2009 SUPER GT Round9
Preview
2009-11-02
Everything will be decided at Motegi
Final battle for the pride is about to begin!
No handicap & 250 km, what's gonna happen in the knockout qualifying!?
The 2009 season that offered a number of intense battles back to back throughout the year is approaching the final round at last. The event, 2009 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 9 “MOTEGI GT 250km RACE,” will be held on November 7th and 8th at Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Prefecture). In GT500, three ace machines of three manufacturers will fight for their pride in the quest for the title, and, in GT300 class, it will be a chaotic battle for the title where six teams will go head to head. In addition, for the first time in the series history, no handicap weights will be imposed at the last round, making it literary unpredictable race that no fans should miss.
Ace machines of 3 manufacturers fight for the title!
No.1 B.Treluyer & S.Motoyama
With the result from previous round, candidates for the drivers title are shortlisted to three: Satoshi Motoyama of No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R at the top of ranking (his teammate Benoit Treluyer will always finish at lower position in the ranking than Motoyama since he absented 1 race), Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer of No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 at 5 points behind, and Ralph Firman/Takuya Izawa of No.8 ARTA NSX at 17 points behind.
Motoyama will be able to clinch the title if he finishes the final round in front or right after Wakisaka/Lotterer regardless if the Lexus team wins the race. In another words, he has a comfortable margin against his rivals. For Firman/Izawa, they would need to win and have Motoyama and Wakisaka/Lotterer finish the race way behind them. So a win is a must for the Honda team.
No.36 J.Wakisaka & A.Lotterer
Considering all of above, the teams that are out of scope of the title will play an important role in deciding the outcome of the title contention. For instance, if Wakisaka/Lotterer is running in top group, other SC430 teams can lessen the points that Motoyama would score by finishing the race in front of him, hence allowing Wakisaka/Lotterer to come from behind and clinch the title. Contrastingly, in a situation where Motoyama/Treluyer seems to finish the race at seventh place or lower, Motoyama still can claim the title if other three GT-R teams dominate entire podium and push Wakisaka/Lotterer down to fourth place. Similarly for Firman/Izawa, they would have a greater chance if they win the race, have all NSX's finish in top 5, and have Motoyama finish the race at eighth or lower position. Simply, any extra effort from other teams of the same manufacturer would support the ace team of the manufacturer at the end, so all the teams concerned should be fired up for this final race in Motegi. Teams that haven't seen a victory this season, No.6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Bjon Wirdheim) and No.12 IMPUL CALSONIC GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Sebastien Philippe) as well as defending winner of the Motegi round, No.3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli/Hironobu Yasuda) may generate a swirl in the race, or even the title contention.
Can NSX celebrate its exist with a win at Honda's home?
No.8 T.Izawa & R.Firman
A surprising news burst out as the season approaches the final round. Honda announced that they would end their racing activity with NSX after this season and field a new machine in 2010. The new machine under the veil sure sparks an interest, but the fact that the final round will be the last race for NSX is a milestone.
A Le Mans GT machine based NSX made its first appearance in 1996, and, in 1997, a Honda supported NSX began racing from the second round of the season. Since then NSX has been in the spotlight of a numerous renowned battles in the 13 years span. Of course, NSX holds all time record of most wins (35 regular season wins) and most pole positions (46 regular season poles) by a model (as of at the end of '09 Rd. 8). The last round will be exactly the 100th race for NSX, and the race will be held at Honda's home track, Twin Ring Motegi; the stage is set in every means.
No.18 ROCKSTAR DOME NSX & No.17 KEIHIN NSX
No doubt that all the NSX teams will bring on all they have to conclude NSX's long journey with a victory. Especially, for No.100 RAYBRIG NSX (Yuji Ide/Shinya Hosokawa) lead by Team Director Kunimitsu Takahashi, the first person who fielded NSX to the GT race, and the ace team of NSX, No. 18 ROCKSTAR DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure), it should become a race that they can't lose. Don't ever miss the final run of one of the greatest machine of all time.
Three hurdles that make the final round more difficult
The final round in Motegi will adopt a slightly different racing style from the usual SUPER GT races. First of all, handicap weights that always become a huge burden for the teams placed in the top portion of points ranking as the season enters into the final phase will be 0 kg only for this race (except for the cars that have not reached 9th event in the season, which the weights will be imposed). With the new rule, cars should be battling at their maximum potential.
In addition, the qualifying will be conducted under the knockout system instead of the Super Lap system. Knockout qualifying has become a household name at Motegi, but for the Round 9 both drivers of a team must run in the qualifying session, like the sixth round of this season held in Suzuka, which means that teams will be put up against their overall strength from the qualifying session.
Another factor would be the race distance of 250 km. It is shorter compared to last year's Motegi round or the final round in Fuji which should affect the strategy that teams would take. Since it would be difficult to try to recover in the latter half of the race with the short distance, teams should be putting in full thrust from the beginning of the race. The race in Motegi may kick off with the hardest battle out of any of the rounds in this season right from the point of start.
What kind of dramatic outcome will GT300 class offer in a great confusion?
No.19 WedsSport IS350
No.43 ARTA Garaiya
No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430
Apart from GT500 class where the title chase is decisive amongst three teams, GT300 class is in a great confusion. Surprisingly, six teams will be battling for the drivers' title at the final round. Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka of No.19 WedsSport IS350 is ranked first with Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi of No.43 ARTA Garaiya and Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka of No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 at 3 points behind, Nobuteru Taniguchi/Ryo Orime of No.7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 at 7 points behind, Hiroki Katoh of No.2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden at 11 points behind (his teammate Hiroki Yoshimoto will not be able to surpass Katoh in points since his number of participation is 1 event less than that of Katoh), and Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka Yanagida of No.46 S Road MOLA Z at 14 points behind. All teams mentioned above have a chance to claim the title.
No.7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7
No.2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden
No.46 S Road MOLA Z
Among all, fiercest battle may explode between top three teams of Oride/Kataoka, Nitta/Takagi, and Tanaka/Hiranaka. Considering that whoever finishes at front will grab the title, the three will probably have to fight in a stressful situation where they will be very aware of one another. All the cars of three teams match up fairly well with Motegi track owing to the cars being midengined vehicle. On the other hand, based on the points deficit, Taniguchi/Orime, Katoh, and Hoshino/Yanagida will probably come to the race determined to win.
Moreover, by having teams like No.81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki/Tomonobu Fujii), that could not hold on in the title contention but looking strongly to win for their ego, and No.74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Takuto Iguchi/Yuji Kunimoto), that is looking for their first win, merging into the leading pack, the title contention may end up in an unexpected outcome.
For the last few years, GT300 class has been showing a dramatic finale at the last round. What kind of dramatic ending will it perform this year?