2021.05.03

Rd. 2 Qualifying GT300： SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT takes class pole! The new BRZ will be looking for revenge after a disappointing season opener by showing its speed

Qualifying for the Takanokono Hotel FUJI GT 500km RACE, Round 2 of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on May 3rd (Mon., holiday) at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture. The GT500 class Pole Position was won by Ritomo Miyata in the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Ritomo Miyata). The GT300 class pole was taken by Hideki Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi). These two cars will start from the front of their respective class grids in tomorrow’s race starting at 2:30 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

　Again in this round, the GT300 class was divided into two groups, A and B, to compete in 10-minute sessions. The Q1 Group A consisted of 15 cars, while Group B had 14 cars.
　In the Group A session, the cars took their first four laps on the track to warm up their tires before beginning their timed laps one after another, and the first to post a target time was the No. 31 TOYOTA GR SPORT PRIUS PHV apr GT (Yuhki Nakayama) with a time of 1’36.427.
Following in the 2nd and 3rd spots were the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida) that won two rounds here at Fuji in the 2020 season and the No. 244 Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra GT (Atsushi Miyake) respectively. But soon to beat these times and take the target down into the 1’35 range with a time of 1’35.963 was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) that had also been fastest in the morning’s official practice. At this point, 2nd position was held by the No .2 muta Racing Lotus MC (Hiroki Katoh). Coming in just before the end of the session with the 3rd fastest time was the No. 7 Studie PLUS BMW (Seiji Ara), assuring itself a place in Q2. Meanwhile, the winner of this season’s opener and the 2020 champions, the No. 56 Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami) could only manage to finish the session in 13th place and fail to move on to Q2, most like due to the 60 kg of success weights it was carrying.
In the Group B Q1 session, as with the Group A session, the cars spent their first four laps on the track warming up their tires before beginning their timed laps. The first car to post a time at the top of the timing monitor was the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Shunsuke Kohno), after which it brought that time down to a 1’35.727 on its next lap. This became the target that the other cars tried to beat. Among them, the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) and the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda) were able to improve on their own times but failed to catch the top time of Kohno. With this, car No. 60 finished the Group B session as the first qualifier for Q2.

 

 

 

　The GT300 Q2 was also run as a 10-minute session. Starting off the session with a top time was the SUPER GT rookie Ren Sato in the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 with a 1’35.485 lap. This became the target time as the session continued. Using another car’s slipstream skillfully to record a top time of 1’35.343 just before the checkered flag was Hideki Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT. No other car was able to beat this time before the end of the session, thus bringing redemption for the driver pair of Iguchi and Yamauchi, who had suffered a disappointing 15th place finish in the previous round, earning no points. This also gave the No. 61 team with its debuting new model BZR their first pole position. Also, for Yamauchi this represented his fifth class Pole.
　As for the rookie Sato, although he came close but missed getting his first Pole Position, he still managed to qualify in 2nd position with his impressive driving for the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 team. Although they had failed to repeat their top times from Q1, the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) and No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) these two TOYOTA GR Supra GT cars finished in 3rd and 4th positions respectively and will line up together on the second row of tomorrow’s class starting grid. Also, thanks to a strong Q2 showing by Kotaka, who is always fast at Fuji, the No. 2 muta Racing Lotus MC (Hiroki Katoh/Ryohei Sakaguchi/Kazuto Kotaka) qualified in 5th position. Following behind these cars came the two GAINER GT-R GT3s, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) and No. 10 GAINER TANAX with IMPUL GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Keishi Ishikawa). 。

 

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