2016.10.08

First Pole Position for WedsSport ADVAN RC F Team's Sekiguchi!

Round 7 Thailand : Qualifying GT500 Review

The official qualifying for the BURIRAM SUPER GT RACE, Round 7 of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held on the afternoon of October 8th at the Chang International Circuit (Thailand). In the GT500 class, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F team’s Yuhi Sekiguchi won his first pole position ever in this class. In the GT300 class, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC driven by Takamitsu Matsui won the class PP here in Thailand for the second year in a row.

 

After the morning’s official practice that started at 10:00 a.m. and the afternoon Pit Walk event, the official qualifying for Round 7 of the SUPER GT series at Chang International Circuit. Just as the Pit Walk event was ending at about 2:30 p.m., large drops of rain began to fall on the circuit. Fortunately, the rain soon stopped, leaving the track in dry condition for the start of start of the GT300 class Q1 qualifying session. The air temperature at the start of the session was 30 degrees Celsius and the track surface temperature was 38 degrees, relatively hot conditions for the qualifying.

Following the GT300 class Q1 session, the GT500 Q1 began on time at 3:20 in the afternoon. The fastest eight cars in this 15-minute session would go on to compete for pole position in the subsequent Q2 session.
With nine minutes remaining in the session, the first car to enter the track was same one that had recorded the fastest time in the morning practice, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuji Kunimoto). Next onto the track was the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Masataka Yanagida). Then, with just under eight minutes remaining in the session, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) and the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F (Kazuya Oshima) came out in quick succession.
First, it was Kunimoto in the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F that began to quicken his lap times. But, the first to record a satisfyingly fast time on his third lap was Oshima in the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F. His time of 1’24.462 then became the target time as the other machines commenced their timed laps.
Eventually, however, none would beat that time by Oshima and it remained the fastest time when the Q1 session ended, making the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F the fastest qualifier for Q2. The second fastest in this Q1 session was the No. 8 ARTA NSX CONCEPT-GT (Tomoki Nojiri), followed in 3rd position by the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (Ryo Hirakawa). During the session, there was a tense moment when Mutoh in the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT spun out, but fortunately it didn’t result in a crash and No. 15 was able to qualify for Q2 in 7th position.

Perhaps because of their weight handicaps, many of the top teams in the season ranking had a difficult time in Q1. The point-leading No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was only able to qualify in 14th position, while the second-ranked No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Yuji Tachikawa) finished the Q1session in 11th place and the third-ranked No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Heikki Kovalainen) came in 10, meaning that all three failed to qualify for the 2 session.

 

 

After the GT300 class Q2 session, the GT500 class Q2 started at 3:05 p.m. In this 12-minute session the eight contestants would be going for pole position. Around this time, a dark cloud that looked ominously like a squall could be seen in the distance beyond the first turn, but fortunately the Q2 session started in dry conditions despite the darkening sky. As in Q1, the first car to take to the track was the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuhi Sekiguchi). Just after the remaining time in the session passed eight minutes, the other cars came onto the track one after another.
The first among them to post a leading time was No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira), with a time of 1’24.466. As the other teams ran on with this time as their target the first to better it on his sixth lap was the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F team’s Sekiguchi, who came to this round hot off a second win in the Super Four Muller. His fantastic time of 1’24.307, he presented his LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH with its second pole position. For Sekiguchi, this was his first-ever pole in GT500 competition and his joy was obvious as he got out of the car and ran to the pit to celebrate with Kunimoto and the rest of the team.

Besides Sekiguchi PP in the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F, another performance that surprised the fans was that of the No. 15 Drago Modulo NSX CONCEPT-GT. Its driver in Q2 was the rookie Tadasuke Makino, who recorded a blistering time of 1’24.340 just before the checkers ended the session, putting him in 2nd position! But, when he got out of his machine it was with a look of disappointment that belied his achievement in his first-ever GT500 qualifying. He then commented, “I wasn’t able to use the tires fully.”
Qualifying 3rd was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, giving one spot in the top three to each of the three carmakers. The No. 8 ARTA NSX CONCEPT-GT (Kosuke Matsuura) qualified 4th and the 2015 winning team, the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama), stood in 5th position.

 

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