2018.10.20

ARTA NSX-GT wins its second pole position of the season!

Round 7 Autopolis : Qualifying GT500

The official qualifying for the AUTOPOLIS GT 300km Race, Round 7 of the 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS circuit (Oita Pref.) on October 20. In the GT500 class, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa ran a course record to win pole position for the second time this season following the one at Round 3 at Suzuka. In the GT300 class, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui/Sho Tsuboi) that won the AUTOPOLIS race from pole position last year took its second consecutive the pole for the race.

 

 

The AUTOPOLIS GT 300km RACE took place as Round 7 of this year’s series. The qualifying day dawned with a real chill in the air. Around noon, as the sun began to shine through the clouds the air and track temperatures rose. As the start of the official qualifying approached there were clear skies overhead.

In the GT300 class Q1 session that started at 2:30 in the afternoon, one of the cars spun out and came to a stop on the track, bringing out the red flag. As a result, the GT500 Q1 began four minutes late at 2:54. With nine minutes remaining in the session, car No. 19 was the first out on the track and was soon followed by the others. But it wasn’t until the last five minutes of the session that all of the cars had left the pit.

The first time attack was by the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button) on its third lap. Button thrilled the crowd with a time of 1’32.854, just short of the track record (1’32.835) set by Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira in the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R in 2015. But it was the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette) that soon broke the old record with a time of 1’32.776. Next, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-G (Takuya Izawa) broke the record again with a 1’32.706 lap, only to be beaten immediately by the No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure) with a 1’32.650, in an amazing record rush by the NSX-GT cars. With this, the top four times were all by NSX-GT cars in the 1’32 range. When the No. 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh) recorded the 8th fastest time, it meant that all five NSX-GT cars had qualified for Q2.

Among the LC500 cars, it was finally the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) that broke into the top group of NSX-GTs with a 3rd-place time of 1’32.769. As for the NISSAN GT-R NISNO GT500 teams, the best time was 11th-place lap time of the No. 12 CALSONICIMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki), which meant that all four Nissan cars would fail to reach Q2.

 

 

The 10-minute GT500 class Q2 session started at 3:37. This time it was the No. 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT (Kosuke Matsuura) and the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi) that took to the track first, two minutes into the session. And by the time the session was down to six minutes, all eight cars were on the track preparing for their time attacks. Once they began, it was the Koudai Tsukakoshi in the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT that was first to record a time in the 1’31 range and break the new course record set in Q1. He had shaved 0.7 sec. off his teammate’s time to bring the record down to 1’31.989.

But that record wasn’t to stand for long, as Tomoki Nojiri in the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT beat No. 17’s time by 0.5 sec. with a new record time of 1’31.441. With what for the GT500 class is a large margin of 0.548 sec., even the other NSX-GT machines couldn’t approach Nojiri’s time. In the end, the ARTA NSX-GT took pole position for the second time this season, following its pole in Round 3 at Suzuka. For the NSX-GT it was the fifth pole position in seven rounds this season.
The No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) recorded the third fastest time, giving the NSX-GT a sweep of the top three positions. With this result, it promises to be a hot contest for the lead between these NSX-GT teams in the early stages of tomorrow’s race. Finishing out the qualifying in 4th and 5th places respectively were the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 and No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy), and from there they will be out to turn the tables on the leaders.

 

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