Round 1 Okayama : Preview

At last, the curtain is about to open for 2013 AUTOBACS SUPER GT. Once again, the last offseason offered lots of topics including major shift of drivers, emergence of new faces, updates of GT500 machines, new GT300 machines, and many more. Nonetheless, all that was for staying victorious in the series that will start from upcoming season opener. Being the first step towards the champion crown, the opening round is truly a non-stop excitement. Let’s focus our eyes on Okayama International Circuit on April 6th and 7th!

Season starts from Okayama again this year.

Okayama International Circuit (Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture) will be the stage for the season opener again this year. It is the shortest SUPER GT circuit with 3.703km, but the track is consisted of a number of technical corners and offers frequent battles all around, making it a circuit with full of excitements. In addition, since the track and the spectator’s space are relatively close, fans can fully enjoy and feel the thrill and exhaust of cars running right in front of them.

Being a technical track, an established theory of Okayama had been that the track is favorable to a car that is quick around the corners, for instance, HSV-010 GT, or has excellent braking, for example, GT-R. But, last year, an SC430, which favors high-speed circuits, achieved pole-to-finish, namely ZENT CERUMO SC430. Considering that the characteristics of circuit haven’t changed, it can be assumed that a technical track is no longer troublesome to SC430.

At the Official Test conducted on March 16th and 17th ahead of the season opener, No.6 ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 (Kazuya Oshima/Yuji Kunimoto) marked the top time of Day 1. Moreover, it was SC430′s 1-2 domination with No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Kohei Hirate) following. In Day 2, No.17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Toshihiro Kaneishi) recorded the fastest time of the testing surpassing No.6 car. However, there were three SC430s in the overall top 5, and the common view of the paddock is “SC430 is fast.”

Last year’s winner SC430′s got the advantage!? Or…

To name the candidates for victory out of SC430 fleet, it would be the last year’s winner No.38 car and No.6 car, the fastest in testing among SC430s. Especially, No.6 car is definitely a team to watch with Oshima, who has been named as team’s ace driver for this season, leading the team along with Kunimoto, who has the quickness comparable to him. Another SC430 that could provide extra excitement would be No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Hiroaki Ishiura), which clocked impressive lap times at the test, with Wakisaka, who is especially fired up for this season as he puts it “Putting my career as a driver on this season.”

Clocking a fastest time at testing, No.17 car is also lead by a young driver, Tsukakoshi, who is of the same generation as Oshima and has become the first driver of the team, both in name and reality. Battle between the next generation ace drivers of SC430 and HSV-010 GT would also be a sure excitement. No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Takashi Kogure) is another notable machine out of HSV-010 GT fleet with having a double-ace driver lineup. Giving that a Honda personnel formally stated that “RAYBRIG is the ace machine,” it may be a fastest team that had not seen in recent years. But, on the other hand, it is said that having a double-ace driver lineup is a double-edged sword. Nonetheless, the team is definitely worthy to keep eyes on for not only Honda fans but everybody.

GT-R fleet should not be underestimated either. N.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paulo de Oliveira) trailed right behind by a slight gap of 0.133 second behind No.17′s top time on the second day of previous testing. In addition, No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli) driven by the last year’s champion drivers should be looking forward to having a good start towards three consecutive championship. After all, a lot of uncertainties lie in a season opener. We may see a dark horse emerging ahead depending on the weather condition.

Champion Porsche continues to excel in GT300.

Looking at the GT300 class, the last year’s champion No.0 ENDLESS TAISAN 911 (Kyosuke Mineo/Naoki Yokomizo) is seen as the top favorite. The team is fielding a 2013 model Porsche 911GT3R this season, which marked top lap times for two days at the Okayama test. New Porsche is said to have better cornering performance than last year’s model, thus, it can well be showing speed not only on the straightaway but also at other parts of the track.

Running up against it would be No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama/Tomonobu Fujii), 2011 champion No.4 GSR HATSUNEMIKU BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), and No.11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Bjorn Wirdheim), which the car has been changed to a Mercedes-Benz SLS. FIA GT3 specification GT-R, which achieved its first win last year and increased number of cars are entering this season, are also seen as a favorite for victory with No.3 S Road NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Daiki Sasaki) leading the pack.

Last year was somewhat advantageous to those FIA GT3 machines, but this year JAF GT cars are very likely to be a significant threat to them. At Okayama test, No.16 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Hideki Mutoh/Yuhki Nakayama) placed second on Day 1 and No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki) emerged to third place on Day 2. In terms of CR-Z, No.31 Panasonic apr PRIUS GT (Morio Nitta/Koki Saga) could have a special feeling of rivalry. It is indeed worthwhile to pay attention to this rivalry to see who will get the first victory of a hybrid GT machine as well as their technology competition.

Debuting this season are the McLaren MP4-12C GT3, developed by an F1 team, fielded by No.2 EVA RT TEST-01APPLE MP4-12C (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh), and Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2, fielded by No.88 MonePa LAMBORGHINI GT3. Upcoming race is already valuable just to see these two super sports of Britain and Italy. No, considering these cars will be engaged in fierce battle and compete against the champion Porsche as well as GT machines of Japan and Europe, there is no way anyone can miss it.

Source : SUPER GT