2013 AUTOBACS SUPER GT is contested out by eight races. Next race, “FUJI GT 300km RACE,” marks the sixth round, and the season enters the final stage from here and reaches the climax. The race will become more important to some teams as they can consequently drop off from the contention for the title depending on the result. Highly tensed Round 6 will undergo the qualifying on 9/7 and the race on 9/8. The stage will be at Fuji Speedway located near the capital. Hot season of SUPER GT is yet to end!
Will it be a strike back from SC430 fleet at their home-track!?
Fuji Speedway hosted Round 2 in April too, but that was a long distance race of 500km. Round 6 has a standard race distance of 300km where two drivers will take the wheel and the team will conduct one pit-stop during the race. For that, the qualifying will be more important than the Round 2, and the race will likely to progress more quickly.
Fuji had undergone a complete renovation in 2005, and, with addition of technical section with continuous turns in the second half of the track, the track is not as much of “high-speed track” as it used to be said. Nonetheless, the 1.5 km long straightaway and the high-speed corners like 100R and 300R offer perfect thrill. The high-speed track is a superb place to see the SUPER GT, which showcases frequent side-by-sides during the race.
Given that Fuji is a subsidiary of Toyota, and many teams that field a Lexus SC430 have their garage near Fuji, the track can be said as their home track. In addition, confidence is built around Lexus SC430 as it is favorable in a high-speed track from its natural characteristics. Indeed, No.36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 (Kazuki Nakajima/James Rossiter) and No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate) battled it out for the lead at the Round 2 this season. But, on the other hand, the SC430 fleet has not scored a win in races other than the Round 2. Then, they would desperately want to get a win at the Round 6 Fuji. Among all, ZENT CERUMO SC430 that fell short of victory at Round 2 should be coming in to the Round 6 with must-win regime as they have been long away from victory especially the recent two races where they were struck with misfortunes.
In the GT-R squad, the defending champion team No.1 REITO MOLA GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Yuhi Sekiguchi) draws attention. With the new driver combination, it seemed that things were not going in the way they want at some part, but Motoyama and Sekiguchi are showing the speed the two are known for in the recent two races. It may be the time for them to fully get out the potential they have especially with the light handicap weight.
In the Honda HSV-010 GT fleet, No.17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Toshihiro Kaneishi) would be at the top of recommendation list. At the official test conducted at Fuji in early August, No.18 Weider Modulo HSV-010 marked the top lap time, and that suggests that HSV-010 GT is no longer disadvantageous at a high-speed track as it reputed. Lap times that KEIHIN HSV-010 marked at the test were not necessarily outstanding, but this will be a great chance for the team especially with the handicap weight.
If it rains and the track condition becomes slippery, then the cars that wear Yokohama tires or Dunlop tires, which are strong in the rain, such as No.19 WedsSport ADVAN SC430 (Seiji Ara/Andre Couto) or No.32 Epson HSV-010 (Ryo Michigami/Daisuke Nakajima) may well be outperforming their rivals on the track.
GT500 class title contention is just unpredictable
Three races remained in this season. The survival for the title would get fiercer than ever. For the teams in the higher point ranking, the handicap weight would be heavy and, thus, patience would be another factor that they would need during the race.
Key characteristic of this season is that the points are spread across various cars. Usually, the top in ranking would have around 50 points by the sixth round, but this year’s leader, No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli), has only obtained 42 points. And, in usual years, there would be only about 5 – 8 pairs (teams) within the 20-point range from the leader, but there are 11 pairs this year. No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430, currently at eleventh in ranking (19 points difference), as well as No.1 REITO MOLA GT-R, at twelfth (26 points difference), may get a chance to emerge into the title contention at the last round if they win at the Round 6.
Of course, a podium finish would allow teams in the upper positions in the ranking, such as No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira), No.18 Weider Modulo HSV-010 (Naoki Yamamoto/Frederic Makowiecki), and No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Takashi Kogure), to compete the last two races in advantageous position. In addition, the handicap weight will be decreased at the Round 7 Autopolis (amount of handicap weight to be the same number as the points) and the final round Motegi (no handicap weight), therefore, it would be extremely important to increase the gap, even by one point, against the rivals at the Round 6. That could be the element for fierce battle for a higher position not only at the leading positions but also at the middle pack. Round 6 Fuji is a race that offers a full of actions to see.
Can anybody stir up the three-way battle by CR-Z, BRZ, and SLS?
Who could have expected to see the breakthrough of this extent by the hybrid cars before the season started? Current leader is, despite winless, No.16 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Yuhki Nakayama), with three 2nd place finishes in five races. No.55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi/Takashi Kobayashi) is ranked fifth with two wins. No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki), a JAF-GT car, leaped to the second in point ranking after winning the previous race in Suzuka. Looking at the FIA GT3 cars, Mercedes-Benz SLS lined up at third and fourth in point ranking with No.11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Bjorn Wirdheim) and No.52 OKINAWA-IMP SLS (Hironori Takeuchi/Tsuchiya Takeshi), respectively. These three models have been showing great performances up to this point this season, but it may become difficult for them to produce outcome they expect as the handicap weight becomes critical from here. For that reason, a podium finish at Round 6 would put them much closer to the title.
So how will the battle for win turn out to be? Considering the Porsches and Aston Martins showed speed at the previous race in Suzuka despite they struggled in the earlier races, the expectation rises for the high-speed track of Fuji. Defending champion No.0 ENDLESS TAISAN PORSCHE (Kyosuke Mineo/Naoki Yokomizo) as well as No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama/Tomonobu Fujii) and No.50 Exe Aston Martin (Msaki Kanou/Hideto Yasuoka) may get engaged in the battle in the upper position. No.4 GSR HATSUNEMIKU BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), which was disqualified at the previous race by the post-race scrutineering despite finishing second, is getting back its speed after know-how from BMW works had been incorporated to the machine. Lamborghinis, especially No.88 ManePa LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido/Takayuki Aoki), would also be a key team to watch as they are constantly appearing in the battle in the top group in the recent races.
Title contention at climax as well as pursue by winless teams, thrilling battles at high-speed circuit, etc, the Round 6 Fuji can offer a full of exciting scenes. Do enjoy fully at the circuit or via the J SPORT broadcast on September 7th and 8th, or on the “SUPER GT Plus” shown on the TV Tokyo broadcasting network in a later date.
Source : SUPER GT