potential with the third fastest lap of the session (2'07.904") and placing the car at 5th on the grid in the GT300 class.
In the GT500 period of the afternoon session, Yamanishi improved the best time for the No.87 Mercedes, dropping a couple tenths off the time to 2'04.991, but it wasn't enough to get the car inside the qualifying time cut. The only other car not to make the cut for the race was the No.4 Corvette(GT300).
The true battle for the pole position in the class came with about 10 minutes left in the session. Hattori did his best to challenge, but only managed to get the time of the No.76 car down to 1'58.580". With five minutes remaining, Kurosawa clocked a 1'56.390" in the No.37 Supra and Lyons pushed hard to come up with a 1'56.000" in the No.18 Honda. But it was Firman and the No.64 NSX that shown in the final moments, flying around the track in only 1'55.740", just beating out Wakisaka who did an impressive 1'55.810". A last-minute judgment put an end to any celebration in Firman's pit however, as the pole position was lost due to a penalty received for taking a shortcut at the Chicane. The pole went to Wakisaka and Iida in the No.6 Toyota Supra.Juichi Wakisaka :"As you can see, the car was perfect. I didn't try for the pole consciously. I just wanted to get a point, which is given to the top three cars. The team gave me the go-ahead to go all out, and that's what I did, without any problem at all. This pole gave us confidence for the race."
Akira Iida : "As the team, as Toyota, we are running at Suzuka with optimum conditions. I feel that the car is running really well. Not only for the qualifying but also for the race, our prospects are bright. I hope we can maintain these same conditions in the race."
Masataka Yanagida :"We were running well at the beginning yesterday, but then we had engine problems in the afternoon. I didn't have any problems with the car this morning, but I wasn't fully satisfied with my driving performance. Nevertheless, I'm happy to get the pole position. I think we'll do well in the race. Good results come from the effort, so we just need to do what needs to be done right."
Tetsuya Yamano : "I feel that the car is good. I'm impressed how much the grip of the car has improved. The suspension is working very well, which has improved cornering speed. Mr. Hasemi is a great guy and engineer, and the mechanics are great as well. They made a very fine set-up of the suspension and aerodynamics. "
(From left) A.Iida/J.Wakisaka (No.6), M.Yanagida/T.Yamano (No.3)
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