2016.05.03

ARTA BMW M6 GT3 dominant in the GT300 class qualifying

Round2 Fuji Speedway : Qualifying GT300 Review

On May 3rd, the official qualifying for the FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.). In the GT500 class, Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira in the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R won pole position with a new course record time. In the GT300 class, Takashi Kobayashi in the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 won the class pole.

 

The GT300 Q1 session started at Q1 14:30. In this 15-minute session, 14 cars would qualify for the GT300 Q2 session.
From the start of the session, the cars rounded the track warming up their tires, and then they began making their serious timed laps with just under six minutes remaining. Shinichi Takagi in the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 was the first to beat the target time that had remained in the 1’37 until then, improving by more than a second to record a time of 1’36.012 that beat the existing course record and moved him to the top of the timing monitor. This became the new target time, and soon the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller) also beat the former course record (1’36.591) with a time of 1’36.399 to move into 2nd position. After this, two more cars recorded times in the mid-1’36 range, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) with a 1’36.606 and the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh) with a 1’36.578, but neither could reach the top times.
With two minutes remaining in the session, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine) ran a time of 1’36.506 to move into 3rd position. On the next lap, Hiramine brought that down to 1’36.190 to move into 2nd position, and although other cars including the No. 51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Morio Nitta), the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi), the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) and the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) also moved up, their times remained in the latter half of the 1’36 range and they failed to break into the top group. Eventually, no one was able to match the top time of the Takagi in the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 before Q1 ended.

As Q1 neared its close, the struggle to qualify above the cut-off line intensified. Curiously enough, the borderline group in 13th to 15th positions seeking to qualify for Q2 were all JAF-GT300 machines built around the ‘Mother Chassis’. It was the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Shinnosuke Yamada) and the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga) that would eventually take 13th and 14th positions and qualify for Q2. However, the spot-entry driver Masami Kageyama given the task of qualifying the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 for Q1, missed out by just 0.167 sec. Following down the order from car No. 5 in 15th place, six machines concluded a tight battle within a time margin of just 3-tenths of a second, meaning that this time the completion to merely qualify for Q2 was more intense than ever, and nearly as tough as the competition for the top spot. As for the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Haruki Kurosawa/Naoya Gamou) that won a felicitous first GT victory in the opening round of this season, the 40 kg of handicap weight that came with that victory proved to be a hefty burden, causing it to end Q1 in 18th position.

 

 

Following the GT500 class Q1 session, the 12-minute GT300 class Q2 kicked off at 3:15. As with Q1, the cars warmed up their tires in the early minutes of the session and then began their serious time attack with about six minutes remaining in the session.
The first to beat the former course record with a time of 1’36.265 was the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Jann Mardenborough), but that time was quickly bettered by the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi). Kobayashi’s time was 1’35.707. This fantastic feat made him the only one to break through the 1’36 sec. barrier and into the 1’35 sec. range. After that, as the other cars made their final time attacks, some got into the 1’36 range but none could reach the 1’35 range.
In the last three minutes of the session, Takeshi Tsuchiya, the driver as well as engineer of the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC ran an amazing lap to record a time of 1’35.961. It was a performance that overturned the assumption that the mother chassis cars with their presumed disadvantage in engine power could do well at Fuji Speedway’ high-speed course. Still, it failed to beat the time of Kobayashi in car No. 55 and relegated No. 25 to 2nd place in the qualifying. Meanwhile, the battle for the 3rd spot on the grid and below also saw intense competition in the time attacks. The No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Yuichi Nakayama) managed to beat its own former course record with a time of 1’36.036 to take 3rd position. Fourth to sixth positions were taken by the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara), No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R, No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons) and the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuhki Nakayama) also beat the former record.
In the last minute of the session, the cars returned to the pit with the knowledge that they had used up the best of their tire’s condition. This meant that the GT300 class pole position went to the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3.

 

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