Preview
Feel
the vibe from HSV-010 GT for strike-back.
Who
conquers the technical track in Okayama?
Lock our eyes on the new GT300
machines and foreign team
On April 3rd and
4th, Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Prefecture) will
host 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 2 "OKAYAMA GT 300km
RACE". The new season kicked off at Suzuka with a lot of
dramatic scenes like come-from-behind win, outrageous crash,
and many more, and the excitement still remains afresh in the
mind, but the battle has already entered into the next stage.
How will 2010 model machines suit the technical track of
Okayama? Who will take the control of new season? A lot of
talks are going on already.
Can HSV-010 GT
bring in its first win?
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No.100
RAYBRIG HSV-010
Season
opener was held at Suzuka Circuit which boasts two
long straights, but the venue of the second round,
Okayama International Circuit, is known as a technical
track with a number of low- to mid-speed corners.
Given such characteristics, cars that are especially
fast around the corners, such as Honda NSX and Nissan
GT-R, tend to favor Okayama. But that might be a story
of the past considering that NSX has been replaced by
HSV-010 GT and GT-R has different engine this season.
Or, may not be quite so. Despite its layout of the
front-engine, rear-wheel drive, Honda's new HSV-010 GT
has already proven its speed going around the corners,
and, according to some drivers, the braking
performance of the new car is even better than its
ancestor, NSX. In another words, HSV-010 GT can well
be pretty quick at Okayama. Moreover, considering the
huge disappointment they had experienced at the
opening round, ending the race from a crash despite
starting from the pole position, No.18 Weider HSV-010
(Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval) must be keen to bring in
the very first win for HSV-010 GT. Fresh duo of No.100
RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto) should
be coming in to Okayama with their momentum from
finishing the season opener at third place. |
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No.23
MOTUL AUTECH GT-R
Looking into the GT-R fleet, expectation should
be high for No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit
Treluyer), who could not bring in satisfactory result
at the season opener. For the defending Okayama
winner, No.34 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo de
Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda), the handicap weight they
have to mount on for winning the last race in Suzuka
could cause to be a drawback for them, but if it
rains, then they would have a good chance to play a
major role in the race. |
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No.38
ZENT CERUMO SC430
With
different specification from last year's machine, the
technical track at Okayama should no longer be a pain
for SC430. No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Richard
Lyons) with Yuji Tachikawa, last year's pole-sitter
who personally favors the circuit, the defending
champion No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre
Lotterer), and No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya
Oshima), who qualified second at the circuit last year
and took the lead for a while at the previous round,
may put out some show for LEXUS.
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Mid-engined machines may
have some advantage in GT300 class.
No.43 ARTA Garaiya |
No.2 APPLE K-ONE SHIDEN |
| In the same
theory as NSX enjoyed the advantage at Okayama from
having a mid-engine layout, the winner in GT300 class
has been a mid-engined car for last 4 straight years.
Therefore, according to the theory, the top candidate
should be shortlisted from mid-engined machines. No.43
ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) and No.2
APPLE K-ONE SHIDEN (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroshi Hamaguchi),
both finishing the season opener with disappointing
early retirement, as well as defending winner No.19
WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka) quickly
come to the mind. No.5 MACHGOGOGO SHAKEN 408R (Tetsuji
Tamanaka/Haruki Kurosawa) also falls in the category. |
No.3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z |
No.66 triple a Vantage GT2 |
Not a mid-engined
car, but Fairlady Z fits well to the track of Okayama
too. Considering their good performance despite the
confusion at the opening round, Z's, including No.3
HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z (Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka
Yanagida), could leap into leading position if the
track condition turns out to be slippery with rain or
low temperature.
Out of many topics that GT300 class offers, new
machines appearing in the class are catching hearts of
everyone. Aston Martine V8 Vantage of No.66 triple a
Vantage GT2 (Hideshi Matsuda/Hiroki Yoshimoto) is a
sure beauty that deserves a look. Flying all the way
from Singapore, No.365 365 Thunder Asia MT900M (Melvin
Choo/Tim Sugden) with a brand new Mosler MT900 is a
sure eye-catcher. The team participated last year's
Round 4 in Sepang as a wildcard and showcased some
outstanding performance where they came up close to
the leader at one point. Their new machine were
created exclusively for competing in the SUPER GT
GT300 class and mounted with a V8 engine made
exclusively for racing by Zytek. Collecting all the
attention for being the very first foreign team to
compete in the series full time, the team may become
an eye of typhoon. |
After all, the Round 2 in
Okayama is a key point of the season to see which way the flow
goes. With the technical layout of the track, the event should
provide a lot of excitements. Indeed, it can be the very place
where HSV-010 GT records its first victory. Don't miss it.
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