2018.07.27

[Round 5 Preview] Season's longest 500-mile race! Who will conquer the midsummer battle?

Round 5 Fuji Speedway : Preview

It’s been around one month since Round 4 race in Thailand. The stage is back to Japan for SUPER GT’s Round 5 "FUJI GT 500 mile RACE" taking place on August 4th (Saturday, Qualifying) and 5th (Sunday, Race). Championship contention is getting very intense in both classes. Being the first race in the second half of the 8-race season, upcoming Fuji round can be a critical step towards the title. We can expect for exciting battles that won’t let you take your eyes off despite the distance.

 

 

Last year’s Round 5 Fuji was held as a 300km race, but this year the event has become the longest race of the season with a race distance of 500 miles, or around 805 kilometers. Without a doubt, the possibility of encountering unpredictable events would be higher than usual. In addition, the summer has been tremendously hot this year. Summer heat can create issues too.
In such situation, race strategy for when to come into the pit, etc. would be very important. Supplementary regulations of Round 5 mandates each team to have driver change at least four times during the race. How should the order and driving distance of drivers be? What about tires? Team manager and engineer’s ability to select right strategy or make right decision would have more importance in the outcome of the race besides the speed of the driver or car at upcoming Fuji race.

 

 

With LEXUS LC500 of No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen / Kamui Kobayashi) winning the race at previous Thai round, now all three models of GT500 have scored a win. However, may be the stunning start of the season last year made it to stand out even more, but LC500s appeared struggling in the early half of this season. Rumor tells that the squad could be deploying the second engine out of which only two engines are permitted in a year. First team to watch would be No.36 au TOM’S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima / Yuhi Sekiguchi) that showed impressive speed at previous Thai race. Although the team experienced heartbreaking last lap at Thai, in return the handicap weight is rather light at 30kg. TOM’S has been strong at long-distance races like Suzuka 1000km, and, thus, some call them as the top candidate. Contrastingly, heavy 70kg handicap weight may force current point-leader DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 to take a strategy for securing a position as higher as possible so that they can take home more points as much as possible.

 

 

Fuji also hosted Round 2 in May, and No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) dominantly won the race. In addition, the high-speed track of Fuji is a favorable circuit to NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 too. Nonetheless, MOTUL AUTECH GT-R may need to settle for points considering that their handicap weight has accumulated to 62kg. As far as the GT-R squad is concerned, teams that are hungry for a win backed by a lighter handicap weight would be their hope for the victory, and No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo) and No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough) satisfy the criteria.

 

 

Honda NSX-GT fleet could not pull off good results at Round 2 Fuji. However, there should be a chance for the fleet to sneak in considering the long race distance with key teams carrying heavy handicap weights. In such context, expectations would be on No.16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima) as well as No.64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette / Kosuke Matsuura) with also a light handicap weight.

With the season reaching the halfway point, it would also be interesting to see what automakers are doing in their development of the car and how the cars are actually changing. LC500 squad could be deploying a new engine, but how about their rivals? If you go with the theory, a new engine should be coming in from Round 6 after finishing this long-distance race. However, a member from Honda looked even more confident with their current engine, "We can deploy the second engine at the final round (and use the first engine until then)." Lets look closely on how they will manage the situation not only upcoming Fuji but also next race at SUGO.

 

 

 

There is no one dominant team in the GT300 class up to this point and any teams can be in the title contention if they finish in the top group at upcoming Round 5. However, defending champion No.0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) would still be a team to watch despite such situation in the GT300 class. Although they have scored points at every race in past four rounds, they have not captured a podium finish yet. The team as well as drivers are reputed as a master of racing, and it won’t be surprising to see them coming in with strong determination to win this long-distance battle.
FIA GT3 cars with powerful engine are considered to have advantage at the high-speed track of Fuji. Among them, Round 2 Fuji winner No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Sean Walkinshaw) and last year’s Suzuka 1000km winner No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) should be added to the candidate list.

 

   

 

However, JAF-GT300 and mother-chassis cars should not be underestimated either at long-distance races, therefore, the hope is still high for No.31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Kohei Hirate) with strong record at Fuji as well as two-time Suzuka 1000km winner No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi). For No.25 HOPPY 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui / Sho Tsuboi) and No.18 UPGARAGE 86 MC (Yuhki Nakayama / Takashi Kobayashi) with mother-chassis cars which are known to be easy on the tires, there is an option of no tire change if required to beat opponents.
Nonetheless, race strategy is a critical factor for win or lose in the GT300 class where the difference in performance among all cars are very small and that is even more so at a long-distance race. LEON CVSTOS AMG took a strategy to complete the mandated pit-stop on the first lap and successfully won the race at last year’s Suzuka 1000km. Teams with mother-chassis cars may be able to gain a few decades of seconds by doing two pit-stops without tire change. Usage of a third driver is also an important factor. No.30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Hiroaki Nagai / Kota Sasaki) is adding Manabu Orido, who holds winning experience in both classes, and No.360 RUNUP RIVAUX GT-R will be joined by former GT500 and GT300 champion Masataka Yanagida as single-race participation. No.117 EIcars BENTLEY (Yuji Ide / Ryohei Sakaguchi) will also have a third driver, Jules Gounon, who is a works driver of Bentley. The team is also expecting to receive support from Bentley headquarter by this opportunity, which can help in accelerating the improvement of the car in rest of the season.

 

   

 

 

Round 5 Fuji is the first race in the second half of this season. Fans can expect a sizzling hot race that can bring heat hotter than the temperature.

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