On May 14th, as with the day before, tests organized by the GT Entrant Association (GTE) for the GT300 class teams were held at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. In the morning of this day, 2 hours of tests were run beginning at 9:00, and 2 hours 30 minutes of tests were held from 1:00 in the afternoon, during which a total of 12 cars made their test runs. This was the final day of these joint tests.
・Running times: Morning session 9:00～11:00, afternoon session 13:00～15:30 ・Weather / Track surface: cloudy / dry ・Air temperature / Track surface temperature: Before start of morning session (8:50) 19℃/24℃, in the middle stages (10:00) 21℃/31℃, at the end of the morning session (11:00) 23℃/35℃, at the start of afternoon session (13:00) 23℃/42℃, middle stages (14:00) 23℃/43℃, at finish of the afternoon session (15:30) 23℃/40℃.
■ In the morning session, among the cars participating this season, the No. 45 Ferrari and the No. 60 LC500 record fast times. The best time is run by Suzuki in car No. 300
When Session 3 of the tests began at 9:00 in the morning, the cars were quick to take to the track. As for the No. 20 SHADE RACING GR86 GT that had suffered machine trouble the day before, it did not participate. The remaining 11 regular teams participating in this season and the No. 300 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT participating only in these tests began to work through their planned menus of tests.
Less than 10 minutes after the start of the session, Kei Cozzolino in the No. 45 PONOS FERRARI 296 was quick to record a time in the middle of the 1’56 sec. range. The other cars were also running at a faster pace than the day before, with Koki Saga in the No. 300 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT also running a time in the 1’56 sec. range, but faster than No. 45’s time. With this, No. 45 showed its speed by bringing its time down to 1’55.798. This not only became the top time of these tests but also compared well with the times of the leaders in Round 5 held here at Suzuka in December of last year. Meanwhile, in the early stages of the session, the No. 30 apr GR86 GT driven by Manabu Orido suffered machine trouble and returned to its pit. It was not to return to the track during this session but spent the time making repairs.
Before the halfway point in the session, car No. 45 still held the top time. This was followed by a time of 1’56.858 by Hiroki Yoshimoto in the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT for 2nd position, while in 3rd position stood car No. 300, followed by Naoya Gamou in the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG. Later, when Tokiya Suzuki, who had recorded the top time of the day before took the wheel of car No. 300, he began to improve on its best time with each lap he ran. Finally, just before the point of 30 minutes remaining in the session, he ran a new top time of 1’55.527. With this show of speed two days in a row, Suzuki demonstrated his great adaptability.
After this, there were no cars ran qualifying simulations and no more improvements in the teams’ best times before the end of the session. With this, the best time remained that of car No. 300, while the leading times among the cars that will be participating in the series this season went to cars No. 45, No. 60 and No. 65 respectively.
■ The afternoon sees Umegaki in the No. 300 PRIUS take the best time. Among the regular cars, the top time goes to the No. 60 LC500.
As soon as the track was opened for the afternoon session, seven cars immediately entered the track. After that, the four remaining cars waited to choose the right timing to go out on the track. In this session, the teams were divided between ones that had only one driver run and those that changed drivers regularly, and it was Shunsuke Kohno, who continued to run alone in the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT, that moved into the top spot in the early going with a time of 1’57.489. This time was followed by Yoshida in the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) with a lap of 1’58.257. After this, the driver of car No. 52 was switched back and forth between Nonaka and Yoshida as they worked through the team’s test menu.
During the middle stages of the session, as with the previous day and this day’s morning Session 3, it was car No. 300 that improved on its times. First, Kiyoshi Umegaki recorded his best time of 1’56.871. Furthermore, with 20 minutes remaining in the session, when the wheel was turned over to Suzuki again, he once again improved on his times with each lap until he recorded a lap of 1’56.002.
It was here that car No. 30, which had hardly any time to run in Session 3 due to machine trouble, came onto the track with just over 30 minutes remaining in the session. Although the number of laps were few, it was able to run again. On the other hand, it was now the car No. 300 driven by Umegaki that suffered from machine trouble with about 15 minutes remaining in the session. Since the car had to be brought to a stop on the main straight, the Red Flag was shown, which effectively brought the running in Session 4 to an end.
As a result, car No. 300 remained holder of the top time. This was followed in 2nd position by the car No. 60 that had gotten the top time in the early going, while 3rd position went to the car No. 45 that ran a time of 1’58.018 just before mid-point in the session, and by car No. 52.
