As with the day before, May 8th (Thur.), the second day (final day) of joint tests organized by the GT Entrant Association for GT300 and GT500 teams was held at SUZUKA Circuit in Mie Prefecture. On this day, eight GT300 class cars using Yokohama tires and two GT500 class cars participated, as well as another GT500 class Dunlop tire user with a Honda development car, bringing the total to 11 cars participating in the tests.
・Running times: Morning sessions 8:00～11:30 (GT300 exclusive session 8:00～9:00 / joint session 9:00～10:30 / GT500 exclusive session 10:30～11:30）; Afternoon 13:00～16:30 (GT300 exclusive session 13:00～13:30 / joint session 13:30～16:00 / GT300 exclusive session 16:00～16:30). Weather / Track surface: clear / dry (all day) Air temperature / Track surface temperature: Morning (8:00) 15℃ / 25℃, at start of mixed session (9:00) 17℃ / 31℃, GT500 exclusive session (10:00) 20℃ / 38℃; final stages of morning sessions （11:00） 20℃/45℃, early stages of joint session 20℃/45℃, Afternoon at start of GT300 exclusive session (13:00) 22℃ / 51℃, early stages of joint session (14:00) 22℃ / 51℃, final stages of joint session (15:00) 21℃/48℃, in GT300 exclusive session (16:00) 20℃ / 45℃.
■ The No. 0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 shows its speed by setting a new fastest lap in GT300 class
Just two days after the running of Round 2 of the series at FUJI, joint tests organized by the GT Entrant Association (GTE) were held at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. Despite the tight schedule, again on this day the participating teams actively ran their tests to prepare for the hot conditions they will face in the coming summer rounds in Sepang, Fuji and Suzuka. Noting the fact that some of the teams’ drivers would not be participating in the two days of tests due to other commitments to race in the Super Taikyu official tests held at Fuji Speedway on the 8th or to participate in other race categories, some of the teams conducted the tests with only one driver or with other drivers, such as the ones scheduled to drive in Sepang.
On this day, the sessions started at 8:00 in the morning. The conditions were good for running tests due to the initial slightly overcast gradually giving way to periods when the sun showed through, as well as the fact that the strong winds of the previous day had lightened. The GT300 class ran until 10:30 in the morning, while the GT500 class ran from 9:00 until 11:30 in the morning.
In the GT300 class, prior to running in the joint session with the GT500 class from 9:00 in the morning, Takashi Kogure in the No. 0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 recorded a top time of 1’56.287 that was faster than the top time of the day before. What’s more, moving up into 2nd position during the joint session with the GT500 class was Kiyoto Fujinami in the No. 666 seven x seven PORSCHE GT3R. Despite being the only driver running the tests since the day before, he managed to deliver the team’s best time. Coming up to 3rd position was Roberto Merhi Muntan in the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI, who had recorded the top time in the first day of tests.
Also, in the early stages of this session, the No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT (Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato) suffered machine trouble, forcing it to undertake repairs during the session, which enabled it to take part in the afternoon sessions. What’s more, it was announced that the team’s regular drivers Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka will be replaced by Yuki Nakayama and Shunji Okumoto at Sepang, and it was Okumoto who was put in the seat of car No. 4 and went out on the track soon after the start. Later on, he was replaced by Taniguchi.
■ In the GT500 morning session the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra delivers fast times
In the GT500 class, some 40 minutes after the start of the 9:00 morning session, Sena Sakaguchi in the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra recorded a time of 1’45.068 that was faster than the best time of the day before. Also, Teppei Natori in the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z recorded the team’s best time of 1’45.335, showing that it was in good condition.
After the joint session with the GT300 class, a GT500 exclusive session was run from 10:30 in the morning, but no cars were able to improve on their times in this session. In the end, 2nd position went to Okusa in car No. 99 with a time of 1’45.098, followed in 3rd position by car No. 24.
■ Most of the teams concentrated on long runs in the final sessions of Day 2, and the lap times remained lower throughout.
Entering the afternoon sessions, the track surface temperature rose and most of the cars ran at slower times than in the morning sessions, as they focused mostly on making long-run tests.
