2018.04.16

[Official test at Suzuka: Day 1] RAYBRIG NSX-GT' Button gets first top time! GT300 top time goes to SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS

On April 16, the first day of SUPER GT Official Tests was held at Suzuka Circuit, while the excitement of the 2018 series opening round was still fresh in everyone’s mind. The weather was fair from early morning and the track would remain completely dry the whole day. From this season, the SUPER GT race at Suzuka is being held as Round 3, and it will take place from May 19 and 20. And, since the race distance will be reduced to 300 km from last year’s 1,000 km, it will require new strategy and tire choices. These Official Tests are scheduled to continue until tomorrow.

 

 

 

Despite it being a weekday, many fans gathered at Suzuka from early in the morning. The two-hour morning session started from 10:00. Early in the session the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy) delivered some fast times. At the wheel of No. 1, Hirakawa broke the course record (1’47.074) with a time of 1’46.899. After that it was some time before any other cars could break into the 1’46 range. It was in the second half of the session that the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button) recorded a time of 1’46.818. And just after that Hirakawa dropped his time to 1’46.542, the fastest time of the morning session.
The main objective for the teams in these tests was to choose their tires and machine settings for the coming Round 3 race at Suzuka just one month ahead (race day: May 20). After the Honda NSX-GT’s stunning one-two finish in the season opener at Okayama, The SUPER GT project leader at the Honda R&D Co.,Ltd (HRD Sakura), Masahiro Saeki, commented, “With no weight handicap, we have analyzed our performance in that race and decided that we are able to compete on equal terms with the our rivals. So we started the season well, but we weren’t able to prepare this season’s new engine in time for these tests, so we are running with last year’s engine.” Saeki went on to say, “The other teams are probably running here carrying some weights in expectation of that will happen in Round 2. Although I can’t give any specific numbers, this year’s engine is definitely more powerful than last year’s and I hope the teams will be taking that into consideration when evaluating these tests,” showing clearly that he was satisfied with the way things were going.

 

 

The second session began at 2:20 in the afternoon, and the teams began doing long-runs. In the early going Nakajima in the No. 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh/Daisuke Nakajima) and Button in the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT were first and second in their lap times. Following them, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Katsumasa Chiyo) was next fastest. After that, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa) and the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Mitsunori Takaboshi) joined the leaders with close series of times. Then, the winner of the opening round, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure) recorded a top time of 1’46.606 to end the session of mixed GT500 and GT300 class tests.
In the last three minutes of the exclusive GT500 session, the teams began to make their final timed laps. Here it was Takaboshi in the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R that recorded a 1’46.177 lap time. Just after that Ishiura in the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) broke the 1’46 barrier with a time of 1’45.903.
Just when it looked as if this would be the top time of the session, Button in the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT came through at the last minute with a series of fast times, finally crossing the goal line in the day’s top time of 1’45.787.

 

 

 

 

In the GT300 class, the course record (1’57.543) would also fall in the morning session. It was Katoh in the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh) who recorded a time of 1’57.162 about 10 minutes into the session. Their Lotus MC had reportedly undergone a bid update since the opening round. According to Katoh, “Efforts to reduce drag, ended up eliminating a lot of down-force as well.”
But, in the final stages of the session Taniguchi in the No. 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) came through with a top time of 1’57.005. From third fastest down came the No. 9 GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 (Rintaro Kubo/Keishi Ishikawa), followed by the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard Lyons/Ryuichiro Tomita/Takuro Shinohara), the No. 25 HOPPY 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui/Sho Tsuboi) and the No. 18 UPGARAGE 86 MC (Yuki Nakayama/Takashi Kobayashi) FIA GT3, thus leaving the FIA GT3 and mother chassis teams in an uphill battle.

In the afternoon session again, the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS recorded the top times as the session progressed. Katoh improved on the best time recorded by the GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG in the morning session with a lap of 1’56.820. This was followed by Kataoka in the GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG and Tsuboi in the No. 25 HOPPY 86 MC with times in the upper 1’57 range. Then, in the Exclusive GT300 session, Tomonobu Fujii in the No. 7 D'station Porsche recorded a time of 1’57.450 to claim the 2nd fastest GT300 time of the day.

 

   

 

 

Many fans had turned out to watch the action at Suzuka despite this being a weekday. For those already holding a ticket for Round 3 of the series here at Suzuka, admission was free!
Unlike the series races, these Official Tests showed a less tense side of the team members. Behind the pits, the drivers were friendly and a number of them were kindly signing autographs for the fans. There was also a Circuit Safari event held after the morning session.

 

 

 

I am very happy I was able to get the top time in my session today. The feeling of the car was good. The balance is good and it is fun to drive. I was able to get in a lot of running time in the afternoon. During the longer run I was able to see how the performance of the tires changed. And having recorded the fastest time has given me confidence in myself. Near the end we had trouble in the steering mechanism and it made the steering very heavy, but I don’t think it is a serious problem. In the end it has been a very happy day for me.

 

We did a review and made a few changes in the car. Compared to Okayama, the drag has been reduced and that has reduced the down-force as well. Although I got the top time today, I don’t know the conditions under which the other teams are running. It looked as if our neighbor (the No. 18 UPGARAGE 86 MC) was running with quite a bit of handicap weight (wry laugh). So, we can’t get too confident. I think that in the afternoon session we got to the point where we can set the type of tires we will use for the race, but I think all the other teams will be ready to deliver some fast times when the actual qualifying begins. That means the MC cars that are fast on the straights will be hard to handle. I hope we can come up with a few good ideas (for the settings) by then.

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