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2003-05-04 |
Back-to-back Victories for TAISAN ADVAN in GT300
No.22 MOTUL PITWORK GT-R
Some 66,000 fans made their way to Fuji International Speedway for Round 2 of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC on Sunday May 4. Fine blue skies and summer-like temperatures welcomed them, and the JGTC provided an excellent day of entertainment with intense competition from the green to the checkered flag. Driver pair of M. Kageyama and R. Lyons gave a fantastic performance in their No.22 Skyline GT-R, taking the lead in the second half of the 114 lap-race and controlling to the finish line, bringing a long awaited victory to the NISMO team in the GT500 class. It was a grand day for the TAISAN ADVAN team of the GT300 class. S. Yamaji and K. Nishizawa played out their strategy well for the long 500km race and drove their Porsche GT3R to a second, consecutive victory for TAISAN ADVAN.
Tachikawa shot off the line from the pole putting the No.38 Supra into the lead from the green. Setting into a fast pace from the start, he held onto the lead without a serious challenge from the pack. Wakisaka was first driver for the No.1 Supra, winner of the opening round at TI Aida, and was in good position to challenge but returned to the pits just two laps after the start with a wobbling left front wheel. Team mechanics worked long and hard on the steering problem, and the car returned to the race far back in the field and finished 30th overall (12th in the class).
The No.36 Supra driven by Tsuchiya moved into second, but he too pitted due to a wobbling left front wheel. The problem with the No.36 car, however, was simply due to broken wheel lugs. Even so, they lost 6 laps of precious time in the pit before returning to the race. Tsuchiya and Comas fought hard to regain position. They ran at nearly the same pace as the leaders throughout the race, but only managed to bring the car back up to 10th by the checkered flag. The team's second car, the No.37 Supra, returned to the pits while Kurosawa was behind the wheel. Problem... left front tire, again! That compounded by a penalty assessed for passing through the red zone (white-striped markings area) at the entrance to the pit lane while Apicella was driving made it difficult to challenge in the race.
The No.22 Skyline GT-R settled into third after the green, and Kageyama did well running in the top group throughout his stint. An amazing effort by Treluyer brought the No.12 GT-R from 10th on the grid to second by lap 17. He held onto the position until passing the wheel to Ide during the routine stop.
The Honda NSXs were guaranteed a hard race from the onset of qualifying. The quickest car among them, the No.64 car driven by Matsuda, ran at a best 11th in the first half of the race.
The routine stops started around lap 40, and the leader Tachikawa passed the wheel of the No.38 car to Takeuchi on lap 42. Takeuchi wasted no time in regaining the lead after leaving the pits, but by mid-stage through the race the gaps between the top three cars were extremely close. The wheel of the No.22 Skyline was passed to Lyons for the second stint, and the young Nissan driver gave a brilliant performance, catching up with and overtaking Takeuchi mid-race.
On lap 61, bad luck came to the Hondas. A left rear tire blowout put Michigami and the No.18 NSX through a spin in the last corner, and Coronel in the No.16 NSX, running on the tail of Michigami, could not avoid bumping him. Both cars went crashing off the course at the top of the straight.
A sudden loss of grip by the left rear tire of Takeuchi's Supra sent the No.38 car skidding off the course and bumping into the trackside sponge barrier. There was a superb job of maintaining control, however, and Takeuchi returned to the track. The right front fender was damaged and the car was flagged on lap 76 officially ordering the car to return to the pits for repairs, but the Supra did not pit until 4 laps later, "I didn't see the flag," commented Takeuchi. When Takeuchi pitted on lap 80 to turnover the wheel to Tachikawa, the car was black flagged for ignoring the orange-balled pit flag earlier and excluded from the race.
In the final laps of the race, Lyons was out in front in the No.22 GT-R, Ide in second in the No.12 GT-R and the No.39 Supra with Schwager behind the wheel running in third.
The No.23 Skyline driven by Krumm thrilled the crowd with a last minute push to overtake the No.39 Toyota. He ran consistently faster in the last laps reducing the gap between the two cars to within a second. But the German Toyota driver beat off the challenge to prevent a clean sweep of the podium by Skyline GT-Rs.
At the finish line it was the No.22 GT-R crossing first, the No.12 GT-R second, and No.39 Supra in third. The best finish for Honda was sixth for the No.64 NSX, and the No.62 Vemac, drivers S. Shibahara and S. Mitsuyama, finished its GT500 debut race in 11th.
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"First of all, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the mechanics for their hard work this weekend," said Kageyama after the race. "I was delighted to be able to show the Nissan and Skyline fans a 'Quick Skyline GT-R.'" Lyons commented, "The entire team did a good job for this race. Masami and I gave 100 % of our effort too. I knew that the 2003 version of the Skyline would be quick, so I was confident that we'd have a good result today. I tried not to push too much, save the tires as much as possible and use the engine and gearbox carefully to ensure that we finished the race. I felt that if we could finish, we would have a good result."
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The No.26 Porsche controlled the race from early on, Yamaji driving the first and last stints and Nishizawa running the mid-race leg. Both drivers gave their best efforts to bring the car to the checkered flag first. The No.3 Nissan Fairlady Z put in a fantastic performance, and there was a last-chance attempt to challenge the veteran German car in the final laps of the race. But the with each passing lap, as the Fairlady increased speed so did Yamaji in the Porsche.
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"We knew the set-up of the car was good and mechanics worked hard," said Yamaji after the race. "I drove at a quicker pace than we had planned. With the 500km race distance, I was worried about the tires, but performance was good at the end of the race too. I think we owe this victory to Yokohama Tires." Nishizawa commented, "This is my first victory. I was certain that the Nissan Fairlady would be our direct rival. When I saw the Nissan coming onto the course just behind me, I was confident that I could get the job done. We have a really good engine this year."
Regarding the Fairlady performance, Kinoshita commented, "The car has shown much improvement. We will catch up with the Porsche soon."
The fight for third was between the newly introduced Garaiya, driven by Nitta and Takagi, and the No.11 Ferrari 360 driven by Matsuda and Tanaka. It looked as if the Ferrari might take the podium, but extra time was required to fix a seatbelt during a pit stop, giving the Garaiya third at the finish line.
"Tires were relatively good, but we suffered from a lack of top speed on the straight," said Nitta after the race.
Round 3 of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC will be at Sportsland SUGO on May 24 and 25.
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