Although Round 2 of the series at FUJI has just finished, preparations are already underway for Round 3 of this year’s SUPER GT series to be held at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit on June 27 and 28. In preparation for this Round 3, joint tests for GT300 and GT500 class cars organized by the GT Entrant Association (GTE) began at SUZUKA Circuit in Mie Prefecture on May 5th (Wed.). Participating were eight GT300 class cars running on Yokohama tires and the two GT500 class cars and one Honda development car running on Dunlop tires for a total of 11 cars.
・Running times: First mixed session 13:00～14:30; first GT500 exclusive session 14:30～15:30; Second mixed session 15:30～16:00; GT500 exclusive session 16:00～17:00. Weather / Track surface: clear / dry Air temperature/ Track surface temperature: mixed session start (13:00) 20℃/41℃; GT500 session (15:00) 23℃/44℃; GT300exclusive session (16:00) 20℃/38℃; at finish (17:009 20℃/29℃.
■In Fine weather at SUZUKA Circuit, 11 SUPER GT cars run tests
The first day of tests was held from 1:00 in to 5:00 in the afternoon, with the GT300 class running from 1:00 to 2:30 (Session 1) and from 3:30 to 5:00 (Session 2), while the GT500 class cars ran continuously from 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.
On this day a SUZUKA, a strong and somewhat chilly wind was blowing, but it was also blessed with fine weather with clear blue skies overhear all day. Participating in the tests this day were eight GT300 class cars including the No. 0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima/Natsu Sakaguchi), No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG（Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka/Yuki Nakayama/Shunji Okumoto）, No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan）, No. 9 PACIFIC IDOLMASTER NAC AMG（Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi）, No. 18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi /Yuto Nomura）, No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT（Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato）, No. 62 HELM MOTORSPORTS GT-R（Yuya Hiraki/Reiji Hiraki）, No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Tsubasa Kondo) and two GT500 class cares, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi） and the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori). In addition to these was one Honda development car running on Dunlop tires, the No. 99 CIVIC TYPE R-GT. This car No. 99 took part as a development car for the Modulo Nakajima Racing team and was driven by Takuya Izawa and Riki Okusa.
■The No. 6 Ferrari runs a fast time in the first GT300 class session
The cars began to take to the track as soon as it was opened at 1:00 in the afternoon. After they started their runs, many of the cars were seen returning to their pits at regular intervals, and the session continued with these cars going on to run continued laps. Since the eastern part of the Suzuka Circuit had recently been resurfaced for the F1 Japanese Grand Prix held here in early April, it meant that the cars in these tests were running on the re-furbished sections of the track for the first time, which offered them the opportunity to gather new data.
In the GT300 class, near the end of the jointly run Session 1, Mutan in car No. 6 recorded a time of 1’57.303. However, entering Session 2, Fujinami in car No. 666 recorded a top time of 1’57.192. What’s more, just after 4:00 in the afternoon in the GT300 exclusive session, it was again Mutan in car No. 6 who recorded a new top time of 1’56.436. At about 30 minutes before the end of the session, Motojima I car No. 0 recorded a time of 1’56.690 to move into 2nd position. Then, just before the end of the session, Kobayashi in car No. 18 recorded a time of 1’56.966. As the clock for 3rd position ran down, no other car could beat No. 6’s time.
Meanwhile, in the long 3-hour time window for the GT500 class, it was during the joint session with the GT300 class that Sakaguchi in car No. 19 recorded a time of 1’45.288. The team was said to have remained at the circuit after Round 2 at Fuji to re-work the settings of the car before coming to Suzuka and brought with them tires chosen with the coming rounds at Sepang and Suzuka in mind to run tests on.
After that, in the 1-hour GT500 specific-session that started at 2:30 in the afternoon, cars No. 24 and No. 99 both improved on their best lap times. Of these it was Izawa in car No. 99 who during the middle of the session recorded a time of 1’45.077 that would be the top time of the day.
In this way, the tests were conducted in stable conditions throughout the day. Not only were there no collisions or crashes among any of the cars, but there were also not even any Yellow or Red Flags shown in any of the sessions.
Tests will also be run tomorrow, May 8th (Thur.) with sessions scheduled to start at 8:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon.
■GT500
No. 99 Honda development car CIVIC TYPE R-GT Takuya Izawa “Although for us, these were like our usual tire tests, since the tests were being held soon after the last race, we took the extra measure of borrowing the No. 99 (development car) for the tests. The pavement on the east part of the Suzuka course was indeed considerably different from before. The feeling of it was quite different. Since this was car No. 99, the feeling of it is completely different from “our car.” It is indeed a “someone else’s car” (wry laugh). Even when it is set up in the same way as usual, it feels like a different car. You have to get used to it. Although we managed to get the best time today, to be honest, I wasn’t able to get “MAX” performance out of it. I ran with care to not damage the car. So, I couldn’t really relax in it. Still, it is OK, because we were able to get a good test of the tires!”
No.19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra Yuji Kuniimoto “We have been testing new tires with summer-season races in mind. What’s more, since we slowed down at the end of the race in Round 2 at Fuji, we have looked over the contents causing that to get ready for the next races. Today the conditions were good, and we were able to verify the fact that, overall, the car this year is capable of delivering fast one-shot times. And the feeling was good again today. Although our goal is the same every year, we are going to be running with our eyes on fighting to get wins. Since our performance in the qualifying is improving, we have confidence that we can start from good positions in the races, so what is left is I want to see us prepare the car and the tires to be able to compete strongly throughout the races. Since the feeling of the car is good, the feeling among the team is also very good. I also feel that I am driving well, so what remains is to put everything together to get good results.”
■GT300
No.6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI Yoshiaki Katayama “Since we have a lot to do in the tests this time, there is plenty that we are able to learn a lot about. Also, since the surface of the east part of the course has been changed, when I ran on it today, I found that, indeed, the feeling of balance is completely different. Driving at Sepang will be the first time for me. Things have been going well for us, so I want to see us carry on the momentum of our win at Fuji when we compete at Sepang.”
No.18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 Yuto Nomura “After running the first two races of the season, I feel that I am getting used to the SUPER GT machine. Although we have only just finished the first two races, I think you can say that I have made a good amount of progress. However, we still haven’t gotten good results in either of the two rounds …. I regret this, but I still believe that the team is going to get better as we go on, so I am looking forward to the middle part of the series. The next race at Sepang will be completely new for me, so I am looking at a lot of films taken during races there from the cars’ on-board cameras and also attending the team’s meetings to help prepare myself.”
