2017.07.14

[Round 4 Preview] Season moves on to sizzling middle phase! Will it be dramatic SUGO again this year!?

Round 4 Sportsland Sugo : Preview

After two-month interval from Round 3 Autopolis, the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT is moving on to the middle phase of the season. "Midsummer triple" races held in the middle phase of the season between late July and the end of August have a higher significance to any teams. First of the midsummer triple is the Round 4 "SUGO GT 300km RACE" held at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Prefecture) on July 22 and 23. Upcoming SUPER GT race at SUGO has been a place for many unexpected stories that many call it "Dramatic SUGO." This year's event should be no different in showcasing dramatic excitement and the teams are also expected to demonstrate the improvement they worked on during the interval.

 

 

There was no race for two months since Round 3, but it does not mean that teams were not doing anything. In June, official tests were held at two hosting circuits of Round 4 SUGO and Round 6 Suzuka. Especially, all four sessions held at the two-day test at Sportsland SUGO were on dry track and four different cars marked the top time of each session: No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takashi Kobayashi), No16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima), No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto. Only Sekiguchi participated in the test.), and No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo). Just by looking at the outcome of the test, the Honda NSX-GT and Nissan GT-R squads seem to be making up leeway after what it looked to be a complete domination over the rivals by the Lexus LC500 fleet at the beginning of the season.

 

 

Moreover, Honda NSX-GT has been showing impressive performance at every race on this technical SUGO despite the number of wins, and, thus, it is only natural that the expectation gets high for the first win of the season for the fleet. Among the fleet, No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure) is in good form finishing second at the previous race at Autopolis plus the two drivers are both strong at SUGO. No.8 ARTA NSX-GT and No.16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT, coming out with good results from the test, and No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Takuya Izawa), finishing third after starting from pole position at the previous Autopolis race, can also be counted on.
Contrastingly, the rough road still continues for the Nissan GT-R squad, but, at the same time, they also appear to be closing in the gap against the rivals as they go through races and testing. No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) and No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R wearing Michelin tire may see improvements in their performance as we move on to hot season as the tire is resistant to track surface temperature increase. Defending SUGO winner No.24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) is also another key player on the field.

 

 

Indeed the official test at SUGO in June highlighted the upturn of Honda NSX-GT and Nissan GT-R squads, but it does not necessarily mean that the Lexus LC500 fleet lost its advantage. Cars that clinched upper positions in the first three races are now loading increased handicap weight. With the weight, they have to take a strategy to concentrate on constantly finish in points and target a win if there is chance in the middle phase of the season.
Nonetheless, it won't be a surprise to see No38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) or No.6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli) winning at SUGO despite both carrying 60 kg of handicap weight considering the team as well as the drivers have been strong at SUGO in past years. No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 is carrying a rather light handicap weight out of the LC500 squad at only 18kg and the upcoming race is truly the chance they have been waiting for. Their drivers, Sekiguchi and Kunimoto, are showing good performances at other category racing also, so there must be many that name the team as the top candidate for victory.

 

 

 

The 2017 SUPER GT series started with notable performances by Mercedes AMG GT3 cars including the season opening win by No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) in the GT300 class. However, the current second place in the drivers ranking is Round 2 Fuji winner No.51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Yuichi Nakayama / Sho Tsuboi) with No.25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui / Kenta Yamashita), the defending champion and the winner of Round 3 Autopolis, leading the championship. Even so, there are still 12 cars cramming within 20 points (1 win) from the top ranked No.25 car, but this will most likely be sorted out after the three races during the summer.

 

   

 

Since the stage of Round 4, Sportsland SUGO, is very technical track, the JAF-GT300 as well as mother-chassis cars would be advantageous with their flexibility in the setup. On the other hand, Round 5 Fuji and Round 6 Suzuka will be on the tracks which are favorable to the powerful FIA GT3 cars, therefore, upcoming SUGO will be a vital point to the teams fielding a JAF-GT300 or mother-chassis car.K Especially, No.25 VivaC 86 MC aiming for consecutive title this season would want to try to finish on podium as much as possible though winning the race would be difficult due to the handicap weight. Similarly, with a good track record and a win last year at SUGO, No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Rintaro Kubo) along with No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) would want to score big points here.

Still, No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG or No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) fielding Mercedes AMG GT3, typically strong on a technical track, could well be an opposing force out of the FIA GT3 cars. Eyes should also kept on the cars like No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi) with comparably light handicap weight, No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido / Kazuki Hiramine) favoring SUGO, and the BMW M6 GT3s that were showing good performances at the official test at SUGO, No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw) and No.7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Muller / Seiji Ara).

 

   

 

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