2014.08.30

ARTA CR-Z GT's Kobayashi grabs GT300 pole with awesome course record!

Round 6 Suzuka Circuit : Qualifying GT300

The official qualifying for the 43rd International SUZUKA 1000km, Round 6 of the AUTOBACS SUPER GT was held at the Suzuka Circuit (Mie Prefecture) on the afternoon of August 30. The GT500 class pole position went to the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S RC F (Kazuki Nakajima) for the second time this season. In the GT300 class, the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT driven by Takashi Kobayashi won the class pole, giving Kobayashi his first career GT300 PP.

 

The GT300 class Q1 session started on schedule at 2:00 pm. The top 13 qualifiers in this 15-minute session would win the right to compete in Q2. With the air temperature at 30-degrees C. this day didn’t quite classify as full summer heat, but it certainly fell within the expected temperature range for the competing teams.
Just past six minutes into the period, the No. 22 GREENTEC SLS AMG GT3 (Hisashi Wada) quickly recorded a flying lap of 2’01.731 that put it atop the GT300 time board. Next, the No. 360 OKINAWA MSA-RUN UP GT-R (Hiroroki Yoshida) ran a time of 2’00.895 that beat the old track record (2’01.481). Then the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) beat that with a top time of 2’00.646.

From this point on the perennial qualifying leaders put on an exciting show of competitive runs. The No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Lucas Ordonez) improved the top time to 2’00.398 and the No. 0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Yuhki Nakayama) moved into 2nd position with a 1’00.424. Next, the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT returned to the top of the board with a time of 2’00.279.
It was at this point in the session that the No. 2 SYNTIUM-Apple-MP4-12C (Hiroki Katoh) suffered a spin-out and ended up off the track at the "S" curve. The machine came to a stop in the gravel and was unable to move. As a result, the Red Flag was shown at 10 minutes into the session, bringing the competition to a halt. At the time of the accident, the No. 2 SYNTIUM-Apple-MP4-12C stood in 6th position on the time board, but as the cause of the Red Flag the team’s time was disqualified, relegating it to the rear end of the starting grid for the race.

The session was finally restarted at 2:15 pm, with seven minutes remaining for the teams to improve their times. From here, the intensity of the competition increased as the teams fought to qualify for Q2. The No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara), No. 10 GAINER Rn-SPORTS SLS (Hideki Yamauchi) and the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi) all succeeded in moving up from below the knock-out line into the top ten. Then, as the No. 9 Otonokizaka High NAC PORSCHE with DR (Andre Couto) and the No. 65 LEON SLS (Haruki Kurosawa) improved their times, the GREENTEC SLS AMG GT3, No. 48 Snap-on DIJON Racing GT-R(Ryuichiro Tomita) and the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido) fell below the Q2 qualifying line. Eventually, this Q1 session saw not only the Q2 qualifiers but all top 16 cars down to No. 88 beat the former track record in this highly competitive session. The current top two teams in the season ranking, the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) and the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU Z4 (Nobuteru Taniguchi), suffered from heavy loads of handicap weights and could only manage to qualify 18th and 17th respectively, thus failing to move on the Q2.

 

 

The 13 machines in the 12-minute Q2 session were now set to compete for the top grid positions. The first car to run a time in the 2’00 range was the No. 60 TWS LM corsa BMW Z4 (Akira Iida) with a time of 2’00.949. Then, with four minutes remaining in the session, all the teams were in full attack mode.
Here, it was Kobayashi Takashi in the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT that recorded an awesome time. Easily breaking the 2’00 barrier, Kobayashi ran an amazing lap time of 1’59.115. This time in the 1’59 range is equivalent to the GT500 class pole position time run on this track in 2000 by Akira Iida in the NSX. What’s more, Iida’s time was one that he was unable to beat on his next flying lap that ended in a major crash. In the 14 years since, the GT300 machines have evolved to the point where they can beat such a record.

After Kobayashi’s awesome lap, the other two hybrid cars fought to try to equal his achievement, as both the No. 31 OGT Panasonic PRIUS (Morio Nitta) and the No. 0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Tomoki Nojiri) ran times in the 1’59 range but were unable to beat the time of the ARTA CR-Z GT. In the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, Kota Sasaki also pushed hard to record a time of 2’00.034 and move into 4th position. Then, as most of the teams were preparing for one final timed lap for one last try, the No. 21 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Tomonobu Fujii) ran off the track at the Dunlop Corner, bringing out the Red Flag to stop the action. At 3:03 pm the session was restarted, but the only three machines to go back on the track were the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, the No. 50 WAKO'S Exe Aston Martin (Masaki Kano) and the OGT Panasonic PRIUS. Sasaki in the BRZ managed to begin a flying lap, but realizing there was no hope for a time improvement after passing through the first sector, he gave up the attempt. Teammate Nitta had managed to beat his personal best in the SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, but it was not enough to catch the top two CR-Z machines and the team ended up unable to break into the top three. Having run into machine trouble after Q1, the No. 360 OKINAWA MSA-RUN UP GT-R (Atsushi Tanaka) was unable to find the cause and repair it in time to compete in Q2.

These results gave the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT and the CR-Z machine itself their first pole position of the season. Kobayashi formerly won one PP in the GT500 class, but this was his first in the GT300 class. For the CR-Z, this is the fourth PP. Finishing the session in 2nd and 3rd position were the No. 0 MUGEN CR-Z GT and the No. 31 OGT Panasonic PRIUS, thus giving the hybrid cars a sweep of the top three grid positions. Finishing in 4th position was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT, which 5th position went to the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino), which gave Japanese cars a sweep of the top five positions.
While the qualifying turned out to be a high-speed competition, the race tomorrow is the longest on the SUPER GT schedule at no less than 1000 km. Since past races here have seen dramatic come-from-behind victories by starters from the back of the pack, these grid positions don’t really give a picture of what to expect when the race ends. Can the hybrid cars overcome problems of endurance to claim victory? Or will we see drivers with past SUZUKA 1000km successes like Sasaki in the BRZ or Hoshino in GT-R emerge victorious? We will have to wait with expectation for tomorrow’s race to find out.

 

 

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