2019.03.17

[Official test at Okayama: Day 2] WAKO'S 4CR LC500 takes Day 2 top time. K-tunes RC F GT3 ends at first place in GT300.

Official test: Okayama International Circuit 3/17 (Sun)

Day 2 of SUPER GT's official test took place on March 17 at Okayama International Circuit where the day broke in drizzling rain. Testing sessions were set in both morning and afternoon, but frequently changing weather kept the teams busy working on the car to adopt to the unstable weather condition in both sessions. Still, the track became dry from around midpoint of the afternoon session and teams were able to run their cars extensively to get them ready for the season opener in Okayama.

 

 

 

Session 3 was scheduled in the morning and started out on wet track with rain falling from the sky. One of the GT300 cars span right after the session start, forcing the session to be suspended already. Sun peeked out between the clouds as the session resumed and the track started to dry up. Sho Tsuboi, who is competing full time in the GT500 class for the first time in his career, in No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto / Sho Tsuboi) put himself at the highest position of the timing monitor. And then, after a while, the top place holder changed to James Rossiter in No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R and then to Tsugio Matsuda at the wheel of No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli).
However, the top time of the morning session was eventually marked by Kohei Hirate in No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R who lapped at 1 min 26.556 sec at the end of the session. With Frederic Makowiecki not participating in the test, Hirate took the steering wheel of No.3 car alone for four sessions in two days, "I was a bit worry since there was one-year blank period (in GT500) for me, but I had no problem in terms of physical fitness. It was actually a good opportunity to learn and get familiar with GT-R, which I drove for the first time, as well as my first Michelin tires. There are still many findings, so my priority is on the mileage (to drive longer in distance) rather than the lap time." He emphasized the importance of the test to him. Trailing right behind No.3 car was No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R mainly driven by Matsuda, and, thus, GT-R lined up in top two positions. No.38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) and No.1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button), driven by Ishiura and Yamamoto, respectively, followed the two GT-Rs with a small gap, so the three different car models in GT500 class could be pretty even on wet track surface.

 

 

NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500s were showing good runs during the test, and Motohiro Matsumura, who is the Chief Operating Offifcer (COO) of Nissan Motorsports International Co., Ltd. (NISMO) and also the Executive director overseeing all Nissan teams, shared squad's current situation, "We analyzed the results from last year and we put our focus on finding the right balance on the race car this season. (Due to the regulations) only area where we can play with in the aerodynamics is flick box, and it worked pretty well at Fuji round last year. Based on that, we set our main focus in the development as to improve the balance at other circuits as well this year while utilizing the good effect of the flick box. With the fuel-flow restrictor installed in the engine, we cannot increase the horsepower significantly, therefore, we looked closely on the characteristics of the torque curve, so we can improve the performance at wider range of engine rev. To be honest, I really don't know how we match up with the rivals since LEXUS and Honda don't seem to be running seriously quite yet."

 

 

 

Session 4 in the afternoon opened with a Race-start practice. Sky cleared out by the time and the track was dry. All cars excluding the pole sitter (top car from the day before) lined up on the starting grid in the order of lap times from Day 1 of the official test. Like in the real race, Taniguchi in No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) of GT300 class and Rossiter in No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R of GT500 class slowly rolled in their cars through the middle of the pack to the grid positions reserved for pole position. 1-lap parade lap was also carried, which was led by a police car of Okayama Prefecture police.
While the Session 4 seamlessly began after the practice, the clouds started to build up and eventually dropped rain and even hailstones. It didn't take too long before the track turned wet, causing a session suspension. Fortunately, the climate recovered quickly and blue sky extended over the circuit. Track condition changed to dry as the session resumed.
LEXUS LC500s were showing good lap times right after the restart. Yamashita in No.6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita), who took the wheel from the beginning of the session, marked 1 min 18.800 sec just before he handed over the car to Oshima with 20 minutes left in the session and that became the top time of the day. With Tachikawa in ZENT CERUMO LC500 and Kovalainen in No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen / Yuichi Nakayama) right behind, it was LC500 dominating the top three positions. No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takuya Izawa) placed fourth with a lap time marked by Nojiri. Sixth position by No.24 Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi / Jann Mardenborough) was the highest place out of all GT-Rs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the GT300 class, Haruki Kurosawa in No.65 LEON PYRAMID AMG marked a top time in rainy Session 3 in the morning. With his partner Naoya Gamou absent, Kurosawa described his two-day solo drive with a bitter smile on his face, "I'm whipping my aged body to go to work." Still, the defending GT300 champion looked relaxed as he gave comments after finishing the two-day testing without any issues, "I don't know what others are doing on their cars, and I was not particularly trying for a quick lap either..."
No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Sena Sakaguchi) was showing good runs from the beginning of its run in the afternoon. At around midpoint of the session, Nitta marked the best time of the day with a lap time of 1 min 25.455 sec, which almost broke the track record (1 min 25.044 sec). No.25 HOPPY 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui / Kimiya Sato / Takeshi Tsuchiya) was second fastest with No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi), No.34 Modulo KENWOOD NSX GT3 (Ryo Michigami / Hiroki Otsu), and No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) trailing behind with a mere gap. No.7 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii / Joao Paulo de Oliveira) fielding an Aston Martin, which is competing in the series for the first time this season, was sixth fastest of the class.

 

 

 

Despite the test being his first opportunity to drive in the GT300 class, Takashi Kogure in No.88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 ran the rainy morning session with a second fastest lap time of the class, and then young gun Yuya Motojima, possibly inspired by Kogure's drive, also clocked an impressive lap time to give the team fifth place in the session. Team Director Isao Noritake commented with a smile on his face, "We are planning to make an announcement about our team after the test scheduled at Fuji. Kogure is not only fast, but he is a veteran and knows everything, so I can sit back when I watch him drive."
SUPER GT's next official test will be held in two weeks at Fuji Speedway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Car is perfect. I couldn't drive enough with the weather like this, but I'm not worry at all because we were able to run our car smoothly in the private tests we had before here. But I think the rivals, NISSAN nor Honda, are definitely not running at full-fledged yet. Honda's speed in qualifying is just outrageous... But I think we are not losing any grounds, and the car feels good, so I will go for a win at the season opener in Okayama!　Rocket-start the season and then grab the championship, that is my plan for this year.

 

I'm happy about getting the top time, but, to be honest, I wanted to drive a little bit more. We couldn't thoroughly consume the menu we planned, and that hurts. Sena (Sakaguchi) has something good in his driving. But, since he had been driving mostly formula cars up to now, there are a lot that he has to learn like how SUPER GT cars run, battles against other cars during a race, etc. I wish we could had let him drive a lot more (during this test). But, you can't do anything with weather. We somehow need to find the tire we want and just do our best at the season opener in Okayama. It's team's hometown and I want to rocket-start the season. Make no mistakes, and then be on the podium, at least.

Page Top