   |
 |
2003-07-12 |
for Malaysian JGTC at Fuji Speedway
Celica Gains First Pole in GT300 Class
No.38 au CERUMO SUPRA
The fourth round of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC, the "Malaysian JGTC at Fuji Speedway," got underway today (July 12) with qualifying sessions completed under a cloudy sky. This round is organized as a two-race event, a first in the history of the JGTC. The results of the qualifying sessions decided the starting grid of the first race, and that of the second race will be decided based on the results of the first race and will also require a pitstop for refueling...
Immediately after the first qualifying session started in the morning, Schwager clocked a 1'25.241" on his third lap and put the No.39 Supra at the top of the timing monitor. Motoyama in the No.23 Skyline GT-R and Matsuda in the No.64 NSX sat second and third, respectively. Shortly after, however, Motoyama set a time of 1'25.156" and moved to the top, but many teams wait until the final minutes of a session to set their flying laps...
At 14 minutes into the session, the No.8 Honda NSX went off the track and got stuck in a gravel bed, bringing out the red flag and stopping the session momentarily. When the session restarted, Tachikawa and the No.38 Supra were sitting in the provisional pole with a lap time of 1'24.324". In the remaining six minutes, however, Supras drivers began setting quicker and quicker times. Dufour put in a 1'25.048" in the No.25 Supra, Tsuchiya's fastest was 1'24.464" in the No.36 car, Hattori and the No.35 car did a lap of 1'24.514" and Kurosawa got in a lap of 1'24.632" in the No.37 Supra, filling the top four places. Lyons took the No.22 Skyline into fifth with a 1'24.999",and he was followed by Treluyer in the No.12 Skyline (1'25.035"). The quickest Honda was the No.18 NSX (Michigami), sitting ninth with a 1'25.167".
Teams worked hard to improve lap times in the afternoon session, but few managed to do better. Among them, Treluyer set a time of 1'25.034" in the No.12 Skyline GT-R, and improvement of just 0.001sec! Schwager was 0.049sec quicker in his best lap for the No.39 Supra. None of the Honda drivers could under Michigami's best lap time in the afternoon, and so the No.18 NSX will start from tenth on the grid as the fastest in the Honda camps.
Combined results, revealed the driver pair of Takeuchi and Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra on the pole and the top five places on the starting grid occupied by Toyota Supras. The No.22 Skyline GT-R (Kageyama-Lyons) will start from sixth position.
Yuji Tachikawa : "The car is running fairly well so far this season and we got good results in the qualifying sessions. But the results of the races (smiling wryly)... We don't have any weight handicap, and we got the pole position as planned."
Hironori Takeuchi : "Honestly, distinctions between us regarding the car set-up became clear this year... It's a bit hard for me to drive with Tachikawa's setup. It's better than usual because I can run with my own set-up in this race. We're currently looking to find a setup that compromises.."
No.19 WedsSport CELICA
The Ferrari 360 Modena and driver Tanaka became the center of attention throughout the circuit qualifying day. In the closing moments of the GT300 class stint in the morning session, Tanaka sprinted around the track in 1'24.689", setting a new circuit record for the GT300.
"Thanks to the team mechanics who worked so hard until late, I was able to set that lap the Celica broke Yamaji's best time clocking a 1'32.099". RACING PROJECT BANDOH seems to have done an excellent job of developing this new car, which made its debut at the previous round.
Yamaji fought hard to improve on his best lap, setting a 1'32.405", but he couldn't beat the lap of the No.19 car. Driving the No.34 Toyota MR-S, Matsuda sat in third with a time of 1'32.467", followed by Tanaka in the No.11 Ferrari (1'32.937"). Yanagida moved the No.3 Fairlady Z into second performing impressively with a lap time of 1'32.283". The No.43 Garaiya was seventh with a 1'33. 176" by Nitta.
The second session was held under dry conditions, but black clouds covered the entire circuit, cooling the track and letting few drivers improve on their best laps set in the first session. Yamada clocked a 1'32.762" in the No.55 Viper and Sasaki a 1'33.421" n the No.31 MR-S. In the end, the pole position for the GT300 class went to the driver pair of Aoki/Tanaka in the No.19 Celica.
"We knew that the potential of the car was high when we were at Sugo. We tested for this race beforehand, and we managed to clean up the problems in the early stage of development. So we were confident that we could get the pole position today," commented Aoki. Tanaka added, "I did nothing today except cheer from the pit (laughing). I think the first thing here is that two Toyota cars got pole positions on Toyota's home track."
 BACK |
 HOME |
mail : info@jgtc.net