When it comes to a big race of mid-summer held at Suzuka Circuit, there is nothing but the AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 5 “International Pokka 1000km.” It is indeed a “classic race” as this year marks its forty first holding, and, together with being the longest race in the SUPER GT series held in mid-summer, there is a high level of attention to the event. It also is the turning point of the season and an important race in terms of the championship. You can’t take your eyes away from Suzuka Circuit on August 18th and 19th!
Cooling and pit strategy. Many other off-track elements require attention.
“1000km Race,” the longest race in the SUPER GT series, was the icon for the summer in Suzuka, but due to the social situation, the distance had been 1000km or below since 2006, and, even worth, it was halved last year and the race was held with a racing distance of 500km. So, for this year, the distance will jump to the double.
As a consequence, burden on drivers as well as cars and the number of pit stops will increase. But it means more thrills and excitements to the audience. The side that is fielding a car will see a huge increase in workload, but, after all, this 1000km race comes with bonus points. 20 points are given to the winner of a 300km or 500km race, but 25 points will be granted for this 1000km race. Bonus is also given to the second place finisher or below, therefore, teams that are in the championship contention should be aiming an upper position no matter what.
In addition, due to the fact that the Suzuka round is held right in the middle of summer, teams and drivers have to fight against their worst enemy, the heat. Although heat-related problems on the car have decreased in recent years, increasing number of drivers, who have to wear a fire-resistance racing suit and a helmet in the cockpit where the inside temperature is said to rise to as high as 60 degrees during the day when the car is on the run, suffer heat exhaustion. What came about as a solution to the problem is air conditioner. Air conditioner had been avoided since it takes away some horsepower from the car, but after GT-R’s initiation in implementing the solution, HSV-010 GT fleet is also equipped with an air conditioner this season. Air conditioner is said to be more effective and less problem than ordinary cool-suit and is becoming to be inevitable equipment. Nonetheless, this is a “battle” in the backstage that is not directly linked to the speed in the race, but this is certainly one of the excitements that “International Pokka 1000km” offers.
SC430 in good momentum. First win of the season for GT-R?
“International Pokka 1000km” is the fifth round of the series. Considering there are eight races in this season, the series will enter into the last half of season from this event. First of all, let’s walkthrough the situation in the GT500 class. LEXUS 430 fleet has been showing good performances consistently this season. No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate), winner of the season opener in Okayama, stands as the point leader. Winner of Round 2 in Fuji, No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Hiroaki Ishiura), follows behind at second place. Previous race at SUGO was also won by an SC430, No.6 ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Kazuya Oshima), and that gives the SC430 fleet a 3 wins out of 4 races record. They need to carry large load of handicap weights for being in the upper portion of point ranking, but they still have a chance to emerge into the top positions at this event considering how long the race will be.
Important factor for these teams would be when to switch the offence and defense during the race. No.18 weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure/Carlo Van Dam) brought in a win at Round 3 Sepang for the Honda HSV-010 GT squad. In the point ranking, No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto) is at third place. As far as HSV-010 GT squad is concerned, they need to score as many points as possible at Honda’s home track, Suzuka.
And there is GT-R squad that dominated last year’s series with 5 wins out of 8 races. Surprisingly, they are unable to score a win yet this season. However, it’s not that their car lack in performance, but it seems that they have been dropping races that they could have won due to accidents. Anyways, they cannot allow to be left out in the dust of rivals anymore considering the championship. So the expectation should rise for No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Michael Krumm), the highest-ranked in the point standing among the GT-R squad, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) that favors summer Suzuka, and the defending champion No.1 S Road REITO MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli) to rise up at next Suzuka.
High hopes for fight-back from JAF GT300 machines.
As already mentioned, this year’s Suzuka is fought out in a 1000km race. What becomes more important, then, than in usual races is “fuel efficiency.” FIA GT3 cars have been showing off their advantage in power this season, but the weak point that all FIA GT3 cars share in common is inefficient fuel mileage. As a consequence, there is quite good chance that JAF GT300 cars fight back at Suzuka 1000km race. Teams that are recognized for their speed such as No.2 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 Apple Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroshi Hamaguchi) and No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi/Kosuke Matsuura) may create a scene where they outrun European cars. Also, No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki) has outstanding record at this race, winning last year and the year before consecutively with a Legacy B4, and could play one of the main roles again in Suzuka.
Hybrid cars are also another interesting element of the event. Backed by their advantage in fuel economy, No.31 apr HASEPRO PRIUS GT (Morio Nitta/Koki Saga/Yuichi Nakayama) and No.16 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Daisuke Nakajima) may come up with dynamic strategies. PRIUS’ improvement in speed is prominent as it qualified third and then lead the field for a while in the race at previous SUGO event. We may witness an epoch-making victory.
Looking into FIA GT3 cars. Cars to watch would be those that have shown good performances in fuel efficiency and race strategies this season. And that would be the defending champion No.0 GSR HATSUNEMIKU BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka). No.11 GAINER DIXCEL R8 LMS (Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka) or No.3 S Road NDDP GT-R (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Katsumasa Chiyo/Daiki Sasaki) may also fight hard considering where they are in the championship standing. In addition, we shouldn’t forget that when it comes to an endurance race, there is always Porsche. No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama/Tomonobu Fujii) and No.911 ENDLESS TAISAN 911 are the teams we should keep in mind in that sense. Another interesting feature of GT300 class is the third driver. Most noteworthy among all is Richard Lyons who will be helping out No.21 ZENT Audi R8 LMS (Akihiro Tsuzuki/ Cyndie Allemann). He is a former champion who has experience in driving GT500 cars of three different manufacturers. Another old familiar name is Akihiko Nakaya who will join No.52 GREEN TEC & LEON SLS (Hironori Takeuchi/Haruki Kurosawa). There are also some fresh names such as Daiki Sasaki (No.3) and Yuichi Nakayama (No.31), known as the F3 boys, and we should look forward to seeing their youthful driving.
A twist from the rain made the long Round 5 Suzuka such a hectic race last year. With the race distance back to 1000km, we may see more confusion and upsets. Round 5 Suzuka 1000km race is indeed the turning point of championship, thus a race you can’t miss.
Source : SUPER GT