With the conclusion of the two joint tests organized by the GT Entrant Association last week and this time, the series will now move on to Round 3 in Malaysia to be held at Sepang International Circuit. This will be the first Sepang round since 2013, and what’s more, the fact that it is scheduled to be a twilight race (starting in the evening), there are expectations that it will offer a completely new experience for the participating teams and the fans as well.
■GT300
No.30 apr GR86 GT Manabu Orido “From this year our tire supplier has changed to Michelin, and I feel we that we still have some difficulties as a result. We are still looking into various things including the matching of the car and the tires. The level of those around us (our rivals) has also improved, so to be honest I feel things are difficult for us. Nonetheless, both me and my driving partner Nagai (Hiroaki)-san are battling on “seriously” but also enjoying it. This time, we came to Suzuka with the intention of checking out the character of the tires, but in the morning session we had trouble with the car. In the next round at Sepang we will be absent, but I hope to see us reach a point during this season where we are able to compete well among the leaders.”
No.31 apr LC500h GT Yuki Nemoto “This year the member of our car No. 31 and now I am the only one who knows about the car and the tires, so in the off-season I was concentrating on competing to be able to support Miki Koyama and Oliver Rasmussen. As for the next round at Sepang, I have raced there before in a different category, but the plan is now for me to go there as a reserve driver. As for the car, I think it is well suited for the Sepang course. Since I am normally in charge of the base set-up, I believe that if I can drive in the practice sessions, I should also be able to provide feedback. Anyway, I want to help out as much as possible. Since we haven’t won any races with this car yet, I want to help create a base that will enable us to try for a win.”
No.52 Green Brave GR Supra GT Hiroki Yoshida “During the off-season, the team has worked hard to update the car for us. But since we weren’t able to take part in the Official Tests at Okayama, and because the Official Tests at Fuji were held in the rain, we entered the season with the feeling that we hadn’t had enough time for testing. On the other hand, I get the impression that the car has gotten faster, so I feel confident that there is still potential to improve the performance. In terms of race contents, I don’t think that we have raced well in the first two rounds, but I think that the poor results in both cases are just due to the accidents during the race. Our pace itself has not been bad. However, since it is also important that we get near the top in the qualifying, I believe that we need the right approach to achieve that. As for the next round at Sepang, both myself and (Seita) Nonaka have experience there before in other race categories, but we won’t know how well the tires will do there until we actually run there. In these tests we have been able to try out the tires well in dry conditions, so I want to see us put this experience to good use in summer races at Fuji and Suzuka.”
No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT Takuto Iguchi “After Fuji (the Round 2 race where the car came to a stop), we came here to the Suzuka tests having only changed the engine. At Fuji, the condition of the matching of the car and the tires were both very good, so I don’t feel we have any negative elements. Of course, the results were discouraging, but as a team, regarding the condition of the car, etc., the feeling is positive. And regarding the tires, Dunlop has been working very hard for us. Although they were low, we were able to get series points in both of the races, which shows that we have been able to compete on a different level than before. The Malaysia round will be the first in a long time, and to decide what tires we want to take with us, we have now completed some good testing. This year, since the car is new, we had a lot of trouble in the off-season tests, and rather than doing tests to make the car faster, the feeling was that we were mainly testing to get normal running performance. So, we had no idea what kind of performance we would get. Based on this situation, because of the fact that we had good performance on the first day at both Okayama and Fuji, I have confidence that we will be able to compete well. However, we were not able to get good results due to bad luck and such. If only things will all come together well…, that is what we are hoping for. Other than that, what we have to do is get our speed and strength to translate into good results.”
No.777 D’station Vantage GT3 Tomonobu Fujii “In the last round at Fuji, we had confidence that we could go for the win. And although we had won pole position, unfortunately we finished in 2nd place. But under those conditions (having lost ground once due to tire trouble) the reason we were able to finish 2nd was because the tires were good and we were able to deliver the necessary speed. I am satisfied with the performance of the tires. Our team has the ability to stay calm at times like that and make adjustments normally, so I am confident. Generally speaking, I would say we rate at about 80 points, but up to this point I am very satisfied with the potential of the car, the tires and the team. In the end, we were just unlucky. Going forward, I want to see us fight with a little more determination. To be honest, I must say that the car is not well suited to the Sepang course, so it will probably be a tough battle, but I will be trying to get even one place higher up at the finish. After that, although we will be carrying (Success) Weight, if we can race with consistency, I think things will go well.”
