ARTA won pole for both GT 500 and GT300!
#8 ARTA NSX-GT
On Saturday, Aug 5th, the qualifying session of SUPER GT 2017 「FUJI GT 300km RACE」 was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka-Pref.). This circuit is characterized by a long straight of about 1.5 km, but in the course there are continuous technical sections of medium and low speed corners too, making it is difficult course to set up.
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) was held in here from 2012. F1 has also been held in the past and it is one of Japan’s leading circuits. This race will be the second race of the “”Midsummer triple” in which there’s only two weeks between this race and the SUGO round. At the end of this month we can be excited for the Suzuka (Suzuka 1000km race). As the series enters the second half of the season, each team will have to look for a title battle and aim for points.
However, Fuji Speedway is the home track for the LEXUS LC 500, but 5 out of 6 cars have weight handicaps of more than 50 kilometers. This was done by adjustments of the fuel restrictor making the race difficult.
Only #19 WedsSport ADVAN LC 500 (Sekiguchi / Kunimoto) has a light chance of clearing up the regrets so far that the weight handicap is as light as 18 kg. Nonetheless, it was expected that the battle with the Honda NSX, who won the pole position for the last two race, and the Nissan GT-R, which has the new engine in the previous race then won the 2nd position.
At qualifying, 15 machines entries were made for the GT 500 class and 30 machines entries for the GT 300 class. The weather was cloudy, the temperature:27℃/ road surface temperature:33℃, and it started from 14:35.
#23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R
<GT500>
Q1 session gave an unexpected result. # 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC 500 had the top time in the free practice, and aimed at a clear lap at the beginning of Q1. But #19 placed 14th and they lost the ticket for Q2.
On the other hand, # 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Yamamoto / Izawa) saw the introduction of a new engine by the influence of SUGO’s crash, could not pass the Q1 session and became lowest ranked qualifier.
Q2 was a close fight race but # 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nojiri / Kobayashi) won the pole following SUGO, the third time it gained pole position in this season. Nojiri commented “I want to win at next time. Third time lucky!” with smiles.
2nd position was # 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli). 3rd position was # 36 au TOM’S LC 500 (Nakajima / James Rossiter) who entered the third ranking of the series ranking. 4th position was # 17 KEIHIN NSX – GT (Tsukakoshi / Kogure). 5th position was # 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Sasaki / JP De Olliveira). As the result, Honda NSX, LEXUS LC 500 and Nissan GT-R are mixed in at the top, making it anyone’s race tomorrow…
#55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3
<GT 300>
In the Q1 session, the lap time did not grow overall as a whole. # 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Richard lyons / Yanagida) who had put 4th fastest time in free practice, lost Q1 session.
#7 Studie BMW M6
In the Q2 session, GT3 were performing well. # 55 ARTA BMW M6 GT 3 (Takagi / S. Walkinshaw) took the pole position. 2nd position was # 7 Studie BMW M6 (Jorg Mueller / Ara). 3rd position was # 4 Good Smile Hatsune Miku AMG (Taniguchi / Kataoka), currently in the 2nd place in the series ranking in this class.
They will definitely be expected to aiming for the podium tomorrow. # 25 VivaC 86 MC (Matsui / Yamashita) the top ranking in the series, also advanced to Q2 with a weight of 82ksg and ranked is 12th. As a result, ARTA won pole for both GT500 and GT300.
ARTA
The final race will be held tomorrow August 6th (Sun) 15:25~, We will see whether the LEXUS LC 500 will be able to achieve the first five consecutive wins in SUPER GT history, or will the Honda NSX and the Nissan GT-R block LC500? Is it possible? Don’t take your eyes off the final race.