The GT300 class began with a 1-hour and 30-minute class-exclusive session, but at 1:18 in the afternoon the Red Flag was shown. This was due to the bursting of the right rear tire of car No. 6 coming through the Dunlop Corner, which spread debris across the track that required time to clear away. The session was restarted six minutes later and all seven cars except No. 6 returned to the track to resume running. Also, car No. 6 fortunately suffered no serious damage, and it was able to resume running in the session after some 20 minutes spent replacing parts of the bodywork.
At 1:30 in the afternoon, a 2-hour 30-minute joint session with the GT500 class began. Car No. 4 was driven to the end of the session mainly by the two drivers Nakayama and Okumoto. Also, car No. 9 was driven mostly by its third driver Yuta Fujiwara sharing time at the wheel with Tomibayashi. During this period, some teams were seen to improve on their best times during the afternoon, but there was no improvement in the top time before the session ended at 4:30 in the afternoon. This meant that the fastest time recorded in these two days of tests was the time of 1’56.287 run by Kogure in car No. 0 in the morning of the final day.
In the GT500 class, all three cars ran laps at times 3 to 4 seconds slower than the teams’ best times from the day before. Also, in terms of drivers, No. 99, that had set the fastest lap time the day before, changed from Okusa to Izawa, and with car No. 19, the team which clocked the fastest lap in the morning, switched from Kunimoto to Sakaguchi, while in the case of car No. 24, the drivers were changed from Natori to Matsuda, as each of the cars ran close to 50 or 60 laps. In each case, since the teams concentrated on long continuous runs, eventually the fastest lap in the GT500 class on this final day was the 1’45.068 lap recorded by Sakaguchi in car No. 19 in the morning session.
Another two days of tests organized by the GT Entrant Association will be held at SUZUKA Circuit on May 13th and 14th. In these tests, a total of 13 GT300 class cars will be participating on tires supplied by Bridgestone, Dunlop, and Michelin.
■GT500
No.19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra Sena Sakaguchi “Things have been going well this year from test sessions. While keeping the same qualifying settings that proved effective in the last Round at Fuji, we are continuing tests here and we are even trying the settings that were effective at Suzuka two or three years ago. As we have been doing tests comparing things with this year’s set-up, we are getting some good results. Not only are we able to get stable results in the way of one-shot speed, but we are also working to find the directions we want to develop the car in, and I feel that we are making sure that everyone on the team is getting a good grasp of it. Racing at Sepang (Round 3) in SUPER GT will be the first time for me, but in the tests, I noticed big changes in the track surface. As for how race to get a good result, we are making sure that we make predictions in all the areas possible and try our best to be prepared.”
No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z Tsugio Matsuda “We did well in the qualifying at the opening round at Okayama, so I wanted to see what kind of results we would get if the race had been in dry conditions. I thought Fuji was going to be a difficult race, and it turned out that indeed it was. I have gotten a good feeling from the results of the tests at Sepang (Round 3), but I don’t know how the race start time will work out for us…. That is something that worries me. Well, I guess it will be OK as long as it doesn’t rain. Sepang is a circuit that we have gotten several wins at (3 wins, the most in GT500), and we also won at the last SUPER GT race there in 2013, so personally I feel that I go well there. So, I want to do as much as possible in the tests here to be prepared for a summer race.”
Teppei Natori “The fact is that we have not been able to race as we have wanted since the opening round. In the qualifying for the opening round at Okayama, I ran in Q1, and while I did make a small mistake, I feel that I was able to perform with no regrets. Also, I drove in Q1 at the recent Fuji round and failed to move on to Q2, but I think I was able to get the best performance possible out of myself. Of course, I know that I still have to keep trying to improve, in the tests this time I feel that I have been pushing myself close to the limit as I ran, so I feel that until now I have been performing the best I can. I have run in tests at Sepang (Round 3) twice before, and I hope that since we will be carrying little Success Weight we can be among the leaders. By getting at good result there, I hope it will bring us momentum in the middle stages of the season.”
