2024.03.17

【Official Tests Okayama Day 2】 In the clear morning, au TOM'S GR Supra gets top time! In GT300 the VELOREX FERRARI is fastest

Official Tests Okayama International Circuit March 17th (Sun.)

The Official Tests at Okayama entered their second day (final day). Yesterday’s first day of tests at Okayama International Circuit were run in fair, April-like weather, but the 17th (Sun.) brought cloudy skies in the morning and brisk, cool air. Nonetheless, the mood among the fans that gathered to see the SUPER GT machines and drivers was one of lively excitement that saw SUPER GT fans lining the fences with cameras in hand.

 

 

 

 

　In the early stages of the session, the overall top finisher in yesterday’s qualifying simulation, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) was fastest again, followed by the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli), and the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato), thus giving each maker one car competing consistently in the top three.
　From here it was the No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) that improved its times. It was Oshima who recorded the overall top time. But just as the session approached the one hour point, it was now car No. 36 that improved its best time to beat No. 14’s top time. Around the time the session entered its second half, the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) rose to take 3rd place. In the final hour of the session, rain began to fall and the cars were unable to improve on their times, which led to a sweep of the top three places by TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars.
　Car No. 23 took 4th position as the fastest among the Nissan Z GT500 cars. The No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) finished in 6th position as the fastest of the CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars.
　As for the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT whose regular driver Tadasuke Makino couldn’t enter due to poor physical condition, a rushed substitution for Makino brought in Ayumu Iwasa, a participant in Super Formula Championship. Having arrived at Okayama the day before, Iwasa began driving the No. 100 car from the morning session. He would run eight laps in the morning session and 15 laps in the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　In the GT300 class, before the rain started to fall, the No. 6 VELOREX FERRARI 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) ran a top time of 1’25.964 that was never beaten before the end of the session.
　The No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara) finished in 2nd place, thus putting two FIA GT3 cars in the top spots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　The rain that had started falling in the final stages of Session 3 grew stronger during the noon interval to create completely wet conditions on the track. In that rain before the start of Session 4, a practice start began at 1:45 in the afternoon. Based on the results of the qualifying simulation run the previous day, car No. 36 stood in pole position. As a precaution in light of the falling temperature of the track surface, the cars started out with the Safety Car (SC) in the lead, and when the SC withdrew at 2:03 in the afternoon, the GT500 cars started out all at once. This start marked the beginning of Session 4.

 

 

　

 

　In the early stages of the session, the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) ran among the leaders at the top of the timing monitor. Driven by the rookie Natori, No. 24 ran in 2nd position 0.1 sec. behind the leading car No. 14. After 30 minutes from the start of the session, the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) came to a stop at the double hairpin. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the session for about 15 minutes before it was restarted.

　Entering the second half of the session, the track surface condition began to improve to some degree and some cars began to improve on their best times. The first to move up with a top time was car No. 36, and the No. 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) followed to take 2nd position, while car No. 3 also moved up into 3rd position. What’s more, the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato), and the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta) move up as well, showing that the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars were also improving their pace. Then, as the session entered its last 30 minutes, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) moved up to a top position. Finally, Matsuda, driving car No. 24, recorded a time of 1’25.063 to move ahead of his rivals and finish in the top spot of the final session to be run at the official Okayama tests this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　In the early stages of the session, car No. 24 stood at the top of the timing monitor, showing its speed in the wet track conditions. The rookie Natori, who ran good times in the early stages would say: “The difficult thing is tire development. Since we feel a difference compared to the other teams, the issue for us is finding how to catch up.” Concerning his teammate Matsuda, he expressed full trust by saying, “He has taught me a lot of things I didn’t know about, so I am very glad Tsugio-san is my partner in this first year.” He went on to talk about his hopes for the season, saying, “This is my first year in the GT500 class and in order to contribute to the team, and also to connect to Tsugio-san’s record of most wins, I want to see the two of us win as my way to present something to the team and to Tsugio-san.”

　Speaking of rookies, Miyake of the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) team ran a fastest time for a rookie in the Q2 session of the first day’s qualifying simulation, which made a big impression on those around him. He commented: “I want to absorb more knowledge about the car and the tires from Takaboshi-san, who has such great experience in GT500. There is certainly a good bit of insecurity being in my first year, but I want to stay calm and do my job thoroughly.” He also promised to give his best, saying, “I have been given a good atmosphere to work in, so I want to work with everyone to help keep us in the race for the title.”

　As for the only team running on Dunlop tires, the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa), this is another team that has as drivers a veteran Izawa and a rookie as well, in Okusa, the one selected as his teammate. Although the car suffered from transmission trouble in this day’s morning tests, which greatly reduced their amount of running time, Okusa reflected on his situation, saying: “Until now I have had the chance to drive in a lot of different conditions, and I would say that in terms of the machine’s performance level, it has come a long way.” He went on to show his eagerness to compete by saying that, “Being the only team running on Dunlop tires in this debut year, the competition is going to be difficult, but I believe there will always be times when we can seize the moment and do well, and to make sure we don’t miss those opportunities. So, I want to be ready and aggressive in every round. I’m going to do my best to help win with Izawa-san and with Dunlop.”

　Another subject that has surfaced this season is the movement of drivers from one car make to another in the GT500 class. One such driver is the No. 14 team’s Fukuzumi, who grabbed the spotlight by running the top times in two of the sessions over these two days. Fukuzumi expressed his satisfaction, saying: “I think we have been progressing well up until now. We came to these tests without any mistakes or serious (machine) trouble, and yesterday we were able to test a lot of things with dry track conditions, and in the process, we ran the fastest time of anyone.” Fukuzumi also showed his serious side by saying that, “Although we had the fastest time, it is still just in tests.” He went on to say: “I think I have gotten used to the GR Supra, and everyone on the team has been kind and the atmosphere is good, so I want to pay everyone back by getting a win as soon as possible.”

 

 

 

 

 

　In the first half of the GT300 class sessions, the same FERRARI 296 GT3 as No. 6, namely the No. 45 PONOS FERRARI GT3 (Kei Cozzolino), stood at the top of the timing monitor. What’s more, the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Seiji Ara/Niklas Krütten/Bruno Spengler) running on the same Michelin tires as No. 45, also improved its times.
　With just 10 minutes remaining in the session, once again No. 6 ran the fastest time to top the class, but then Spengler in car No. 7 came from behind on the last lap to take the top spot away. With a time of 1’31.622, it beat No. 6’s time by 0.4 sec, to claim the top time in the last session of the official tests at Okayama.

 

 

　After this, the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT schedule includes another official test event on March 23 – 24 at Fuji Speedway, before the season’s series starts with Round 1 here at Okayama International Circuit.

 

 

 

　It felt very good running in dry track conditions. We were able to run the fastest time at any timing we chose, and though we only got beaten by Fukuzumi in the Q1 session of the qualifying simulation, besides that I feel very good about the condition we have maintained. In just a week we will have more test sessions at Fuji, and since I haven’t run at Fuji yet this year, I don’t know how it will feel. But, I hope we get the same feeling of performance we had here next week as well, so that we can go into the opening round with this same positive feeling.

 

 

　Because we will be competing in a new car this season, we need to quickly get to understand this car and make it better. Up to this point, I feel it has rapidly been getting better, so I think it is good to have achieved this as a result. In terms of long runs, we still have to get to know this machine better, but I think it is very good for delivering fast times when we want. I suspect some of the rival teams are still hiding their real performance potential, so it is too early for us to feel satisfied with this result. As for this season, we won’t know where we stand until the opening round. In that sense, it is too early to feel secure.

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