2018.03.24

[Official test at Fuji: Day 1] Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R fastest of Day 1! ARTA BMW M6 GT3 tops GT300.

With the opening round of this season approaching in two weeks, SUPER GT's official test started at Fuji Speedway on March 24. Though rain dropped in previous night, the day started out with cloudy sky from the morning with sunlight shining down from blue sky that peeked off and on. Track surface was dry throughout the day. 2-hour session was set each in the morning and the afternoon on the day, and the cars were running extensively on the track as the teams energetically worked on the checkup for the season opener as well as on tire selection for the Round 2, which will be held at Fuji on May 3rd - 4th. Testing at Fuji will continue till tomorrow, March 25th.

 

 

 

Being the first official test of the season in eastern Japan, many fans from the Kanto area turned up at the circuit from early morning, possible implication of their expectation for the season opener. Although not as much as last year, LEXUS LC500 continued to show off strong performance at this year's official test. Top time of the morning session was marked by reigning champion No.1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy) with 1 min 29.014 sec. No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita) followed with a small gap of 0.068 sec to complete one-two by LC500 in the session.

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough) placed at third. With No.12 car at the head, all four NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500s secured their positions in the top 9.

On the other hand, the highest position the Honda NSX-GT squad obtained was the seventh position by No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button). "We are continuing with the development work till last minutes, so for this engine built with the real race specification, this is the first test on a car actually running. We want to fine tune it as much as we can in this two days. I think we still have a lot of room to improve from here." Project leader Masahiro Saeki from HRD Sakura, Honda R & D, explained the situation.

 

 

Being the first official test of the season in eastern Japan, many fans from the Kanto area turned up at the circuit from early morning, possible implication of their expectation for the season opener. Although not as much as last year, LEXUS LC500 continued to show off strong performance at this year's official test. Top time of the morning session was marked by reigning champion No.1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy) with 1 min 29.014 sec. No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita) followed with a small gap of 0.068 sec to complete one-two by LC500 in the session.

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough) placed at third. With No.12 car at the head, all four NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500s secured their positions in the top 9.

On the other hand, the highest position the Honda NSX-GT squad obtained was the seventh position by No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button). "We are continuing with the development work till last minutes, so for this engine built with the real race specification, this is the first test on a car actually running. We want to fine tune it as much as we can in this two days. I think we still have a lot of room to improve from here." Project leader Masahiro Saeki from HRD Sakura, Honda R & D, explained the situation.

 

 

 

 

Unlike the technical circuit of Okayama where the official test was held last week, Fuji is more suitable to the power machines especially with the long straightaway. As a consequence, the FIA GT3 cars with large horsepower occupied the top portion. In the morning, No.21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons / Ryuichiro Tomita / Takuro Shinohara) was the quickest. The Audi was trailed by No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw) and No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka).

In the afternoon, No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw) marked the fastest lap time of the day. No.7 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii) and No.360 RUNUP GT-R (Yusaku Shibata / Atsushi Tanaka / Takayuki Aoki) placed second and third, respectively.

Many concerns arose during the Okayama test for Honda NSX GT3, but the car was looking good on the day and No.34 Modulo KENWOOD NSX GT3 (Ryo Michigami / Hiroki Otsu) vaulted up to six place in the morning. No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), which deployed a brand new car at this test, placed ninth overall of Day 1. Although the brand new car is not a new model and just simply a new car, Kataoka said, "Brand new car is always good. I can feel the change even with a small change in the setting." He was pleased with the change from the fatigue car that fought through a number of intense battles last year.

Faced with issues during the morning session, No.25 HOPPY 86 MC (Sho Tsuboi) and No.52 SAITAMA TOYOPET GreenBrave MARK X MC (Taku Bamba / Shigekazu Wakisaka) did not run in the afternoon session.

 

   

 

 

Official test enabled attractive programs for the fans that wouldn't be seen at a real race.
The official test was open to public and many fans had gathered at the venue on the day.

 

 

 

 

I'm competing in the GT500 full time for the first time in my career this season. But since I was able to drive a lot from the private test to here, I'm not puzzled any more. I got the top time at the end in the afternoon session, but it (lap time) didn't go down as much as I expected. I wanted to cut a half of a second more. If you look at each sector, the sector 3 lacked a bit of balance. The time just came out when I was doing attacks with different types of tire. But, after all, the fact that I was able to warm up the tire sufficiently and did well in qualifying simulation is a takeaway. Now, we need to convert the setting for qualifying into a race setting. That's the issue we need to work on from going forward.

 

We received a little bit firmer spring as an update parts, and things went in a good direction after we installed it. We marked a top time during the first session at Okayama test, but it was completely bad when we tried a race setting with that tire. So we were like "what are we gonna do?" (laugh). We just need to see how it's going to turn out this time. If the tire we got the top time with today can perform well with a race setting, then we can expect for Fuji since we had a good result there last year. We tested many different tires, not only new tires, and none of them felt bad. The balance is pretty good. So, I hope we can get a good result in a long (race-simulated run) tomorrow.

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