2008 SUPER GT Round8

Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 21°C | Track Temp. 29°C

First Qualifying interrupted by red flag

The first qualifying session began at 10:20. The weather was fair and the track was completely dry. The temperature at the start of the session was 21 degrees C. and the track surface temperature was 29 degrees.

The first 20 minutes was for the GT300 class. No.11 JIMCENTER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka) was the first to attempt a serious timed lap and recorded a 1 min. 51.505 sec. circuit that set it more than a 0.5 sec. faster than the rest. After that the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) made a shot for the lead. Driving the Shiden machine that had crashed in yesterday's practice and was only able to run again after a full night of repair work, Katoh drove with abandon and managed to record a 1min. 51.615 sec. lap to move into second position behind No. 11.
Through the rest of the GT300 session and the mixed session there were no changes in the positions of the top ten. From 1st to 10th the order was, the No.11 JIMCENTER ADVAN F430, No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden, No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Z, No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE, No.43 ARTA Garaiya, No. 19 WedsSport IS350, No.4 EBBRO UEMATSU 320R, No.46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z, No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE and the No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R.

The next 20 minutes were for the GT500 class. With 8 minutes remaining in the session, the GT500 machines took to the track with the No.32 EPSON NSX (Loic DUVAL) in front and the serious timed laps began. The No.22 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Michael Krumm) was the first to run a time in the 1 min. 40 sec. range with a 1min, 40.472 sec. lap and assume the lead. This became the target time for the other teams as they ran their laps one after another until an accident occurred and brought out the red flag. After running the fastest time yet over the first sector, Andre Couto in machine No. 39 ran off the track at the curve just before the 1st hairpin and collided tail-first into the crash barrier and came to a stop. This brought the session to a stop as well.
Fortunately, Couto was unhurt and after his machine was towed off the session resumed. But, at this point there was only about 1min, 30sec. left in the GT500 class session. The teams that had everything riding on their last time trial were forced to run it crowed track conditions.

Also, since the clock had not stopped immediately when the red flag came out, it caused a serious delay in calculating the overall results of the team standings. Eventually the tentative results were not officially announced until less than one hour before the Super Lap was scheduled to begin. Those results included a regulation violation on the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R machine (rear wing height) that disqualified all its first session times. Also, a deceleration violation when he red flag was out caused the No. 17 REAL NSX to lose one position to 11th place. These results made the No. 32 EPSON NSX the 1st qualifier for the morning session, followed in order by the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO GT-R, No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX, No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R, No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430, No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430, No. 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430, No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX, No. 35 houzan KRAFT SC430 and the No. 1 ARTA NSX to fill out the top ten.

Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 24° | Track Temp. 34°

Benoit Treluyer runs a perfect lap to grab pole position

The second qualifying session began at 14:30. The first 15 min. were for the GT300 class and the next 15 min. for the GT500 class. The No. 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 team had lost its chance to get a qualifying time for Toranosuke Takagi due to Andre Couto's accident in the morning session. But Takagi was able to get his qualifying time during this session and win the team the right to participate in Sunday's race.

Next began the Super Lap session of the GT300 class. The first runner was the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa), recording a 1 min. 52.030 sec. lap. This became the initial target time. The next three machines were unable to beat No. 62's time, but the fifth runner, the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido) ran the fastest sector times yet and went on to record a 1 min. 51.445 sec. lap, knocking more than 0.5 sec. off No. 62's time to take the lead at that point. The morning's third fastest qualifier, the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Z (Takayuki Aoki) then ran very fast over the second sector to record a 1 min. 51.241 sec. time and take the lead from No. 19. The second fastest qualifier from the morning, the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) was next to run and proved fast over the third sector but was unable to make up for its slower first and second sectors and ended up with a 1 min. 51.438 sec. lap, not fast enough to better No. 81's time. This put No. 2 in second position with one machine left to run.
The final runner up, Tetsuya Tanaka in the No. 11 JIMCENTER ADVAN F430, made a slight mistake at the first corner but recovered to run the second and third sectors of the course faster than his rivals and come home with a 1 min. 50.939 sec. lap that gave him the pole position, as the only driver to break into the 1 min. 50 sec. range.

The GT500 class Super Lap began with the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman). Although the team had only managed to qualify 10th in the morning session, Firman ran his Supper lap with no mistakes and recorded a 1 min. 40.943 sec. time. After that, the next seven machines were unable to better Firman's time until Benoit Treluyer in the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO GT-R outran his rivals over all three sectors of the course to record a 1 min. 40.476 sec. and take the provisional pole.
The fastest qualifier from the morning session, the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval), did its best to better this time but apparently was unable to get its tires completely warmed up and could only produce a 1 min. 41.201 sec. time. This put it in 3rd position behind No. 23 and No.1.
As a result, the No. 3 XANAVI NISMO GT-R took its second pole position of the season, following one t round two at Okayama. This puts the team in good position to shoot for their third win of the season.

The next three places in the starting grid went to the NSX machines, with the No. 1 ARTA NSX 2nd, the No. 32 EPSON NSX 3rd and the No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX in 4th position. These are followed by the No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R in 5th position and highest qualifier among the SC430 machines, the No. 35 houzan KRAFT SC430 in 6th position. The No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430, which presently stands in 2nd place in the season ranking, qualified 7th and the 5th ranked No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 qualified 10th. This puts these two SC430 teams in a rather difficult starting position for tomorrow's race.

No. 11 JIMCENTER ADVAN F430