2016.08.06

ARTA BMW M6 GT3 wins third consecutive GT300 Pole at Fuji

Round5 Fuji Speedway : Qualifying GT300 Review

Official qualifying for the FUJI GT 300km RACE, Round 5 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.) on the afternoon of August 6. In the GT500 class, Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira in the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R won his second consecutive pole position at Fuji Speedway. In the GT300 class, Takashi Kobayashi won the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 team its third consecutive class pole at Fuji.

 

Almost all of the cars went onto the track as soon as the GT300 class 1 began. As they warmed up their tires, their lap times got faster, but none were getting under the 1’ 40 barrier. The first car to get down into the 1’39 range was the No. 360 RUNUP Group&DOES GT-R (Yusaku Shibata), after which one car after another set a new top time, with No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Jann Mardenborough) topping the rush with a time of 1’38.873. But that time was soon beaten by the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 (Masami Kageyama), No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya) and finally the No. 26 AUDI R8 LMS (Yuya Motojima) with a time of 1’38.631 to top them all.
But this battle for the top of the time board was all but blown away when the fastest car of the morning official practice, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi) made a do-or-die attack and came home with a time of 1’37.600 that bettered the time of cat No. 26 by more than a second. After that, cars like the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga), No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Naoya Gamou) and the No. 30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Kota Sasaki) managed to improve on their best times in the 1’38 range but failed to come within reach of car No. 55’s time.
With four minutes left in the session, the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) came close to No. 55’s time with a lap of 1’37.742. Then Fujii made another flying lap and looked to be on his way to an even faster time, but just then the Red Flag was shown to stop the action on the track. The No. 108 DIRECTION 108 HURACAN (Kyosuke Mineo) had come to a stop on the in side of the 300R curve, temporarily suspending the session. For Fujii it would be a devastating Red Flag, and it was also tragic for the teams that were just preparing to run their final time attacks.
The session was restarted at 14:42, but only three minutes and 52 seconds remained. It was in this interval that the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine) managed to move up to 13th place on the time board, and the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Kato) made a desperate attack to get a time of 1’38.025 and jump up to 3rd position. However, these were the only two cars that managed to dramatically improve their positions. But the sixth fastest in the morning practice and winner of Round 2 at Fuji, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R and the No. 0 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Andrea Couto) and the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller) all failed to clear Q1 as a result.

 

 

Due to factors like the Q1 Red Flag, the GT300 Q2 started behind schedule at 15:16. With the high air and track surface temperatures, the teams were quick to get out on the track and begin their time attacks. The second fastest car from Q1, the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons) ran a 1’38.225 on his second timed lap. Then the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi), recorded a 1’38.145 lap and the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido) a 1’38.638, followed by the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) improving its best to a time of 38.816.
As in Q1, it was the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) that blew the competition away with a lap of 1’37.545. The No. 51 JMS LMcorsa 488 GT3 (Morio Niita) recorded a lap of 1’37.908, but it couldn’t match the lap of car No. 55. Also, car No. 21 brought its time down to 1’37.889, but that was still a big 0.34 seconds of car No. 55’s time. With about three minutes left in the session, the wear on the tires made it hard for any cars to bring their times down any more. On its last time attack in the last minute of the session, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) moved up into 4th position.
In the end, the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 team got their second consecutive pole position at Fuji, and when you add their PP from last year with the CR-Z at Round 4, it is their third consecutive PP. For Shinichi Takagi it is his 11th GT300 class pole. Having started from pole position in Round 2 at Fuji earlier this season and finishing 2nd in the race, like car No. 12 in GT500, car No. 55 will be out for “revenge.”
In terms of times, car No. 55 is ahead of the pack, but behind car 21 in 2nd position, it is a tight competition with ten cars within the space of less than one second.

 

Page Top