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Race Report

MJ KRAFT SC430 team puts together a perfect race
SC430 teams sweep the Fuji podium!

The FUJI GT 400km RACE, Round 3 of the 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on May 2nd at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Pref. The GT500 class winner was the MJ KRAFT SC430 driven by Hiroaki Ishiura and Kazuya Oshima. The winner of the GT300 class race was the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT driven by Takuto Iguchi and Yuji Kunimoto.

GT500 Class

  

The race started at 14:00 in front of a large gallery of 53,100 spectators. In the pole-sitting No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430, Kazuya Oshima got away from the start line in good form to lead the race n the early stages.
Due to the length of this 400km race, its regulation requires two driver changes during the course of the race. This regulation also enables the teams to employ a variety of different race strategies, such as shortening the first driver stint or choosing to change tires only once, and many of the teams took advantage of these options.

No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Having performed especially well from the first practice session of race weekend, however, the No. 35 MJ KRAFY team decided to go with an orthodox race plan. That meant dividing the race distance into roughly three equal stints. Oshima brought car No. 35 back to the pit at the end of lap 31 for the first driver change to teammate Hiroaki Ishiura, while the crew changed all four tires and refueled, all in the space of 28 seconds. At this point, there were still about four machines that had not made their first pit stop, but when all the pit stops had been completed by lap 42, No. 35 had the lead again. Its margin of lead over the No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 in 2nd place was more than 10 seconds.
Like Oshima in the first stint before him, Ishiura ran on steadily in the lead at a strong pace. He eventually brought the machine back to the pit at the end of lap 63 to turn the wheel over to Oshima again. In this second pit stop all four tires were changed once again. The pit work took a somewhat long 36 seconds, but this didn't affect the race order, as the team's lead margin over 2nd-place car No. 1 had continued to grow during the second stint and its second pit stop had required a similarly long 34 seconds.
In the final stage of the race, Oshima's pace began to slacken somewhat and he was forced to run defensively as the gad narrowed. Still he managed to defend his lead all the way to the finish and the winning checkered. In this way, the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 team scored a perfect pole-to-finish victory without having given up the lead throughout the race. For the No. 35 team, this is their first victory since round six at Suzuka last year and its third in GT500 class competition.


No.6 ENEOS SC430 Finishing 2nd came the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer). As starting drive, Lotterer had strung out his first stint until lap 35 before turning the wheel over to teammate Wakisaka. The second stint ended when Wakisaka brought the machine back to the pit at the end of lap 66 and turned the steering wheel over to Lotterer once again. From there, Lotterer continued to pursue car No. 35 but was unable to catch it before the finish. However, this 2nd-place lifted the PETRONAS TOM'S team to first position in the season ranking.

 

Finishing 3rd was the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim). This team had gone with a race plan that ended the first stint (Ito) somewhat early at lap 22 and lengthened Wirdheim's stint by to lap 60. In both pit stops the team had changed all four tires. In the latter stages of the race Ito was passed by No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 (Ralph Firman/Yuji Ide) at one point, but when a collision with a GT300 car knocked No. 8 out of the battle for the lead, Ito was able to hold 3rd place unthreatened to the finish.
The 4th place finisher was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons), giving the SC430 camp a clean sweep of the top four places. It turned out to be a glorious “Golden Week” day here at Fuji Speedway for the Lexus teams.
In 5th place came the top HSV-010 GT team, the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi). The top GT-R team in the race was the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) finishing 6th.
Due to a drive train problem just prior to the start, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) had to start the race from the pit lane two laps into the race. Near mid-race, however an engine problem developed, forcing the car to a trackside stop.





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Hot battle ends in first win for COROLLA Axio apr GT!
First GT podium finish for Aston Martin as well

GT300 Class

  



In the GT300 class race, the No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Takuto Iguchi) staring in 2nd position on the grid managed to pass the pole-starting No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Mitsuhiro Kinoshita) on the opening lap. No. 33 was also passed by the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hiroki Yoshimoto) on the next lap, giving up 2nd position.
No. 66 went on to catch and pass No. 25 on lap 16 to take the lead. After that, the lead order changed rapidly as some teams opted for shorter first stints and some forewent tire changes to shorten pit time. No. 33 made its pit stop at lap 22 and skipped a tire change in order to get second-stint driver Tomonobu Fujii back in the race as quickly as possible.

