2010 SUPER GT Round8

Qualifying #1 Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 19°C | Track Temp. 22°C
Qualifying #2 (knockout) Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 20°C | Track Temp. 22°C

Top-ranked teams fill the front of the grip for final race

The qualifying for this round was run in "knock-out" format. Drivers in both the GT500 and GT300 classes must run a qualifying time in the first session that started at 13:05 in order to move on to the knock-out sessions. All of the teams managed to clear the time standard and qualify for the second stage (the knock-out) with the exception of the No. 365 365 ThunderAsia MT900M, which developed engine trouble during the morning practice session.
The knock-out stage was run in three progressive sessions, with the slowest cars from the first two sessions (S1 and S2) being knocked out of the competition until seven cars remained in the GT500 class and 10 cars in the GT300 class to compete in the final session (S3). The car running the fastest time in this third session would win the to pole positions for the two classes.
The 10-minute GT500 class Session 1 (S1) began at 14:55. In the early stages of this session the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Benoit Treluyer) ran off the course momentarily, sending a scare through the paddock, but Treluyer was able to return to the track quickly and managed to record the tenth fastest time and qualify for S2 before the checkered lap.
The fastest lap in S1 was run by the No. 18 Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure) at 1 min. 43.711 sec. This time beat the existing course record of 1 min. 44.095 sec. The cars knocked out in S1 and thus unable to progress to S2 were the No. 32 EPSON HSV-010 (Ryo Michigami) in 11th-place, the 12th-place No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) and the No. 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 (Kohei Hirate) in 13th place.
In the 7-minute S2 session, SC430 machines swept the top three places, led by Bjorn Wirdheim in car No. 6 with a lap of 1 min. 43.734 sec. and followed by Hiroaki Ishiura in car No. 35 and Juichi Wakisaka in car No.1. The 4th fastest lap was run by Loic Duval in car No. 18, with the only other time in the 1 min. 43 sec. range. Behind them in 5th to 7th places came Koudai Tsukakoshi in car No. 17, Hironobu Yasuda in No. 24 and Ronnie Quintarelli in No. 12. These seven cars qualified for the S3. The three machines knocked out in S2, No. 100 (Naoki Yamamoto) in 8th, No. 23 (Satoshi Motoyama) in 9th and No. 8 (Yuji Ide) in 10th, secured those same positions on Sunday race grid.
During the GT300 S3, the red flag came out to stop the action momentarily. This caused an approximate ten-minute delay in the start of the GT500 class S3. In the final one-shot competition that followed, it was the drivers of the two top teams in the season ranking that put in the best performances. Kogure in No. 18 ran a lap time of 1 min. 43.583 sec. to once again break the course record he had just set in S1. In response to this, Ito in car No. 6 also bettered his time from S1 to record a time of 1 min. 43.640 sec. and claim 2nd place, just 0.057 sec. behind Kogure (No. 18).
The next four cars, No. 17 (Kaneishi), No. 12 (Matsuda), No. 1 (Lotterer) and No. 35 (Oshima) all ran times in the 1 min. 43 sec. range separated by no more than 0.192 sec. The 7th qualifier, De Oliveira in car No. 24 follow closely just 0.734 sec. behind 6th place. With so little time separating these top seven machines, the result of Sunday's race is virtually unpredictable.

No. 3 TOMICA Z

ARTA Garaiya qualifies 5th and M7 AMEMIYA SGC 7 in 6th, signaling a tight title race

In the GT300 class, the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Yuji Kunimoto) recorded the fastest time in S1. This was followed by the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Tatsuya Kataoka), the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi), the No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Takeshi Tsuchiya), the No. 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 (Yuhi Sekiguchi) and the No. 3 TOMICA Z (Masataka Yanagida), all in the 1 min. 54 sec. range. Behind these, eleven cars with times in the 1 min. 55 to 56 sec. range filled out the top 17 that would progress to S2, with the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hideshi Matsuda) being the last of the 17.
In S2, Hiroki Yoshimoto drove that same car No. 66 to a time of 1 min. 54.381 sec. to top the session. Following in 2nd place came the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka), while 3rd place went to the S1's fastest car, No. 74 (Takuto Iguchi). Meanwhile, the ranking leader, car No. 43 (Morio Nitta), and the 2nd-ranked No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Ryo Orime) turned in the 9th and 10th fastest times respectively to barely qualify for S3. On the other hand, the second fastest qualifier in S1, the No. 19 (Manabu Orido), the fastest runner in the morning practice, the No. 5 MACH GOGOGO SHAKEN408R (Tetsuji Tamanaka) and the 5th-ranked No. 46 UP START MOLA Z (Tsubasa Abe) failed to progress to S3.
Just after the start of S3, Kunimoto in car No. 74 ran off the track just before the fourth corner. This brought out the red flag to stop the action. After being pulled to a safe location, No. 74 was able to return to the pit under its own power and make another time attack after the action was resumed.
After the session's restart, there were six minutes remaining. It was Yanagida in car No. 3 who emerged at this point with a shining performance, managing to overcome the adverse conditions with a fastest time of 1 min. 54.186 sec. After that, none of the rivals were able to beat Yanagida's time. This gave Masataka Yanagida his first pole position since round four of last year's season at Sepang. It brought his career total of pole positions in the GT300 class to six. He is also the winner of a pole position in the GT500 class in round six of the 2007 season at Suzuka. His team at that time was the same HASEMI MOTOR SPOR.
Qualifying 2nd in S3 was the No. 9 HATSUNEMIKU X GSR PORSCHE (Masahiro Sasaki). This team has been using a new car since round five at Sugo and its condition has been improving steadily. It just missed the pole position this time by 0.115 sec. In tomorrow's race the team will be shooting for its first podium finish.
Qualifying 3rd was the No. 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 (Yuhi Sekiguchi), while 4th place went to the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Yuji Kunimoto) and 5th to the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi).
If car No. 3 is able to come through with a win in tomorrow's race and the other teams also finish in their qualifying order, the No. 3 team of Kazuki Hoshino and Masataka Yanagida will win the championship title. In order for the present ranking leaders, the No. 43 team's Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi, to win the title, they will have to finish the race in the top three. Also, for the present 2nd-ranked car No. 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/ Ryo Orime) to take the title, they will have to finish the race in 2nd with the Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi team finishing 4th or lower. With a strong possibility of the Porsche and Lamborghini teams being among tomorrow's race leaders, no one can predict anything about the outcome, except that it is sure to be a close battle for the title.