2009 SUPER GT Round2

Qualifying Session #1 Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 21°C | Track Temp. 30°C
SUPER LAP Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 20°C | Track Temp. 30°C

Tachikawa Fastest in Morning Session in the ZENT CERUMO SC430

For the morning's first official qualifying session began at 10:00 under clear skies. The first 20 minutes were for the GT300 class. As the drivers In the first half of the morning practice session the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa recorded the fastest time at 1 min. 54.035 sec. But, shortly after the change of drivers, Richard Lyons ran off the track in the hairpin turn and hit the sponge barrier. Fortunately, there was no major damage to the car and it was able to resume running, but it had been a close call.
The No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Benoit Treluyer) ran the third fastest time. Some setting changes were made while Satoshi Motoyama drove in the first half of the session and by the time Treluyer took the wheel in the second half the performance had improved noticeably. Following in 4th and 5th position were two more GT-Rs, the No. 12 IMPUL CALSONIC GT-R and the No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R. The fastest among the NSX teams was the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX in 6th position. Among the Toyota teams, the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 suffered a broken rear wing while being driven by Jyuichi Wakisaka. He returned to the pit and the wing was replaced, but the team only managed to put in the 10th fastest time.
In the GT300 class it was the No. 2 Privée Apple Shiden that ran the top time in the morning practice. Hiroki Yoshimoto replaced team owner Kazuho Takahashi as driver this time, teaming with Hiroki Katoh, who ran the top time of 2 min. 05.407 sec. Together they showed their determination to get the win here at Suzuka. The second fastest time was run by the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari. Following in third position was the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE team that had missed the season's opening round.

No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE

Perfect Qualifying Performance for Kageyama and the HANKOOK Team

In the first qualifying session it was again the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) that ran the fastest time. Following with the second fastest time was the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama). The fastest among the NSX teams was the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi) in 5th position.
This time, the driver running the time attacks for the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R team that eventually won the pole position was Satoshi Motoyama. In the first qualifying session he ran the second fastest time behind the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa), but in the Super Lap he managed to build up enough of a lead in the first two sectors of the course to claim the pole position by a 0.246 sec. margin despite being slower than Tachikawa in the No. 38 car over the third sector. This marked the first pole position for the team since round eight at Autopolis last year. For Motoyama it was his first pole win since the opening round of the 2003 season at TI Aida (present Okayama International).
After qualifying fastest in the morning's first official qualifying, the No. 38 driven by Tachikawa outran all its rivals over all three sectors of the course, except for the No. 1 car driven by Motoyama, but it still wasn't fast enough to beat Motoyama's time. Taking third place in the Super Lap was the No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli). This was only the team's second race since switching to Michelin tires, but already it appears to have made progress. Qualifying 4th was the NO. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer), with the No. 12 IMPUL CALSONIC GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) in 5th position, thus creating a mix of SC430 and GT-R teams in the top five places, while the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi) followed in 6th as the leading NSX team.
In the GT300 class it was the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama) that grabbed the class pole position. Although the Porsche is usually noted for its superior speed on the straights, this day it was also fast in the turns, outrunning its rivals over all three sectors of the course by big margins. This was the first class pole for the team and also the first for a machine running on Hankook tires. For Kageyama, it was his first pole since the opening round of the 2007 season at Suzuka.
Qualifying 2nd in the GT300 class came the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki). This car is making its debut in the SUPER GT this season and has already come to the forefront in its second race. In 3rd position came the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi), rising five positions from 7th place in the morning's first qualifying session. Despite this achievement, driver Taniguchi looked disappointed after the Super Lap because of the driving mistakes he felt he had made. The No. 1 10 KUMHO “ARKTECH SG-1” (Kim Han Bong) was given a penalty due to a collision with the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya and its qualifying time was disqualified.
Meanwhile, the No. 10 JIMGAINER ADVAN F360 (Masataka Kawaguchi) ran off the track in the first qualifying session and was unable to return to the qualifying competition. Also, the No. 66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 crashed during the practice session and the No. 808 HATSUNE MIKU Studie GLAD BMW Z4 was unable to make its runs because of engine trouble, leaving both teams without qualifying times.