No.43 ARTA Garaiya
Meanwhile, the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Yuji Kunimoto) had been moving up steadily through the field. After starting in 4th position on the grid, Kunimoto had moved into 3rd place on lap 23 and passed No. 25 on lap 30 to move into 2nd place. Then on the next lap he succeeded in passing No. 66 to finally take the lead. At the end of lap 34, Kunimoto brought his car No. 74 in for its first pit stop. All four tires were changed and the driver's seat turned over to Takuto Iguchi for the second stint. Iguchi was behind car No. 33 when he got out on the track, but No. 33 developed electronic system trouble on lap 47 and came to a stop at trackside. This put No. 74 (Iguchi) in the lead once a again.
No. 74 returned to the pit for its second pit stop on lap 67. This time they forewent a tire change to cut the pit time to just 21 seconds. Kunimoto took the wheel again for the final stint.
Although Kunimoto (No. 74) was chased hard by the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi＞Morio Nitta＞Takagi) in the final stages of the race, he managed to hold the lead to the checkered and secure the win.
This was the first SUPER GT win for the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr G (Takuto Iguchi/Yuji Kunimoto) team. In the second year since its SUPER GT debut, the COROLLA Axio finally won its first victory here at Toyota's home course.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi). It had chased car No. 74 right down to the final lap but fell just short of catching it.

 

No.66 triple a Vantage GT2 The 3rd-place finisher was the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hideshi Matsuda/Hiroki Yoshimoto). After running in the lead for a while in the early stages of the race, it had continued to hold 2nd position after being passed by car No. 74. However, in the pit stop taken on lap 36 at the same time as car No. 43, it surrender 2nd place due to longer pit work and returned to the race 15 seconds back in 3rd place.
The No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Akihiro Tsuzuki/Takeshi Tsuchiya) that had been among the leaders in the early stages of the race also lost time in taking on more fuel and dropped back in position. It was also given a drive-through penalty due to a speed limit violation in the pit lane. This held the team back to an eventual 7th-place finish.

 

Hiroaki Ishiura / Kazuya Oshima ,  Takuto Iguchi / Yuji Kunimoto

GT500 Class Winner

No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430

Hiroaki Ishiura
Everything fell into place perfectly for us this week. We weren't able to put together good races at the season opener or in round two. But, before coming here to Fuji, we knew that we have consistently performed well here and we really wanted this win. That put some pressure on us too, so I am really relieved now that we were able to win in that situation. After this, we want to continue winning as many points as we can until round six (when the handicap weight calculations change) so that we will be in contention for the title in the final rounds of the season.
Kazuya Oshima
As a team, we came here [to Fuji] to win. And in fact, the condition of the machine was good all week and we drivers were performing well too. We were the fastest in the qualifying and again in this morning's practice. So, if we had failed to win today's race, it would have looked bad. For that reason as well, I was determined to get results out their. From the start I was able to control the pace, I was able to race relaxed, and the machine was performing well. Everything was perfect. For the remainder of the season I want to help make sure that we don't lose any races where we have an advantage. Our machine performs very well here at Fuji and at Suzuka, so I want to see us go for the wins there.
GT300 Class Winner

No.74 COROLLA Axio apr GT

Takuto Iguchi
I'm very relieved. Last year we didn't even have a podium finish, so I am very happy that this first podium finish came as a win. This time (according to the team strategy) I didn't have much driving time. Kunimoto did very well for us in the qualifying yesterday and I think that is the biggest contributor to our win today. Now we are entering the [hot] season when the Michelin tires perform especially well, so I want to see us push hard, despite the handicap weights we will now be carrying, and win again at the next round at Sepang.
Yuji Kunimoto
I would say that I am more relieved than happy to finally get this first win under our belts. Last year we ran the whole season without a podium finish. That was frustrating for me. When we got out on the track yesterday, we already had our settings down and the machine was performing well, and our Michelin tires also fit this warm weather well. As a driver I also felt I was in good condition. In the final battle today [with Takagi in car No. 43] my heart was really racing (laughs). I felt that I could run my own race nobody could pass me, so I just concentrated all the way to the finish.

