SUPER GT 2007 Round 5 : SUGO GT300 KM
HONDA DOMINATES THE ENTIRE WEEKEND !

QUALIFYING - TAKATA NSX DELIVERS RECORD FOURTH CONSECUTIVE POLE

The qualifying for the SUGO GT 300 (km) race which is round 5 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at SPORTS-LAND SUGO circuit (one lap 3.704 km) in the Miyagi Prefecture on July 28 2007. This qualifying saw the No 18 TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Ryo Michgami and Takashi Kogure grabbed the GT500 class pole position (fastest qualifier) for the fourth time in a row for this season ! In the first qualifying session in the morning, Kogure ran a course record time of 1 min. 14.784 sec. to lead the qualifiers. In the afternoon Super Lap for the top ten qualifiers, with the other rivals failing to improve on their morning times, Kogure ran another fast time of 1 min. 15.120 sec. to hold his lead and win the pole position. With Michigami having won the pole position in round 2 of the season and Kogure winning pole in rounds 3 and 4, this makes the fourth consecutive pole position for the TAKATA DOME NSX team, which sets a new record in SUPER GT competition.

The Honda NSX's outright pace in this year's SUPER GT continues to be re-affirmed as 2nd place in qualifying went to the No 8 ARTA NSX of Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman with a time of 1' 15.545" while third place went to another NSX, the 32 EPSON NSX of Duval and Carbone with a time of 1' 15.689". This makes it the 2nd time since the round 1 this season that the NSX dominated qualifying by taking the top-3 pole positions. For the other two NSX teams, No 17 REAL NSX qualified in P5 while the No 100 RAYBRIG NSX, thanks to a rather heafty weight penalty due to their P2 finish at the Sepang race, qualified in P7.

In the GT300 class, the No 2 Privee KENZO Asset Shiden driven by Hiroki Kato was the top qualifier. The No 43 ARTA Garaiya quailified in P2 while P3 was taken by the No 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI (Nissan 350Z).

RACE - ARTA NSX TAKES SECOND VICTORY OF THE SEASON

The SUGO GT 300 km Race, Round 5 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at SPORTS-LAND SUGO (one lap 3.704 km x 81 laps) in Miyagi Pref. on July 29 2007. The GT500 class victory went to the second-place qualifiers, Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman of the ARTA NSX team. Rain began falling giving a wet track just before the start of the race. Consequently, the race was started behind the Safety Car. Soon the rain stopped and the track began to dry gradually, but the slowly drying track still made for difficult racing conditions. The first driver for the ARTA NSX was former F1 driver Ralph Firman. He raced well through these tough conditions and was able to pass the pole position starter, TAKATA DOME NSX. After losing the lead at their pit stop. The second driver, Daisuke Ito fought back and out-raced his rivals in some fierce battles that saw three cars lined up side-by-side at one point, finally taking the chequered flag. This victory was the ARTA NSX team's second of the season. More crucially, the NSX's closest competitor, the No 23 XANAVI NISMO (Nissan 350) Z did not complete the race and so took no points at all from this round, allowing the No 8 ARTA NSX to pull a nice gap at the championship rankings.

The other top-3 NSX qualifiers maintained their outstanding pace through to the race with pole sitter No 18 TAKATA NSX taking P2 and P3 qualifier No 32 EPSON NSX maintaining their qualifying position till the end of the race for P3. Unfortunately the remainder 2 NSX teams did not fare that well, with the No 100 RAYBRIG NSX finishing way down in P12, the last of the GT500 cars to finish the race in fact while the No 17 REAL NSX delivered a DNF.

In the GT300 class, the WedsSport Celica driven by Akira Iida and Yuhi Sekiguchi came out the winners. This victory gave the 19-year-old GT rookie Sekiguchi the new record for the youngest driver ever to win a Super GT race.

LOOKING STRONG FOR THE SEASON

With 4 more rounds to go for the season, the Honda NSX especially the No 8 ARTA NSX is looking strong this year. In the drivers championship, the No 8 ARTA pair of Ito and Firman has maintaining their position as leader of the points ranking table, with 61 points. Meanwhile the No 100 RAYBRIG pair has dropped to P2 with 37 points, a gap of 24 points. P3 in the rankings is still held by the No 23 pair of Motoyama and Lyons at 36 points, a gap of 25 points or 1 full race win behind the No 8 leading pair. For the rest of the NSX teams, the No 18 TAKATA pair of Michigami and Kogure has managed to claw their back up to P5, thanks to their P2 finish in this round. No 32 RAYBRIG NSX too has made their way up to P6 in the rankings. The No 17 REAL NSX meanwhile is at P18 in the rankings.

For the team rankings, the No 8 ARTA NSX leads the points ranking in P1 from the No 100 RAYBRIG NSX with a gap of 14 points. P3 is the No 22 NISMO (MOTUL AUTECH Fairlady) Z, only 1 point behind the No 100 RAYBRIG. Like the No 23, they too did not finish the race. Team Nakajima Racing, who is fielding the No 32 EPSON NSX is in P6 with the No18 TAKATA DOME team in P13 and the No 17 REAL team in P16 (last in the points rankings table).

Round 6 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT will take place at the Suzuka circuit as the POKKA 1000km semi-endurance race on the weekend of 17-18 of this month. The No 8 ARTA NSX will go into the race with a hefty weight handicap thanks to their dominating form in this race. Actually 3 of the NSX'es will be racing with a good weight handicap - the No 8 ARTA, No 18 TAKATA and No 32 EPSON, courtesy of their top 3 race finish positions. Nevertheless, the NSX'es have proven consistently fast this year, even with weight handicaps and have really been let down most often by unreliability. So if the car holds up, chances will look good for the top 3 NSX teams. Meanwhile, look forward to the No 100 RAYBRIG NSX returning to the top of the grid with their weight handicap mostly removed due to their low finishing position in this race. We also hope that the No 17 REAL NSX will be delivering some good results at POKKA as well. Suzuka is Honda's circuit after all and having the NSX deliver another dominating weekend next round, less than 2 weeks away would be most appropriate indeed.

WongKN
August 2007
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