2020.03.14

【Official test at Okayama: Day 1】 KEIHIN NSX-GT clocks fastest lap time at the end! Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS tops GT300.

Official Test: Okayama International Circuit 3/14 (Sat)

With the season-opening Okayama round of 2020 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series (April 11 and 12) approaching, the first SUPER GT Official Test of the year started on March 14 at Okayama International Circuit. Practice session for nearly two hours was set each in the morning and the afternoon on Day 1. With the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the fan appreciation day of Okayama International Circuit was canceled and the official test was decided to be held without spectators. Despite the situation along with poor condition with the track surface being wet majority of the practice session time, the teams were working vigorously and sent their cars out to the track for long runs.

 

 

 

　Okayama International Circuit underwent an improvement work on its track during the offseason and the safety of the track has been re-enhanced. However, the light rain shower that started from early morning put the track to a complete wet condition. Although misty rain remained when Session 1 started at 10:00AM, rainfall halted after about 15 minutes into the session which gradually reduced the volume of the water on the track surface. All 15 regular participating cars of this season and a test car of NISMO (No.230 car) took part in the first official test from the GT500 class.

 

　Air temperature as well as track surface temperature started to rise as a glimpse of sunlight also began to shine on the circuit after one hour into Session 1. Dry spots started to show on the track along the record line. As the condition changed, the top lap time also started to pick up from the 1 min 29 sec mark initially to the 1 min 25 sec mark even while cars staying with the wet-tires.

 

　At 15 minutes to go of Session 1, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / Kazuki Hiramine) wearing slick tires for dry track surface cut its lap time drastically down into the 1 min 19 sec mark. Other teams also started to run with slick tires. Nojiri driving No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Nirei Fukuzumi) was quick to mark a top time with 1 min 19.202 sec. Baguette in No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Bertrand Baguette) followed with 1 min 19.638 sec. Session 1 came to a close with two NSX-GTs maintaining one-two formation. No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R was at third with 1 min 19.658 sec. No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Heikki Kovalainen / Yuichi Nakayama) clocked a fourth fastest lap time at 1 min 20.446 sec.

 

 

　Session 2 started at 14 o'clock after 2-hour interval. Light rain wet the track during the interval before it stopped right before Session 2. At 14:30, a 15-minute mock drill of FCY (Full-course yellow), which will be implemented to SUPER GT from this season, took place on the track. FCY is already implemented to various GT races at overseas as well as domestic Super Taikyu. It is a system for maintaining safety by enforcing all cars to reduce speed when an accident occurs, and in SUPER GT the upper speed limit will be set at 80km/h.

 

 

　Track surface started to show a line as it dried up after about 1 hour and 10 minutes from the start. At 15:17, Yamamoto at the wheel of No.100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino) crossed the 1 min 20 sec mark and lapped at 1 min 19.411 sec which brought him to the top of timing monitor. At 15:28, the session was suspended with a second red flag in the afternoon. Kotaka in No.6 ADVICS muta MC86 (Ryohei Sakaguchi / Kazuto Kotaka / Yuui Tsutsumi) crashed and damaged the front end of the car. The team quickly moved on to repairing the car in order to return for the practice session in the following day.
　Fenestraz driving No.36 au TOM’S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Sacha Fenestraz) jumped to the 18 sec mark right after the session passed 2-hour line with 1 min 18.950 sec and stood at the top. Almost instantly after that, this time, Quintarelli in No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) replaced the top time with his lap time of 1 min 18.942 sec.

 

　TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is fielding GR Supra in the GT500 class from this season. Kazumoto Yuasa, General Manager, Vehicle Development Div., TOYOTA CUSTOMIZING & DEVELOPMENT Co.,Ltd, which is the center of car development, commented, "Since it was raining and wet condition, the top time varied depending on the timing of when the car ran. We expected NSX-GT to be fast. They were fast already at the last tire test. All GR Supra (in GT500) were running without any significant problem, so no issues. I hope tomorrow will be sunny."

 

　GT500 class was given an exclusive session time for 10 minutes from 16:30, and all cars were going for an attack lap. Baguette in No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT clocked 1 min 17.850 sec at the end of the exclusive run to put him at the top as the only driver in the 1 min 17 sec mark. Nojiri in No.8 ARTA NSX-GT placed second with 1 min 18.147 sec which allowed NSX-GT to keep one-two since the morning session. No.36 au TOM’S GR Supra finished at third with the 1 min 21.785 sec lap time marked by Fenestraz. Fastest among the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 squad was No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate / Katsumasa Chiyo) at eighth place overall.

 

 

 

 

　In the GT300 class, No.88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Andre Couto / Yuya Tezuka) took the top of Session 1 with 1 min 27.086 sec. No.21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Christopher Mies / Shintaro Kawabata) was second fastest with 1 min 27.209 sec and No.9 PACIFIC NAC D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii) followed at third.

 

 

　In the Session 2 held in the afternoon, no prominent movement was seen until the 10 minutes of the GT300 class exclusive session time starting from 16:20. Sakaguchi at the wheel of No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Sena Sakaguchi) jumped to the top with 1 min 27.745 sec, but Mies in No.21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS bettered that time with 1 min 27.209 sec to take over the top position. No.2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh / Masataka Yanagida) was at third with a lap time of 1 min 29.680 sec.

 

 

 

 

 

Top time is good even if this is only a test and I'm very happy. But I don't know about other teams' tires or fuel load or what kind of test they were doing. I'm not perfectly satisfied with how our car is feeling, so there are still some room for improvement. It should be able to go much faster at high-speed corners and we are still working on the setting. The location of the engine has been changed on this year's NSX-GT and the staff at Honda did a good job. Getting a top time at the first test of the year has given us a good start. Development is progressing smoothly. I will continue to work hard with Honda, team, Koudai Tsukakoshi, and Bridgestone to make sure we will make another progress tomorrow for our aim to win the championship.

 

It was my first circuit, first team, and first tires, so there were many uncertainties, but we got a best result. I think getting a top time at the first official test can mean a good start. Since my entry to SUPER GT was decided, I practiced many different Japanese track on a simulator. Of course, I was already committed to do my best, but there was some worry too because everything was new to me. But I didn't think I would get a top time. This is good for the team too. I heard my team has not won since 2016, so winning a race is the biggest goal of this year. SUPER GT is not like other GT3 race; it runs with GT500, the language is different, the whole environment is different than anticipated, but I will do my best throughout the year.

 

 

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