Race Results

GT500 Class
Position Car No. Machine Driver Time&Diff. Laps Tire WH
1 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 Hiroaki Ishiura
Kazuya Oshima
 2:25'00.795 88 BS 14
2 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka
Andre Lotterer
 0'04.741 88 BS 38
3 6 ENEOS SC430 Daisuke Ito
Bjorn Wirdheim
 0'22.875 88 BS 42
4 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa
Richard Lyons
 0'41.899 88 BS 34
5 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 Toshihiro Kaneishi
Koudai Tsukakoshi
 0'51.687 88 BS 16
6 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
 1'11.940 88 BS 16
7 18 Weider HSV-010 Takashi Kogure
Loic Duval
 1'17.697 88 BS 40
8 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R J.P.Lima de Oliveira
Hironobu Yasuda
 1Lap 87 YH 40
9 32 EPSON HSV-010 Ryo Michigami
Yuhki Nakayama
 1Lap 87 DL 2
10 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 Takuya Izawa
Naoki Yamamoto
 1Lap 87 BS 28
11 8 ARTA HSV-010 Ralph Firman
Yuji Ide
 26Laps 62 BS 10
Classified (GT500: 61 Laps)

23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi Motoyama
Benoit Treluyer
 30Laps 58 MI 6

39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 Andre Couto
Kohei Hirate
 45Laps 43 DL 14

 

 
GT300 Class
Position Car No. Machine Driver Time&Diff. Laps Tire WH
1 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT Takuto Iguchi
Yuji Kunimoto
 2:25'27.609 81 MI 10
2 43 ARTA Garaiya Morio Nitta
Shinichi Takagi
 0'00.622 81 MI 10
3 66 triple a Vantage GT2 Hideshi Matsuda
Hiroki Yoshimoto
 0'45.304 81 YH
4 19 WedsSport IS350 Manabu Orido
Tatsuya Kataoka
 0'46.122 81 YH 22
5 3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z Kazuki Hoshino
Masataka Yanagida
 0'55.577 81 YH 34
6 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430 Tetsuya Tanaka
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
 1'10.790 81 DL 8
7 25 ZENT Porsche RSR Akihiro Tsuzuki
Takeshi Tsuchiya
 1Lap 80 YH
8 27 NAC EISEICOM LMP Ferrari Yutaka Yamagishi
Hiroshi Koizumi
 1Lap 80 YH 4
9 31 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 apr COROLLA Koki Saga
Kosuke Matsuura
 1Lap 80 YH 12
10 26 CINE CITTA' TAISAN PORSCHE Igor Sushko
Masayuki Ueda
 1Lap 80 YH
11 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7 Nobuteru Taniguchi
Ryo Orime
 1Lap 80 YH 40
12 46 UP START MOLA Z Naoki Yokomizo
Tsubasa Abe
 1Lap 80 YH 70
13 2 Apple•K-ONE•Shiden Hiroki Katoh
Hiroshi Hamaguchi
 1Lap 80 YH 30
14 9 HATSUNEMIKU X GSR PORSCHE Taku Bamba
Masahiro Sasaki
 1Lap 80 HK 2
15 87 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Hiroyuki Iiri
Yuya Sakamoto
 1Lap 80 YH 2
16 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Koji Yamanishi
Yuhi Sekiguchi
 1Lap 80 YH 24
17 88 RIRE Lamborghini RG-3 Atsushi Yogo
Shinya Hosokawa
 1Lap 80 YH
18 5 MACHGOGOGO SHAKEN408R Tetsuji Tamanaka
Haruki Kurosawa
 3Laps 78 YH 16
19 666 BOMEX LIAN BOXSTER Junichiro Yamashita
Takashi Miyamoto
Takamori.com		 3Laps 78 YH
20 51 Sabelt CINE CITTA' TAISAN PORSCHE Yuya Sakamoto
Shogo Mitsuyama
 22Laps 59 YH
Classified (GT300: 56 Laps)

33 HANKOOK PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
Masami Kageyama
Tomonobu Fujii		 36Laps 45 HK 16

365 365 ThunderAsia MT900M Melvin Choo
Tim Sugden
 51Laps 30 YH

62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 Tetsuya Yamano
Kota Sasaki
 54Laps 27 YH

360 ISHIMATSU Kosei RUNNUP PORSCHE Atsushi Tanaka
Masahiro Matsunaga
 80Laps 1 HK

 
Tire = BS:Bridgestone / DL:Dunlop / HK:Hankook / MI:Michelin / YH:Yokohama

WH = Handicap Weight (kg)

Start: 14:03'00 / Finish: 16:28'00.795

Best Lap
GT500 - 1'35.612 : No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Kazuya Oshima)
GT300 - 1'44.753 : No.74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Takuto Iguchi)

 

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