【SUPER GT Round 6 / Sugo】

D’station ADVAN GT-R celebrates third place on podium.
VivaC 86 MC scores its maiden victory in GT300.

SUPER GT Round 6

Date	2015/09/19-20
Venue	Sportland Sugo
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	81Laps (1Lap = 3,704ｍ)

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The 2015 Super GT series headed to Sports Land Sugo in Miyagi Prefecture, located in the northeast part of mainland Japan, for its sixth meeting of the championship, after the Suzuka round in the end of August. Along with its 70 meter elevation change through a lap, the track also has some technically difficult corners and it is said to be a very tough circuit not only for race cars but for drivers and tires as well.

As was the case in the previous round, the Yokohama shoed Mother Chassis cars performed well in the GT300 class qualifying session. By the hands of Takamitsu Matsui, VivaC 86 MC was the second fastest car in Q1 and Takeshi Tsuchiya managed to secure the same position in Q2.

UpGarage Bandoh 86 got through to Q2 with Yuhki Nakayama’s fifth fastest time and the best effort from Kota Sasaki, who holds the record for the most pole positions in the GT300 class, led to the fourth grid. He had been called in for this event by a last-minute deal, with no previous experience on this particular car, before the official practice session on the same day!

Sasaki was followed by Kazuki Hiramine in ManePa Lamborghini GT3 and Kyosuke Mineo in K’s Frontier Direction 458. Syntium Apple Lotus also looked promising when Hiroki Katoh set the fourth fastest time in Q1 but it had to settle for the 13th grid because Kazuho Takahashi, the car’s driver in Q2, went off the track on his out lap, which caused the red flag that interrupted the session.

In the GT500 class, both WedsSport ADVAN RC F and D’station ADVAN GT-R fulfilled their potential this time, despite having had disappointing qualifying attempts in Suzuka.

In particular, Daiki Sasaki at the wheel of D’station ADVAN GT-R set the fastest time in Q1, confirming the car’s speed in the preceding practice session in the morning. The car’s driver for Q2, Michael Krumm, however, might have felt somewhat pressured by expectations for the pole position and ended the session only in fifth. But, to be fair to the German, he had had little experience to make a qualifying attempt with fresh tires this year because he had been absent for the first four events. “The car was really fast. We are starting the race from the fifth grid but the situation looks similar to that of the Fuji round when we eventually won. So we still have a good chance,” said Krumm, looking to replay his team’s first win of the season in May from the sixth grid.

WedsSport ADVAN RC F also made its way into Q2 with the fourth fastest time set by Yuhi Sekiguchi. Although Juichi Wakisaka couldn’t improve the position in Q2 and was ranked in seventh at the end of the session, he wasn’t disappointed with the result at all. “We have performed better in races this year,” the veteran said, “So we set up the car to make it work in the race. Given this, my qualifying time was rather promising for tomorrow.” There’s a good reason for Wakisaka to have been optimistic because the team had never missed to score a point this season and finished the last race in fourth, which suggested that even a victory wasn’t impossible this time.

With a refreshing breeze, the sky was clear on the race day. The 300km race meant that the goal was 81 laps away from the start on this 3.704km circuit. Because of the narrow track width at some of the corners, the races at Sugo in the past almost always had some accidents and this year’s race was no exception. The Safety Car was called in on Lap 28 to help removing work of a crashed car and, when the pit stop window became open under the Safety Car period, almost all GT500 cars came into the pits at the same time, which brought utter chaos into the pit lane…

But D’station ADVAN GT-R luckily moved through the chaos. While Krumm once dropped to seventh after the start, the team did a very good job and sent Sasaki back to the track smoothly. The Japanese found himself running in fifth already on his first lap and started to catch up to the cars in front of him. After moving up to fourth on Lap 68, he caught up Eneos Sustina RC F and overtook it with four laps to go. Thus, he finished the race in third and celebrated it on the podium together with Krumm.

In contrast, WedsSport ADVAN RC F wasn’t so lucky. Until the pit stop, Sekiguchi came up to fifth by making successful moves on Lap 20 and 23. So further position gain was expected after the stop with Wakisaka at the wheel. However, Sekiguchi forced to park the car not straight to his pit box, which caused them to lose valuable time, as the crew had to push back the car before leaving the pit. On top of this, he was blocked by the other car, which got stuck between the wall and another car just before the pit lane exit, together with a bunch of other competitors. Because of the time he lost in the pit lane in this way, Wakisaka was running in eighth when he rejoined the race.

But he didn’t give up. By overtaking the cars in front of him one after another, he moved up to fifth with 14 laps to go and the gap with the car in fourth was less than a half second when Wakisaka saw the checkered flag and just four seconds behind D’station ADVAN GT-R. It was a shame that WedsSport ADVAN RC F finished race only in fifth because a podium finish was within their reach only if they had had a clean race. But the car still continued its successive point finishes since the season opener, so it’s safe to say they can expect even better results in the remaining two rounds.

In the GT300 class, Matsui in VivaC 86 MC took over the lead position at Turn 1 on Lap 7. Toyota Prius apr GT never stopped putting pressure on him from behind but Matsui seemed to be unmoved at all and stayed at the top of the class. Behind them, Nakayama in Upgarage Bandoh 86 was fighting fiercely for the third place and, further down the field, Manabu Orido in ManePa Lamborghini GT3 and Mineo at the wheel of K’s Frontier Direction 458 were in fifth and sixth respectively, watching for opportunities to gain a position or two.

Then, on Lap 24 for the GT300 class leader, the Safety Car came out as previously mentioned. As the situation was same as the GT500, when the pit lane was opened, all cars except for Hisashi Wada in Greentech SLS AMG GT3 and Hiroshi Takamori in Dijon Racing GT-R rushed into the pits at the same time. While Takamori spun after the racing resumed and dropped down through the field, Wada extended his stint and led the race until Lap 48 when he finally made the pit stop to change to Masaki Jyonai. As a result, the team’s decision to stay out wasn’t totally wrong, as Jyonai found himself running in eighth when he went out on the track.

When all GT300 car had completed mandatory pit stops, Tsuchiya at the wheel of VivaC 86 MC was easily leading the race, followed by Hiramine in ManePa Lamborghini GT3 with a nearly 30 second gap with the leader. All cars that had been running between these two were delayed due to the “congestion” at the pit exit, whereas Hiramine was sent back to the track without changing a tire at the pit stop, before the havoc happened.

In return for the advantage he got by continuing with the worn tires, however, Hiramine began to struggle in the closing stage and eventually brought the car back home in fourth, the same finishing position with the last Suzuka round.

Being in complete control throughout, and not bothered about the battles behind, VivaC 86 MC safely scored its maiden victory in the Super GT series. And this was the first ever win for a Mother Chassis car. Driving Leon SLS, Haruki Kurosawa/Naoya Gamou pair secured five consecutive point finishes by taking the seventh place. They were followed by B-Max NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Mitsunori Takaboshi), JMS Lmcorsa Z4 (Morio Nitta/Shigekazu Wakisaka), and Greentech SLS AMG GT3 which rounded out the top ten.