2020.07.18

Round 1 Official Practice: RAYBRIG NSX-GT is fastest in the Official Practice for Round 1! Top Time in GT300 goes to SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS

 

Round 1 of the 2020 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the Takanokono Hotel FUJI GT 300km RACE began on July 18 (Sat.). This Opening Round of the 2020 season which was originally scheduled to be held in April, had to be postponed to this date due to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. The venue was also changed to Fuji Speedway and the schedule changed to hold the Official Practice on Saturday July 18 (2:50 p.m.), the Official Qualifying to be held on the morning of Sunday the 19th, with the 300 km race to be held in the afternoon of the same day. Furthermore, the measure was taken to hold all events without spectators.
　For this day’s Official Practice, which would be the first track runs of the Opening Round, the originally scheduled 1:15 p.m. start was delayed to 5:15 due to heavy fog over the track. As a result, the originally scheduled 90-minute practice session for both classes was shortened to 70 minutes, with the session ending at 6:45 p.m. The last 20 minutes of the practice was then be divided into two separate 10-minute class-exclusive sessions.
　Although the track condition was officially declared as Wet (allowing for the use of rain tires), in fact the track was virtually dry during the session.

 

 

 

　From this season, the 15 cars of three makes competing in the GT500 class all use chassis complying to the new “CLASS 1” technical regulation.
　As at the Official Test event held recently at the end of June here at Fuji Speedway, the Honda NSX-GT now featuring a front-positioned engine was posting fast lap times among the leaders in the early stages of the practice session. Some 12 minutes into the session, Sasahara in the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh/Ukyo Sasahara) recorded a top time of 1’28.910, which was quickly followed by a faster time of 1’28.214 by Fukuzumi in the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi).

 

　After that, the veteran drivers improved their times, with a 1’28.192 by the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) about 30 minutes into the session, followed by a 1’27.818 lap by Yamamoto in the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) at around 45 minutes into the session, followed in turn by a time of 1’27.596 by Fukuzumi in car No. 8 to re-take the top position.
　At this point, the fastest time among the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars belonged to the No. 14 WAKO'S 4CR GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Sho Tsuboi) in 3rd position. It was a time of 1’28.146 run by Tsuboi at about 60 minutes into the session. The best time among the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars was the 1’28.580 lap recorded by Hirate in the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo) in the early stages of the session, which put the NISSAN teams in a rather difficult position with a best of 7th overall.

 

 

　In the class-exclusive track time at the end of the practice session, the GR Supra GT500 cars recorded times in the 1’ 27 range one after another to break into the leading group of NSX-GT cars on the time board. But Nojiri in car No. 8 and Makino in car No. 100 came back with times of 1’27.279 and 1’27.248 respectively to once again pull ahead of the GR Supra GT500 cars’ times.
　As usually happens in regular-season Qualifying sessions, the final minutes of the class-specific track time saw a rush of fast times, beginning with a 1’27.279 lap by Nojiri in car No. 8, and then in the closing moments of session a 1’27.248 top time by car No. 100 driven by Makino, who has newly joined the team this season. In the end, the first Official Practice of the season came to a close with a 1-2 finish for the NSX-GT cars.
　Finishing with the third fastest time in the GT500 class was the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuichi Nakayama/Kenta Yamashita). Taking the wheel of car No. 39 for the class-specific segment was Yamashita, who recorded a time of 1’27.370. Following on 4th position with a time of 1’27.408 was Fenestraz in the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz). The best time by a NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 was recorded by the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R for 11th position.

 

 

 

 

 

　In the early stages of the Official Practice, Nitta in the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Sena Sakaguchi) recorded a target time of 1’38.311. Then, the first to run a lap time in the 1’37 range was Orido in the No. 30 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT (Hiroaki Nagai/Manabu Orido) with a time of 1’37.878. But that was immediately bettered by Yasuda in the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) with a top time of 1’37.674. This was followed in order by the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) and the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh/Masataka Yanagida) driven by Katoh.
　About 20 minutes into the session, car No. 65 was the first to break into the 1’36 range with a time of 1’36.845. But then Takagi in the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Toshiki Oyu) bettered that with a lap of 1’36.817.
　As darkness closed in over the track as the clock rounded 18:00 and the bright lights came on, Iguchi drove the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi), which had finished fastest in class in the Official Test at Fuji at the end of June, and recorded a time that moved the team up into 4th position.
　Eventually, even as the GT300 class entered the 10-minute class-specific track time at the end of the Official Practice, there were no further changes in the top order. Just as it looked as if the session would end that way, former GT300/GT500 champion Yanagida, driving car No. 2 in the second half, ran a time of 1’36.719 to move the team up to the top of the time board from 7th position.
　Eventually, the top three positions in the Official Practice for the opening round of the 2020 series went to the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS, followed by the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 and the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG.

 

   

 

 

 

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