2009 Round1>Qualifying

2009 SUPER GT Round1

Qualifying

2009-03-21

ZENT CERUMO SC430 Wins Pole Position!
GT300 class pole goes to JIMGAINER ADVAN F430!

On March 21, the official qualifying was held for the OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE, Round 1 of the 2009 AUTOBACS SUPER GT. In the GT500 class, the pole position was won the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa. The GT300 class pole position went to the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 driven by Tetsuya Tanaka.

ENEOS SC430 fastest in the morning practice

Because of the elimination of the Friday practice sessions this season, practice is held on qualifying day (Saturday) for two hours beginning at 9:00 a.m. With good weather from the early morning, the track condition was dry. In this session, the fastest time among the GT500 class machines was run by the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito) at 1 min. 24.367 sec. The second and third fastest times were run by the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) respectively, giving the SC430 camp a sweep of the top three times.
The fastest among the GT-R teams was the No. 12 IMPUL CALSONIC GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) in 4th position, while the fastest time recorded by an NSX machine was the 1 min. 25.299 sec. lap run by the No. 8 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman) , which was the 7th fastest overall.
About 40 minutes into the practice session the No. 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) ran off the course at the first corner and came to a stop after hitting the sponge barrier. This brought out the red flag to stop the session for a while. Fortunately there was no serious injury to the rider or damage to the machine.
The fastest time recorded in the GT300 class in this session was the 1 min. 32.526 sec. lap run by the No. 19 Weds Sport IS350 (Manabu Orido) . The second fastest time was the 1 min. 32.532 sec. lap of the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi) .
Third fastest in this class was the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki) . This round marked the SUPER GT debut of the FIA GT spec Ferrari F430. This is a machine that has already proven itself in other race categories and, thus, it is very likely to be a serious contender in the class this season.

No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430

Flat tire keeps PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 from running a time attack

The first qualifying session began at 13:15 in the early afternoon. The eight fastest qualifiers in this session won the right to compete in the following Super Lap. The Super Lap began as scheduled at 14:45 with the GT300 class, and at 15:15 for the GT500 class.
In the GT500 Super Lap, the first session's fastest runner, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa, was once again the fastest, with a time of 1 min. 24.069 sec. This gave Tachikawa his first pole position since Round 8 of the 2007 season at Autopolis and the 14th of his career, which extends his own record for most pole positions by a single driver in SUPER GT competition.
Second fastest in the GT500 class Super Lap was the No. 35 KRAFT SC430 driven by Hiroaki Ishiura, and third fastest was the No. 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R driven by Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira. As the only GT-R to qualify for the Super Lap, the No. 24 car did its part. The other GT-R teams had failed to make their timed laps when they wished in the first qualifying session because of the yellow flag that came out when a car ran off the track, and had thus been unable to qualify for the Super Lap. As a result of their times from that first session, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R will start the race from 9th position on the grid and the No. 12 IMPUL CALSONIC GT-R from 10th position. However, these machines will not be subject to the regulation that demands Super Lap qualifiers to start the race with the same set of tires they ran the Super Lap on. Thus, they will be able to start the race with a fresh set of tires. So, they will be trying to make up ground with that advantage.
One mishaps occurred in the GT500 Super Lap, when the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 to be driven by Andre Lotterer suffered a slow puncture and was unable to make its Super Lap run. As a result, this team got no official time and will start from 8th position on the grid in Sunday's race.
Four of the five NSX machines in the competition qualified for the GT500 Super Lap. Although this was thanks in part to the misfortunes of the GT-R teams, it also showed that they have overcome some of the difficulties they were experiencing in the pre-season tests in a very short period of time.
Meanwhile, the No. 39 DUNLOP SARD SC430 developed transmission trouble in the first qualifying session. As a result, driver Kohei Hirate was only able to run two laps and Andre Couto was not able to run at all.
Also, driver Takeshi Tsuchiya of the No. 21 ASTON MARTIN AKASAKA DBR9 was able to record the 14th fastest qualifying time, but his teammate Akihiro Tsuzuki was unable to clear the qualifying time standard.
In the GT300 class qualifying, the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 driven by Tetsuya Tanaka rose from 4th position in the first session to run the fastest time in the GT300 Super Lap, with a 1 min. 31. 860 sec. lap. This gave the Ferrari F430 the class pole position.
After running the fastest time in the first qualifying session, the No. 19 Weds Sport IS350 (Manabu Orido) fell to second position in the Super Lap with a time of 1 min. 31. 964 sec. Last year's GT300 champions, the No. 46 S Road MOLA Z (Kazuki Hoshino) finished 7th in the Super Jap. Finishing in 8th position was a new machine debuting this season, the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Takuto Iguchi) .
The No. 808 HATSUNE MIKU Studie GLAD BMW Z4 was unable to clear the qualifying standard.

Richard Lyons/Yuji Tachikawa , Tetsuya Tanaka/Katuyuki Hiranaka

GT500 Class | Pole Position

No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430

Yuji Tachikawa: I was aiming to qualify fastest this time. Last year I wasn't able to win a single pole position, and I was not satisfied with that. In the pre-opener tests the machine had been performing well and I was thinking that I had a good chance to win the pole position from the opening round. Ishiura (No. 35 KRAFT SC430) had run a fast time and there was some pressure because of that, but the machine condition was really good and I was able to get a faster time. The weather may affect tomorrow's race, but since I've won the PP I want to see us run to victory from the front."
Richard Lyons: This pole position is a good result for our team. It means we will be starting from the front row, which is very important in the race. The plan is for me to start the race as first driver, so I want to get a good start and push hard from there.

GT300 Class | Pole Position

No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430

Tetsuya Tanaka: This is the first time in some years that I am racing in a new car, and it is the first one that our team has been involved in the design and construction of. It has been a big job for the mechanics as a result, but I think this proves that it was worth it. I want to thank the [team] owner for this too. Before the Super Lap I was just hoping to place in the front row, but after my lap I thought that we could win the pole position. Tomorrow I want to run a good race and build our team's motivation even higher.
Katsuyuki Hiranaka: This is a good, solid machine, just like the GT500 car, and it performs at a level very close to the GT500 car. Personally, I was racing in the GT500 class last season and in the GT300 class before that, and I want to put that experience to use in tomorrow's race.

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