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2003-07-13 |
Skyline GT-Rs Score Another 1-2 Victory
Dodge Viper Nabs Its First in GT300 Class
No.12 CALSONIC SKYLINE / No.22 MOTUL PITWORK SKYLINE
Due to poor weather conditions, the event schedule for Round Four was changed: the length of the first race being reduced from 30 laps down to 20, and that of the second race from 50 to 30, and the requisite fuel stop was dropped from the second race as well.
Driver pair B.Treluyer/Yuji Ide gave a brilliant performance throughout the day piloting their No.12 Skyline GT-R to victory in both races. In the GT300 class, E.Yamada and T.Kinoshita got taste of victory as well, and gave the Chrysler Viper GTSR its first victory in the JGTC Series.
Takeuchi shot off the line from the pole and powered the No.38 Supra into the first corner in the lead, followed by Comas in the No.36 Supra, Hattori in the No.35 Supra and Ide in the No.12 Skyline GT-R. Tire choice turned out to have a heavy influence by day's end. It was the Bridgestone light rain tire that showed impressively in the first stage of the race. Ide seemed to have no problem with the wet, and the same seemed to go for Motoyama in the No.23 Skyline, both machines running very quick. Ide bypassed his Supra rivals and took the lead on lap 4, with Motoyama (No.23) and Kageyama (No.22 Skyline) was not far behind in third and fourth respectively by the end of the same lap.
The No.36 Supra was suffering from tire grip, so Comas pitted after four laps to switch of slicks. The stop was costly, making him fall from second to 17th, but the French driver's veteran skills shined as he came back out onto the track and began fighting his way back up through the field. He finished the race in a hard fought for seventh place and claimed the fastest lap in the race in the process.
But it was the Skyline GT-Rs that caught the eyes of the 41,000 spectators who had braved the threatening skies. Especially the No.12 car. Ide challenged immediately and was sitting in fifth at the end of the first lap and leading the race by the end of the fourth lap. After that, he kept a 2-3 second gap between him and the car running in second and took the checkered flag for the victory. The two Skyline GT-Rs enter by NISMO were also running well. Both Motoyama in the No.23 Skyline and Kageyama in the No.22 car moved swiftly from eighth and sixth on the grid, respectively. Midway through the race, Kageyama overtook for second and Motoyama fourth. In the final laps, Motoyama pushed hard again, caught up with his teammate and passed him.
No.39 DENSO SARD SUPRA
Schwager, behind the wheel of the No.39 car, and Shibahara, in the No.62 car, worked the field and improved their positions in the second half of the race. Both were running on slicks. Schwager crossed the line of lap 18 in fifth and Shibahara in fourth, but the German driver displayed brilliant overtaking on the last lap, passing two Skyline GT-Rs and finishing in second place.
Minoru Tanaka kept the No.19 Celica in the lead for the initial laps of the race, followed by Nishizawa in the No.26 Porsche, Asai in the No.24 Porsche and Matsuda in the No.11 Ferrari. But Matsuda put on a good show of speed in the Ferrari and took the lead of the class. But from far back in the group came the challenge of the day. Kinoshita was in the groove and consistently improving position lap by lap. Having started from eighth on the grid, he broke into the lead by mid-race. Yanagida fought courageously in the Nissan Fairlady Z as well, bringing the No.3 car into second on lap 9, where he focused on chasing down Kinoshita. Persistence paid, and the two cars fought a side-by-side battle for first place. Yanagida pulled it off and got by the Viper for the first race victory. Third place went to the No.81 Silvia driven by Uematsu, who suffered a spin in the opening lap but battled his way back courageously to finish on the podium in the end.
The second race started in the rain. Orido came off the line well and put the No.39 Supra in the lead from front row. He was closely followed by Treluyer in the No.12 Skyline, Krumm in the No.23 Skyline and Lyons in the No.22 Skyline. The slick wet track gave way to numerous spins and accidents in the afternoon. Apicella put the No.37 Supra through a spin on the opening lap. This was followed by a spectacular accident involving the No.100 NSX and No.88 Lamborghini on lap 2. Mitsusada was coming to the end of the straight in his Honda when he lost control due to hydroplaning. He shot straight off the track, past the green along the first corner and into the track again, where he crashed hard into the Yamanishi in the Lamborghini. Fortunately neither of the drivers was injured. The Safety Car was introduced and the yellow maintained until the end of lap 7.
Orido, Treluyer and Lyons got into an exciting battle immediately after the re-start of the race. But after Treluyer took the lead ahead of Lyons, the two Nissan drivers began to pull away from the rest of the field while engaging in a private slip-stream battle. Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra and Krumm in the No.23 Skyline overtook steadily as well, moving up to third and fourth, respectively. Krumm overtook Tachikawa in the last stage of the race, but then suddenly lost speed. "The front window fogged up," commented the German driver after the race. He finished the race in seventh, but even so, the No.23 is now tied first for the championship points standing, and a handicap weight that is 20kg lighter than the No.1 car. Treluyer finished first, ahead of Lyons. Third place went to Tachikawa, who was over 40 seconds behind Lyons.
In the overall results, the driver pair of Benoit Treluyer and Yuji Ide won the event. Second place went to Kageyama - Lyons in the No.22 Skyline, and third was Schwager - Orido in the No.39 Supra.
Treluyer commented after the race: "Many drivers don't like the rain, but I enjoy it. After the re-start on lap 8, we never really pushed too hard. Just concentrated on keeping the car on the track. I really wanted to win this race. Even if I had finished in second place, we would have been first overall, so I didn't really feel any pressure."
Yuji Ide: "I was confident to run well in the race because we set good lap times in the morning warm-up session under rainy conditions. We hesitated about whether to use slick tires or intermediate tires, and we choose the intermediates because we didn't need to take any unreasonable risk. I drove thinking about trying to overtake the cars in front of me, and without considering the race results. That let me find my rhythm."
No.55 ECLIPSE TAISAN ADVAN VIPER
Tetsuya Tanaka in the No.11 Ferrari, Yamada in the No.55 Viper and Mistuhiro Kinoshita in the No.3 Fairlady were the top three throughout the first half of the race. Tanaka and Yamada had an excellent slipstream battle mid-stage in race. But Tanaka finally took the lead and increased the gap over second placed Yamada who was caught up by Yamaji in the No.26 Porsche. The Porsche overtook the Viper in the last stage of the race but Yamaji gave the way to his teammate Yamada on the last lap and the top three drivers finished in at order.
For overall results, Eiji Yamada/Takayuki Kinoshita in the No.55 Viper won the race. Yamada commented afterward. "I'm really happy to win the race. Personally I like American cars very much and I own an American car. I was really glad when I overtook a Ferrari in a Viper. But the rear of the car had tend to slide, I was overtook again by the Ferrari."
Kinoshita said :"This is the first victory for the Viper in the JGTC for its seventh year. I breath easier and I'm happy to win an All-Japan status race. To tell the truth, I wanted to use slick tires."
Round5 of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC will be at Fuji International Speedway on August 2 and 3.
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