No. 99 Honda development car CIVIC TYPE R-GT Riki Okusa “Since we have been using a different car from usual (No. 99) in these tests, I have been running with some amount of tension. Since I am feeling the difference with car No. 64 as I drive, rather than trying to get fast times, I feel like I am mostly just doing tire tests, so I think I will be able to find things that will be useful in races. I think that this year we are performing better in races than last year, but we haven’t been able to translate the good feeling we get during tests into positive results in the races. I hope we can all find the reasons for this in ways that will bring good results as quickly as possible. We have been able to put in a lot of time in tests at Sepang where our next race will be, and while there is no problem in terms of the layout, but when I look at old videos, there are few cases where it has been possible to drive calmly, so when that happens, I want to be able make choices instantly and be able to fight on from there.”
■GT300
No.0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 Takashi Kogure “The (car’s) balance that we were able to get until last year seems to have come apart this year…. Normally, I feel that we should be able to compete a bit better than we are now (wry laugh). At both Okayama and Fuji, we didn’t have enough depth of speed on the straights, and at Fuji I made a mistake that dropped us back in the field, and I think that led to an unfortunate accident. But, since the things that haven’t come together well until now are starting to gradually come together, so I hope that we will now be able to come from behind in races. Especially at Sepang (Round 3) we should be able to make successful use of the progress we have made. Motojima (Yuya) also likes the Sepang circuit and I have won there (in the GT500 class in 2011, 2012), so I hope everyone will be looking forward to it.”
No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG Nobuteru Taniguchi “Although Kataoka (Tatsuya) took pole position in the opening round, I really don’t believe anyone on the team thought beforehand that we could get it. However, the race was overturned by rain, which we are not strong in. There was also confusion in the race development, and we were lucky to finish in 4th place. In the recent race at Fuji, we thought that we had to do our best, but the rivals were just too fast. It showed that we just have to stay sound and steady and fight all the way. Neither Kataoka nor myself will be taking part in the next race in Malaysia (Sepang), and the plan is for Yuki Nakayama and Shunji Okumoto to drive, so I hope they will do well.”
No. 9 PACIFIC IDOLMASTER NAC AMG Yusuke Tomibayashi “This year I feel that we are all working better together as a team. In the opening round we got a good result as a team for the first time in a while (5th in the race), so we were able to get some series points. But in the last race at Fuji, we were all saying, “Next it is a podium finish, a win!”, but the result was that the various things we tried didn’t work out well. Still, I am glad to see that immediately after that at these Suzuka (tests) we have been able to put the right answers together again. Since the team doesn’t have A Seed right, I’m sorry that I won’t be going to compete at Sepang, but I put in a lot of miles in these tests to brush up and I am looking forward to competing at Fuji (Round 4).”
No.25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT Tomomitsu Matsui “I think the fact that we have not been able to do much testing since last year has taken its toll. What I feel after the last two rounds is that the effect of this lack has been serious. To cover for what we are still lacking, in these tests we have been trying some of the things that can’t be done in a race week, and I sense that we have found some things to work on. Starting from these approaches is the work we have to do now. Looking toward our next race at Fuji (Round 4), I think we have begun to see the “exit” from our problems. Although we haven’t reached that point yet, I think it is a very positive thing that we have found the directions to work in.”
No.62 HELM MOTORSPORTS GT-R Team Manager Hideo Fukuyama “In the process of changing our driver organization, we are also working with new faces this season among our engineers and mechanics. As a team, I would say we are still “warming up.” But I feel that below the surface there are some good things building up. Although we haven’t yet seen the results, I feel it is good that these tests have given us an opportunity to do a lot of serious running and have enabled us to try some daring new things. As a team, I think things will really begin to “bud” from the August (Round 4) at Fuji (laughs). And it will be great if we can see our first real “blossoming” here (Round 5 at Suzuka). Because the machine is also becoming more mature, I want to continue working to do the best I can.”
No.666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R Kiyoto Fujinami “Since we are a new team, we have been through some troubles, and the team staff is working hard for us. We are now looking into the compatibility of the machine and the tires, and we are working to get good information to help bring out the full potential from them. The next race will be (Round 4) at Fuji, but before that, I am glad that we have been able to do some serious testing here at Suzuka. In the last race at Fuji, we had a good pace, but we couldn’t get a good result because of machine trouble and accidents, so next time I want to see us come away with a good result. Since we are getting a lot of support from the Porsche fans, I want to work to help ius get our first win.”
