2021.04.10

Rd. 1 qualifying GT500： KeePer TOM'S GR Supra wins the qualifying! Sakaguchi takes his firstGT500 pole position

The qualifying for the opening round of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “Takanoko Hotel OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE,” took place on April 10 at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3,703m) in Okayama Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Sena Sakaguchi) recorded the fastest times in both Q1 and Q2, as Sakaguchi his first GT500 pole position. In the GT300 class, as Hiranaka won pole position in the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda).

 

 

 

　Before the qualifying for the opening round at Okayama, the official practice started at 9:30 in the morning, with the air temperature a chilly 7℃. But the temperature quickly rose as sunlight shown through. When the GT500 class Q1 session began at 2:30 the air temperature had risen to 15℃ and the track temperature to 33℃, making it 10 degrees higher than the morning practice.

　This season’s GT500 class rule includes a freeze on aerodynamics development. Also, out of concerns for safety, the fuel flow restrictor setting was lowered from usual 95.0kg/h to 90.2kg/h for Round 1 at Okayama to restrict power. For these reasons, the GT500 teams conducted very detailed machine set-up tests at the official test at Okayama in March.

 

 

　In the 10-minute GT500 class Q1 session, the top eight fastest cars would advance on to Q2. Taking to the track immediately after it was opened for the session were two cars running on Dunlop tires, the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Toshiki Oyu) and the No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT (Hiroki Otsu). Shortly after that, Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra followed. Hirakawa, who is famously strong at Okayama, was chosen to drive the TGR TEAM KeePer TOM'S car in Q1.

　In the last minute of the session, just as the cars were entering their serious time attacks, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT that had been fastest in the morning practice suddenly returned to its pit. Seemingly struck by some kind of machine trouble, Tomoki Nojiri was seen getting out of the machine. With this, car No. 8 ended the Q1 session in 14th position.

　After that, the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars staged a fierce battle of time attacks, from which Hirakawa in car No. 37 emerged fastest with the only lap time to break the 1’18 barrier in a time of 1’17.966 as Q1 ended. The second fastest time went to Kenta Yamashita in the No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra, who had teamed with Hirakawa to take pole position in last season’s final round. The third fastest time was recorded by the No. 38 ZENT GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura), while another GR Supra, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi) claimed the fourth fastest time to give the GR Supra a sweep of the top four positions. Finishing the session in fifth position was the No. 16 (Oyu) Honda NSX-GT. Fastest among the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars in 10th position was the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Katsumasa Chiyo), which meant that none of the four GT-Rs competing could qualify to move on the Q2.

 

 

 

　The 10-minute GT500 class Q2 session started at 3:11 in the afternoon. Here, misfortune struck shortly after the running began. The first car to have taken to the track at the start of the session, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Ritomo Miyata), suddenly return to the pit after one lap and disappeared into the garage. This this, No. 19 finished Q2 with no qualifying time. This left seven cars to compete for pole position. First to set a top time was the No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa), but as in Q1, the real battle for pole was played out among the GR Supra cars.

　Just before the end of the session, Sena Sakaguchi took top position in the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra with a fast time of 1’17.701, which was even faster than the one his teammate Hirakawa had run earlier in Q1. Next fastest was the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi), falling just short with a time of 1’18.080. The final contestant for pole was the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima), which managed to break the 1’18 barrier but also fell short of Sakaguchi’s time by a mere 0.107 sec. With this, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Sena Sakaguchi) finished in the top spot in Q2. For Sakaguchi, made his GT500 class debut in Round 2 at Fuji last year, this was his first GT500 pole position and came in only his second round competing in the class.

　The 2nd and 3rd places in the qualifying went to the No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) and the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi), as GR Supra cars swept the top five places in the qualifying. Finishing the session with the 6th fastest time was the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara), however, it was later determined that it had run off the track, which disqualified it fastest time and dropped it to 7th position. Moving up to 6th position as a result was the No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu).

　The race is to be run tomorrow the 11th of April with a 1:30 start. The weather report calls for clear skies and similar conditions as today.

 

 

 

 

Page Top