2017.07.22

In the GT300 class, reigning champion VivaC 86 MC team shows its strength with a second consecutive pole position!

Round 4 Sportsland Sugo : Qualifying GT300

The official qualifying for the “SUGO GT 300km RACE,” Round 4 of the 2017 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held at Sportsland SUGO circuit (Miyagi Prefecture) on July 22. In the GT500 class qualifying, Tomoki Nojiri drove the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT to his first career GT500 pole position. In the GT300 class, the 2016 champion team, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC, won a second consecutive class pole.

 

 

The No. 5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET that had crashed in the practice session and damaged the car’s rear end enough to require repairs was unfortunately unable to run in the qualifying when replacement parts failed to arrive in time.
The GT300 class Q1 started at 2:10 in the afternoon. Five minutes after the session started, the No. 33 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii) was the first to take to the track and succeeded in posting a lap time in the 1’19 range, and then the No. 9 GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 (Jono Lester) ran a 1’19.834 that then became the first target time. At this time, the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh) that stood in 5th position ran off the track at the third corner, throwing up a cloud of dust as it came to a stop on the gravel. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the session. With no serious damage visible, No. 2 returned to the pit, but because it had caused the Red Flag, according to the sporting regulation its qualifying time was disqualified.
The Q1 session was then restarted at 2:21 with ten minutes remaining to run. The cars were soon running lap after lap in the 1’19 range and the top spot changed hands rapidly. 1’19.
With five minutes remaining in the session, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) came in suddenly with a lap time of 1’18.836 to move to the top of the timing monitor. This time was followed by the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Kenta Yamashita) with a 1’19.034. With three minutes remaining, the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Shintaro Kawabata) also broke into the 1’18 range with a time of 1’18.941, but it still stood 0.105 sec. slower than car No. 61. With this, the top three cars in Q1 were the No. 61 and No. 18 Mother Chassis (GTA) cars followed by a JAF-GT300 car (No. 60) in third position.
Also of note was the very respectable 9th-position time of the No. 52 SAITAMA TOYOPET GreenBrave MARK X MC (Taku Bamba) participating in GT300 for the first time this season. This finish qualified No. 52 to move on to Q2 for the first time here in fourth round of the series. As for the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Akira Iida) that had record the fastest time in the morning’s official practice, it also cleared Q1 by finishing 8th. The last car to qualify for 2 by finishing in 14th position was last year’s winner at SUGO, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Rintaro Kubo).

 

 

The 12-minute GT300 class Q2 started at 3:01. After each car had warmed up its tires for one or two laps and had just begun making their timed laps, an accident occurred. The No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido) ran off the track on the in-side of the SP corner and crashed into the wall. This immediately brought out the Red Flag to stop the session. Fortunately, the machine didn’t suffer much damage, but because it had caused the Red Flag, No. 88’s qualifying time was disqualified, relegating it to 14th place among the 14 Q2 competitors. Meanwhile, around the same time, the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Masataka Yanagida) that had qualified 12th in Q1 began to slow down. Although it managed to return to the pit under its own power, the Q2 session ended before it was able to run a timed lap.
The GT300 class Q2 was restarted at 3:15 with seven minutes remaining in the session. Entering the last three minutes, the cars began making their serious time attacks. First, it was the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Hiroki Yoshimoto) that ran a great lap of 1’18.753 to move to the top of the timing monitor. Then it was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) that also ran a time in 18-sec. range, but not as fast as No. 60. In the last two minutes of the session the No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 (Yuhki Nakayama) turned in a time of 1’18.753 to take the top position, and by this time No. 60 had already returned to the pit and No. 18 looked to be in position to take the pole. However, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) then ran its second attack in a time of 1’18.657, to beat No. 18’s time by a mere 0.096 sec. In the one minute remaining, no car was able to beat No. 25’s time.
For the VivaC 86 MC’s Matsui it was his fourth pole position and the second in a row following the pole he took at Round 3 at Autopolis. The No. 18 UPGARAGE BANDOH 86 qualified 2nd, meaning that two Mother Chassis (GTA) cars would start on the front line in Sunday’s race. Taking 3rd position was the FIA GT3 car No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3.

 

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