2017.05.20

GT300 class fastest qualifier is the No.25 VivaC 86 MC

Round 3 Autopolis : Qualifying GT300

The official qualifying for the SUPER GT IN KYUSHU 300 km, Round 3 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit (Oita Pref.) on May 20. In the GT500 class, Naoki Yamamoto drove the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT to his personal first SUPER GT pole position. In the GT300 class, Takamitsu Matsui drove last year’s champion car, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC, to the team’s first PP of the season.

 

 

All of the teams were running at good pace once they started. But, three minutes into the session the No. 52 SAITAMA TOYOPET GreenBrave MARK X MC (Taku Bamba) ran off the track at the first hairpin. The machine hit the tire barrier lightly and came to a stop. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the session temporarily. There didn’t appear to be much damage to the machine, but since it had caused the Red Flag, car No. 52’s qualifying time was disqualified.
After a 9-minute stoppage, the Q1 session was resumed at 1:43 with ten minutes remaining. The first car to top the time board was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) with a time of 1’45.402, and the No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Bjorn Wirdheim) moved into 2nd position with a lap of 1’45.775. On the next lap, car No. 61 recorded a time of 1’45.224.

The driver who beat this time was last year’s All Japan F3 champion, Kenta Yamashita, who this year joined the GT300 champion team, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC. Yamashita was the first to break the 1’45 barrier with a time of 1’44.346 that put him on top of the time board. The No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) moved into 2nd position with a time of 1’44.707. As with the morning practice sessions, it became a contest between the mother chassis car and the Mercedes AMG GT3. But then, the No. 7 Studie BMW M6 (Seiji Ara) moved into 3rd position with a lap of 1’44.924. Due in part to the high temperatures, none of the leading teams could improve on their times much in the latter half of the session.
Near the end, the rookie Natsu Sakaguchi in the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET moved up from 15th to 13th position to qualify for his team for Q2 for his first time. Sakaguchi is a Fukuoka native and his performance was a big boost for the local morale.

 

 

Due largely to the Red Flag stopping of the Q1 session, the GT300 class Q2 session started 20 minutes later than scheduled at 2:35. This 12-minute session would determine the first 14 positions on the class starting grid. Running strongly from the start of the session was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT driven by Fukuoka native Takuto Iguchi. The first car to break the 1’44 barrier was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) with a time of 1’44.336 that put it at the top of the time board. Midway through the session, the FIA GT3 cars No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) and No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) followed in 2nd and 3rd places.
Breaking into this top three, however, came Kyushu-based TEAM MACH’s No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET. Its rookie, Kiyoto Fujinami, surprised all by jumping up into 2nd position with a time of 1’44.359.
With the high temperatures, it appeared that there would be few improvements in the times in the latter half of the session, but with just two minutes remaining, last year’s champion driver, Takamitsu Matsui in the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC drove a magnificent lap to record a dominating time of 1’43.702. At this point, one minute remained before the end of the session, but the lead teams were deciding to end their session early by reducing speed and returning to the pit.

This meant that the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC took pole position, having recorded the fastest times in both the Q1 and Q2 sessions. The 2nd qualifier was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT team that had disappointingly scored no points in the previous two rounds but was now in position to make up for their poor season start. Qualifying 3rd came the No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET, and the other car that would sit of the second row of the grid (4th qualifier) was the No. 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3. Fifth grid position went to the No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3, while this season’s opening round winner, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG took 6th place, followed by the previous round’s winner, the No. 51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Q2 driven by Yuichi Nakayama) qualified 7th.

 

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