2008 SUPER GT Round7

Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 28°C | Track Temp. 37°C

Quintarelli dominated the first qualifying session

The morning qualifying session began at 10:10 under clear skies with a dry track. Because this round employs a “Knock Out” qualifying system, the main purpose of the first session is to have both drivers of each team clear the qualifying time. Also, because the Knock Out system requires that both drivers participate in the timed laps, most teams had their driver who would not normally be driving the timed laps in the Super Lap system drive the in the first of the Knock Out sessions.

In the GT500 class, the No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) scored a top time of 1 min. 45.128 sec. This same car had been much faster than the others cars in the practice on Friday, and once again it was 0.5 seconds faster than the next fastest qualifier. Running next fastest was the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman), while third fastest was the No. 35 houzan KRAFT SC430 (Tatsuya Kataoka), giving each of the makes - GT-R, NSX and SC430 - a car in the top three.

In the GT300 class, the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido) ran the top time with a 1 min. 55.240 sec. lap only to have a regulation violation found in the machine afterwards that disqualified that time. This moved the second fastest No. 110 KUMHO BOXSTER-GT (Hidetoshi Mitsusada) into the top position, with the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama) and the No. 66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 (Koji Yamanishi) in 3rd filling out the top three.
As for the No. 808 Hatsune Miku Studie GLAD BMW Z4 that had developed oil system trouble the previous day, repairs could not be completed in time and the team had to give up participation in this round.

Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 29° | Track Temp. 39°

Quintarelli fastest in all sessions to take pole position

The afternoon qualifying began at 14:50. There were scattered clouds overhead in the morning but the sun was still hot, making the air temperature 29 degrees C. and the track surface temperature 39 degrees C. at the start of the session.

In the Knock Out system employed to determine grid position in this round, the first 15-minute session was for the GT300 class machines, followed by a 15-minute session for the GT500 class. The top 20 GT300 class qualifiers and the top 12 GT500 class qualifiers in this session proceeded to the next session. After a 7-minute break the second knock-out session began, again with the GT300 class running first for 10 minutes, followed by the 10-minute GT500 session. From this, eight GT500 cars and 10 GT300 cars proceed to the final session. After another 7-minute interval a 10-minute session was run again for each class, beginning with the GT300, to determine the class pole positions and the remaining starting grid positions.
During this time the teams can remove and replace tires, refuel and do other pit work, but they cannot change to a new set of tires. For this reason, some teams were seen removing heated up tires after their timed laps and mounting them again after cooling them off.

In the first GT500 class session the No. 32 EPSON NSX developed radiator trouble. Unable to run a timed lap, this car will start tomorrow's race from the very back of the grid. Meanwhile, the No. 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430, No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R and the No. 17 REAL NSX were knocked out in this session and lost their chance to run in the next session.
Knocked out in the second session due partially to their heavy loads of handicap weights were the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, the No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX and the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX. Unable to find good machine settings, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 was also knocked out in this session.
In the third session for the eight remaining machines, the No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) ran the fastest lap at 1 min. 44.548 sec. to win the pole position, while the rest were unable to break the 1 min. 45 sec. barrier. No. 3 was also the fastest machine in the first session with Yokomizo driving and in the second session with Quintarelli driving. Including the morning's session and the Friday practice sessions, the No. 3 car was fastest in every session it ran. For the HASEMI MOTOR SPORT team, this is their first pole position since round six of last season, and for Quintarelli it is the first pole of his Super GT/JGTC career.

Qualifying second was the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman), which had held the fastest time until it was bettered by Quintarelli near the end of the session. Meanwhile, the 3rd position went to the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 driven by Bjorn Wirdheim, who bettered his time on the last timed lap to win the team its best grid position of the season. These results gave the GT-R, NSX and SC430 a place among the top three.

No.26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE

Nobuteru Taniguchi comes from behind to grab GT300 class pole

In the GT300 class, the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 drivers Manabu Orido and Tsubasa Abe both got their qualifying times in the morning session, with Orido recording the fastest time of the session at 1 min. 54.634 sec. However, a regulation violation was found in their car afterwards that disqualified that time and left the tem to start from the very back of the grid for tomorrow's race.
In this class, five machines were knocked out in the first session and ten machines in the second session based on lap times. The remaining ten machines then competed for grid position n the third session, where the No. 110 KUMHO BOXSTER-GT (Hidetoshi Mitsusada), the No. 66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 (Koji Yamanishi), the No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa) bettered each other's times one after another. With a few minutes remaining in the session, the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Kato) looked to have won the pole position until Taniguchi in car No. 26 ran a 1 min. 55.751 sec. lap to grab the lead away from No. 2. After that, Kato in No. 2 made another attempt and bettered his best time but still failed to better Taniguchi's time.
With this result, the class pole position went to the No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE. This will put No. 26 on the front row with a chance to take its second win in a row, after winning here at Motegi last year. Starting from 2nd position on the grid will be the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden, wile the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R starts from 3rd position.