2010 SUPER GT Round2
Preview
2010-03-31
Feel the vibe from HSV-010 GT for strike-back.
Who conquers the technical track in Okayama?
Lock our eyes on the new GT300 machines and foreign team
On April 3rd and 4th, Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Prefecture) will host 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 2 "OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE". The new season kicked off at Suzuka with a lot of dramatic scenes like come-from-behind win, outrageous crash, and many more, and the excitement still remains afresh in the mind, but the battle has already entered into the next stage. How will 2010 model machines suit the technical track of Okayama? Who will take the control of new season? A lot of talks are going on already.
Can HSV-010 GT bring in its first win?
No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010
Season opener was held at Suzuka Circuit which boasts two long straights, but the venue of the second round, Okayama International Circuit, is known as a technical track with a number of low- to mid-speed corners. Given such characteristics, cars that are especially fast around the corners, such as Honda NSX and Nissan GT-R, tend to favor Okayama. But that might be a story of the past considering that NSX has been replaced by HSV-010 GT and GT-R has different engine this season. Or, may not be quite so. Despite its layout of the front-engine, rear-wheel drive, Honda's new HSV-010 GT has already proven its speed going around the corners, and, according to some drivers, the braking performance of the new car is even better than its ancestor, NSX. In another words, HSV-010 GT can well be pretty quick at Okayama. Moreover, considering the huge disappointment they had experienced at the opening round, ending the race from a crash despite starting from the pole position, No.18 Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval) must be keen to bring in the very first win for HSV-010 GT. Fresh duo of No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto) should be coming in to Okayama with their momentum from finishing the season opener at third place.
No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R
Looking into the GT-R fleet, expectation should be high for No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer), who could not bring in satisfactory result at the season opener. For the defending Okayama winner, No.34 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda), the handicap weight they have to mount on for winning the last race in Suzuka could cause to be a drawback for them, but if it rains, then they would have a good chance to play a major role in the race.
No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430
With different specification from last year's machine, the technical track at Okayama should no longer be a pain for SC430. No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons) with Yuji Tachikawa, last year's pole-sitter who personally favors the circuit, the defending champion No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer), and No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya Oshima), who qualified second at the circuit last year and took the lead for a while at the previous round, may put out some show for LEXUS.
Mid-engined machines may have some advantage in GT300 class.
In the same theory as NSX enjoyed the advantage at Okayama from having a mid-engine layout, the winner in GT300 class has been a mid-engined car for last 4 straight years. Therefore, according to the theory, the top candidate should be shortlisted from mid-engined machines. No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) and No.2 APPLE K-ONE SHIDEN (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroshi Hamaguchi), both finishing the season opener with disappointing early retirement, as well as defending winner No.19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka) quickly come to the mind. No.5 MACHGOGOGO SHAKEN 408R (Tetsuji Tamanaka/Haruki Kurosawa) also falls in the category.
No.43 ARTA Garaiya
No.2 APPLE K-ONE SHIDEN
Not a mid-engined car, but Fairlady Z fits well to the track of Okayama too. Considering their good performance despite the confusion at the opening round, Z's, including No.3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z (Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka Yanagida), could leap into leading position if the track condition turns out to be slippery with rain or low temperature.
Out of many topics that GT300 class offers, new machines appearing in the class are catching hearts of everyone. Aston Martine V8 Vantage of No.66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hideshi Matsuda/Hiroki Yoshimoto) is a sure beauty that deserves a look. Flying all the way from Singapore, No.365 365 Thunder Asia MT900M (Melvin Choo/Tim Sugden) with a brand new Mosler MT900 is a sure eye-catcher. The team participated last year's Round 4 in Sepang as a wildcard and showcased some outstanding performance where they came up close to the leader at one point. Their new machine were created exclusively for competing in the SUPER GT GT300 class and mounted with a V8 engine made exclusively for racing by Zytek. Collecting all the attention for being the very first foreign team to compete in the series full time, the team may become an eye of typhoon.
No.3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z
No.66 triple a Vantage GT2
After all, the Round 2 in Okayama is a key point of the season to see which way the flow goes. With the technical layout of the track, the event should provide a lot of excitements. Indeed, it can be the very place where HSV-010 GT records its first victory. Don't miss it.