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2003-09-14 |
Fill Top Three Slots on Starting Grid
Garaiya Takes First Pole Ever in GT300 Class
No.36 WOODONE TOM'S SUPRA
The qualifying sessions for the "MOTEGI GT CHAMPION RACE," the sixth round of the 2003 AUTOBACS JGTC, were held under unusually high temperatures for mid-September-the thermometer rising to 31-degrees Celsius by the start of the morning qualifying session. And mirroring the weather conditions, the 43 cars entered (GT500, 18; GT300, 25*) thrilled the fans who had gathered with heated battles for the poles, pushing their machines to the limit throughout the day. *27 GT300 cars registered for the race, however two withdrew before the event started.
In spite of being loaded with an additional 40kg weight handicap, Tsuchiya and the No.36 Supra were still quick and ran well from the outset of the morning session putting in a time of 1'47.485" in the first stage and moving to the top of the timing monitor. Motoyama, carrying the heaviest handicap in the sixth round, 110kg, kept the contention of the No.23 Skyline GT-R high with a fine 1'47.584". Treluyer in the No.12 Skyline and Wakisaka in the No.1 Supra were also fast in the morning. But after switching to a second set of tires, Tsuchiya pushed his Supra to the limit in his flying lap attack and improved his time to an impressive 1'47.277". Lyons took to the track in the No.22 Skyline (50kg handicap) planning to better the time of the Supra, but barely missed his mark with a time of 1'47.292", putting the car second on the monitor in the morning. "Yesterday, I was thinking that we would sit fourth in qualifying, but then I got a good lap when I pushed hard and we ended up with the second fastest lap. I really think that we're better off in fourth place considering the situation for the championship," said Lyons afterward.
Tachikawa put the No.38 Supra through a spin on his opening lap. "I did it on the first lap. The tires hadn't warmed up enough yet." Even so, his best time in the morning was a respectable 1'47.478" while carrying a handicap of 80kg. The surprise in the final moments of the session this time around came from the Honda camp. Ito took to the track in the No.16 NSX and thrilled the crowd with a fine 1'47.392 to move into a provisional third on the grid. The morning ended in the order of No.36 Supra (Tsuchiya), No.22 Skyline (Lyons), No.16 NSX (Ito) and No.38 Supra (Tachikawa) for the top four positions. The No.23 Nissan (Motoyama) ended the morning sitting seventh.
The temperature rose slightly higher before the start of the afternoon session, reaching 32-degrees Celsius and brining the track temperature up to around 41-degrees Celsius. As a result, conditions were not good for challenging the top times, although a few cars did manage to improve on personal best times. There was no change from the morning results for the top 10 cars, giving the driver pair Tsuchiya/Comas and the No.36 Supra the pole, and leaving the top three positions filled by cars from three manufacturers.
"This is my first GT500 pole position. I'm very happy to get it. We ran both sets of tires in the morning in order to concentrate setting up the race configuration in the afternoon. We want to win this race, " commented Tsuchiya afterward.
Comas added, "I think our car is very competitive. We were able to run in the 1'48s with full fuel conditions yesterday, and the lower 1'50s today when the track conditions were different. Takeshi (Tsuchiya) handles the qualifying, and I'm running with the full fuel conditions for the race. I think we both play our parts very well. As over 10 cars were all within a second in today's qualifying, I think there will be some definite confrontations in the first laps. But I'm sure that Takeshi will pass me the wheel with our car in first place."
No.43 ARTA Garaiya
Nitta reproduced the performance he gave in the No.43 Garaiya last month during the JGTC test sessions at Motegi, claiming the fastest lap in the morning (1'56.118") on his first set of tires. Sawa pushed the No.71 Celica hard in the morning as well, clocking the second fastest lap in the session with a best time of 1'56.557". "I was aim for pole position, but even though I made nearly no mistakes, the lap time wasn't fast enough. I guess the conditions were just not so good..."
Tanigawa was third fastest in the morning with a time of 1'56.718" for the No.77 Subaru, and the Driver's Championship points standing leaders, Yamaji and Nishizawa in the No.26 Porsche were fourth. Yamaji's fastest lap being 1'56.824". "It's been a long time, but I think we did fairly well in qualifying."
The No.11 Ferrari was fifth fastest in the session, Tanaka clocking a 1'57.021". "I thought I was running well, but others were even faster," said Tanaka after the session. "We had fuel problem appear since yesterday, and we're having to take measures to deal with it."
The extremely hot conditions in the afternoon had the same effect on the GT300 cars as those of the GT500. While a few drivers were able to improve their best times and grid position, no one was able to steal pole position from the No.43 car. Kinoshita gave an excellent performance with the No.3 Fairlady Z, setting the second fastest time in the afternoon (1'56.958") in spite of a 50kg handicap. The fastest car of the session was the No.71 Celica, this time driven by Tatsuya Kataoka, a new comer to the series. One of the top contenders of the Japanese F3 Championship (currently 2nd in points standing this season), Kataoka set a fine 1'56.939".
At the end of the day, Nitta and Takagi had finally attained the Garaiya' s first pole position. Nitta commented after the sessions: "There were three races at Fuji Speedway this year. Since our car suffers in straight speed, we had to wait for a race held a circuit without long straights. We, both drivers and the team, had our eyes set on this round, so I'm very happy to get the pole position."
Takagi said: "We were able to obtain sufficient data during the test sessions in August. I'm not at all anxious about the race, and I think everything will run smoothly."
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