【SUPER GT Round 4 / Fuji】

D’station ADVAN GT-R wins after 5 year victory drought.
Leon SLS finishes eventful GT300 race in second.

SUPER GT Round 4

Date	2015/08/8-9
Venue	Fuji Speedway
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	66Laps (1Lap = 4,563ｍ)

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Having had the second round at Fuji Speedway in May, the 2015 Super GT series returned to the famous race track for Round 4, Fuji GT 300km Race, which was held on 8-9 August. The race weekend was affected by a record heat wave that covered over the whole of the Japanese islands for weeks, so not only the cars and the drivers but the tires as well faced extremely tough conditions, especially on the race day.

In comparison with those in the second round at Fuji, the air and surface temperatures were supposed to be very much higher. But the sky was overcast by thick clouds on Saturday morning and the heat which had lasted through Friday let up on that day, which saw the surface temperature when the qualifying session began stayed only at 35 degrees Celsius…

Hiroki Kato in Syntium Apple Lotus set 1’38”278, which was the second fastest time in Q1 for the GT300 cars, and became the fastest Yokohama driver in the session, showing the car’s steady progress since its debut earlier this year. Using the identical Mother Chassis with Kato’s Lotus, Takeshi Tsuchiya’s VivaC 86 MC was placed in third in the session and eight Yokohama equipped drivers, including Kato and Tsuchiya, made their way through to Q2.

In Q2, Naoya Gamou in Leon SLS, which was the fastest car in the official practice session, moved up to second in the class by setting 1’38”020. Seiji Ara in Studie BMW Z4 was in fourth, followed by the reigning champion, Nobuteru Taniguchi in Goodsmile Hatsune Miku SLS. But the winner of the last round, Mitsunori Takaboshi, struggled with a weight handicap on his B-Max NDDP GT-R because the weight built up to as much as 76kg. As a result, he ended the session in lowly 16th and couldn’t give his teammate, Kazuki Hoshino, an opportunity to drive in Q2.

As for the GT500 class, Daiki Sasaki in D’station ADVAN GT-R performed really well from the first laps of Q1, while he had a minor concern when he started the session because the surface temperatures were lower than the figures that the tires had been designed for. But it proved to be imaginary fears and he set 1’28”963, which was good enough to be placed in third.

His teammate, Michael Krumm, had been absent for the first three races of the season because he had a commitment to drive for Nissan in the 24 hours races at Nurburgring and Le Mans. So this was his first Super GT race this year but, with some track times during the pre-event testing, he quickly regained his feel in the GT500 car and clocked the sixth fastest time, 1’29”124, in Q2. This meant D’station ADVAN GT-R sat on the third row of the starting grids. However, Yuhi Sekiguchi who drove WedsSport ADVAN RC F was the 15th fastest at the end of the session, thus the car failed to get through to Q2.

The midsummer sun came back on Sunday and the air and surface temperatures rose rapidly. But the conditions were rather favorable for the crew of D’station ADVAN GT-R because the tires for the car had been designed with the assumption that the track temperature in this race would be above 40 degrees. And it actually reached 45 degrees when the race got underway.

The starting driver of D’station ADVAN GT-R, Krumm, drove steadily and moved up to fourth on Lap 29, before changing to Sasaki three laps later. Then the Japanese showed a brilliant drive. To begin with, he won a four way battle for the fourth and caught Petronas Tom’s RC F, which was running in third, on Lap56. Sasaki overtook the Petronas car at the final corner, before doing the same at the same place to Motul Autech GT-R on Lap 60.

Now D’station ADVAN GT-R came up to second with ten laps to go and Sasaki was closing the gap with the race leading Zent Cerumo RC F. After providing some interesting battles to more than 36 thousands spectators for several laps, the GT-R driver finally took over the lead position with six laps to go, on Lap 61. Sasaki didn’t ease his pace even after that and, when he received the checkered flag first, he was more than four seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

This was the first win in five years for both Kondo Racing and Yokohama Tire, since the 2010 season opener at Suzuka. For Sasaki who had joined the team last year, it was the maiden victory in the Super GT series and he burst into tears of joy when he jumped out of the car after the finish. Krumm was all smiles when he and Masahiko Kondo, the team manager, shared a hug because he returned to the podium’s highest place in this series after an 11 year absence.

Starting from the 15th grid, Yuhi Sekiguchi at the wheel of WedsSport ADVAN RC F gained four places during the opening lap only. As the set up change on the car seemed to work well and he was able to keep a good pace much longer than expected, the team decided to extend his stint as much as possible. Actually, he was the last GT500 driver to make a pit stop when he came in on Lap 35. Juichi Wakisaka also performed well during the second half of the race. He moved up to 10th on Lap 44 and kept the position until the checkered flag fell, scoring a championship point for the team. This meant WedsSport ADVAN RC F continued its consecutive point finish record since the season opener this year.

The race of GT300 class began with a big incident, in which Takaboshi in B-Max NDDP GT-R was hit hard from behind in the first lap. As a result, one of the strong contender for the championship, currently in second in the point standings, was forced to retire prematurely. Haruki Kurosawa in Leon SLS kept the position where he started the race and was followed by Tatsuya Kataoka, who gained two places at the start in his Goodsmile Hatsune Miku SLS, and Jorg Muller at the wheel of Studie BMW Z4. The pack later added two more cars and fought for second closely each other for a while. Then Kataoka fell back to fourth and Kurosawa to fifth but they were still not so far from the pack, so one could expect their fighting back in the second half.

In the span of two laps from Lap 21 to 23, Leon SLS, Studie BMW Z4, and Goodsmile Hatsune Miku SLS made pit stops one after another to change to Gamo, Seiji Ara, and Taniguchi respectively. All of them were basically on the same idea: by making stops earlier than others, they tried to run in the clear air and pick up their pace. However, things didn’t go as planned at least for Taniguchi and Ara. The former’s car had a problem with a wheel nut and it took much longer to change the wheel. The trouble didn’t end there. The wheel nut in question loosened soon after Taniguchi left the pit and he was forced to make another stop. Then Ara had a puncture after the pit stop due to debris on the track and he also had to come back to the pit again.

In the meantime, Kato in Syntium Apple Lotus found himself leading the race, followed by Takamitsu Matsui in VivaC 86 MC, because they chose to extend their stint as much as possible. So it was interesting to see where these two cars would rejoin the race after their pit stops but the margin they had didn’t seem to be enough to keep the positions. When Kazuho Takahashi went out on the track in the car that was handed by Kato, he was running in seventh and Matsui’s teammate, Tsuchiya, rejoined the race in fifth.

When all cars had made its mandatory pit stops, Gamo at the wheel of Leon SLS was running in second. Behind him, Shigekazu Wakisaka in JMS LM Corsa Z4, which he shared with veteran Morio Nitta, had moved up to fourth. And they kept their positions until the finish, so Kurosawa/Gamou pair got on the podium after an absence of nearly a year.