【SUPER GT Round 5 / Fuji】

CrystalCroco LAMBORGHINI GT3 marks season’s first podium finish.
Heavy rain causes red flag and a couple of Safety Car periods.

SUPER GT Round 5

Date	August 9-10, 2014
Venue	Fuji Speedway
Weather	Rain
Surface	Wet
Race Lap	66Laps (1Lap = 4,563ｍ)

• >>Report
• >>Result

Fuji GT 300 km Race, the 5th round of 2014 Super GT series, was held on 9-10 August in stormy weather because of an approaching typhoon. Fuji Speedway had already hosted a Super GT race meeting in May, so this was the second Fuji round this year. In a sharp contrast to the previous event at Fuji, which was run on the dry track throughout the weekend, the rain affected the race very much this time and it created difficult situations to cope with for the teams, just as we saw in the last Super GT round at Sugo.

Nevertheless, the track remained in dry for the most part of the track actions on Saturday. This meant all cars used the slick tires for the practice sessions and at least a part of the qualifying session that began on 2 p.m. As it was very likely to have a shower sooner or later, almost all cars went out on the track and tried to make a qualifying attempt on the dry surfaces, as soon as the Q1 for the GT300 cars got underway. In this session, Hiroki Katoh in Syntium Apple MP4-12C headed the group of nine Yokohama shoed crew that made their way to Q2.

Considering such weather conditions, the GT500 teams had to take the same tactics with those in the lesser class. Along with other drivers, Yuhi Sekiguchi in WedsSport ADVAN RC F and Daiki Sasaki in D’station ADVAN GT-R were going to make their qualifying attempts as early as possible. But the session was stopped by the red flag because a GT300 car was stranded on the pit lane entry on its way back after finishing its own qualifying laps.

In the re-started 10 minute session, Sasaki, on his second lap, set 1’30”103 which was the 4th fastest at the end of the session. On the other hand, Sekiguchi’s best lap time, 1’30”463, was ranked in 9th, so only D’station ADVAN GT-R was allowed to get into Q2 in which the top eight Q1 qualifiers would fight for the pole position.

In the Q2 for GT300 cars, Morio Nitta’s effort was remarkable. At the wheel of OGT Panasonic Prius, he fine-tuned the car’s set up after Q1 to optimize the tire performance and it proved to be just right. Despite a drizzle that created tricky conditions during the session, Nitta set 1’38”414 which was the fastest at that time in the closing stage. Considering the changing track conditions, further improvement was quite possible for him but traffic on the last lap prevented him from setting a better qualifying time. Eventually, Subaru BRZ R&D Sport stole the pole position from him on its last attempt and OGT Panasonic Prius sat on the second grid of the class.

Michael Krumm drove D’station ADVAN GT-R in the Q2 for the GT500 cars. He got out on the track with the slick tires but, soon after the session began, it started to rain, which meant he had to come back to the pit, without setting a representing lap time, to switch to the rain tires. Krumm began his qualifying attempt again, then the rain eased and he had to go on with the tires that wasn’t suited to the changing track conditions. As a result, his best time in Q2, 1’42”515, was the 8th fastest and the last in the group.

In the early morning on Sunday, the typhoon hit the western part of Japan main land and a warning of heavy rains and local flood was given in the cities that were close to Fuji Speedway. The race began at 3 p.m. as scheduled but the race control decided to apply the Safety Car Start procedures because of the intermittent rain.

So the first 2 laps of the race was led by the Safety Car, before letting the field go free for racing. In the GT500 class, D’station ADVAN GT-R with Krumm at the wheel remained in 8th where he started the race, followed by Sekiguchi in WedsSport ADVAN RC F in 9th. As the amount of rainfall gradually reduced, however, both of them started to struggle, which resulted in losing positions.

The two Yokohama shoed cars actually picked up the pace again when the rain came back but the heavier rain caused the Safety Car to come out. Then the race control decided to show the red flag to stop the race on Lap 17 because there was too much standing water on the track.

The race resumed at a quarter past 4 p.m., using the Safety Car start procedures again. D’station ADVAN GT-R was running in 10th and WedsSport ADVAN RC F in 13th at the restart. They tried to move up through the field but it wasn’t an easy task for them, as the amount of rain at the time wasn’t enough for their rain tires to work properly.

D’station ADVAN GT-R came in the pit on Lap 44, as one of the last cars to make the mandatory stops, to change to Sasaki. The team chose the slick tires for his stint because they made a bet that the track would be getting drier. On the other hand, WedsSport ADVAN RC F also made a stop on the same lap but the WedsSport backed team had a different idea and gave Juichi Wakisaka a set of wet tires for his stint.

Their tire choices meant that Wakisaka had upper hand over Sasaki in the beginning of their stints and WedsSport ADVAN RC F got ahead of the Yokohama shoed GT-R. However, as Sasaki’s slick tires started to work, he picked up the pace and overtook Wakisaka easily on Lap 55. Because Sasaki’s pace was so impressive and even faster than the race leaders, many expected that D’station ADVAN GT-R might move up through the field. But the hope was denied when the rain got heavier again to the extent that the Safety Car was required to come out.

Due to an extra pit stop to switch back to the rain tires, D’station ADVAN GT-R dropped to 15th and finished the race in the same position. WedsSport ADVAN RC F crossed the finish line in 11th, which meant both Yokohama shoed cars fell short of scoring a point.

In the GT300 class, Koki Saga in OGT Panasonic Prius remained in the 2nd place for a while, after starting from the 2nd grid. But the gap with Kazuki Hoshino in B-Max NDDP GT-R was closing, as the rain became heavier, and he was put on the defensive. On Lap 9, Saga was passed by Hoshino and another car in close succession and dropped to 4th. Hoshino, on the other hand, started the race from 6th grid and already gained four places when the Safety Car came out because of the bad weather, soon after these position changes. For Saga, therefore, it might be a different story only if the Safety Car period began one lap earlier…

On Lap 16 for the GT300 class leader, the red flag was shown. At this point, Seiji Ara in Studie BMW Z4 was in 5th and another BMW, Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Z4 with Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel, was in 7th.

Immediately after the racing resumed, on Lap 19, Shinya Hosokawa driving Crystal Croco Lamborghini GT3 came into the pit. While Hosokawa handed the car to Koji Yamanishi, the team replaced the car’s wet tires with the intermediates. This switch might be a gamble but other teams closely watched Yamanishi’s pace in this difficult track condition. In contrast, B-Max NDDP GT-R extended the first stint as long as possible and Hoshino made the stop on Lap 38 to change to Lucas Ordonez.

But staying out for a long time with the wet tires wasn’t the best strategy in hindsight because the track conditions had been improving until the rain came back again in the closing stage. Actually, Hoshino lost the runner-up position on Lap 25 and was running in 4th when he came in to the pit.

When the mandatory driver changes were completed, Yamanishi in Crystal Croco Lamborghini GT3 found himself in 2nd, thanks to the team’s decision to take the different strategy from others. Although he had to give way to Gainer Dixcel SLS on Lap43, Yamanishi steadily kept the position after that and finished the race in 3rd. He was followed by two BMW Z4s, Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Z4 and Akira Iida/Hiroki Yoshimoto pair’s TWS LM Corsa BMW Z4, in 4th and 5th respectively. At the end of the day, eight Yokohama shoed GT300 cars, including OGT Panasonic Prius which ended the race in 6th, earned valuable championship points.