SUPER GT 2010 Round 2 : OKAYAMA GT 300KM
Honda HSV-010 TAKES IT FIRST WIN !

In the 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 2 at the OKAYAMA circuit, ran as the OKAYAMA GT 300KM race, team Weider's Honda HSV-010 GT dominates qualifying to take its second straight pole position in its debute season ! Held on April 3 2010 and under fair skies, the Weider HSV-010 driven by Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval won the pole position in the GT500 class, giving them the right to start from the front row in the race on the 4th.

In the last round, the Weider HSV-010 suffered a bad crash on race day that damaged the machine, but in the two weeks since then, the team worked hard to bring it back to tip-top condition as proven by its pole. While most SUPER GT qualifying rounds use the “Super Lap" format of time trials run one machine at a time, as with the season opener however, this round adopts a “knock out" format run in three sessions of timed laps. The cars with the slowest lap times in the first two sessions are “knocked out" of the competition and only the cars remaining for the last session run the individual time trails to determine the top grid positions for the race.

In the first qualifying session, Takashi Kogure drove the Weider HSV-010 to the fastest time, thus qualifying for the second session easily. In the second session Duval also advanced the team to the next session. In that third session, Kogure once again drove the fastest lap at 1 min. 23.815 sec. to win the pole position.

The other HSVs however did not had a chance to similarly shine. The only other HSV in the top-ten was the No. 32 EPSON HSV who qualified in P6. The No. 100 RAYBRIG and No. 8 ARTA HSVs ended qualifying at the bottom of the grid in P10 and P11 respectively. No. 8 ARTA was a victim of a crash by the No. 24 HIS ADVAN R35 (Skyline GT-R) early on in the session. By the time the track was clear, there was only 3 minutes left in the session. The ARTA team scrambled to get the car into the track for its timed lap but they just missed out on the top-10 in qualifying-1 and was knocked out of the remaining sessions. No. 17 KEIHIN HSV did not run in the qualifying proper as it had a crash during practise.

Race-Day : Weider HSV-010 erases last round's nightmare with a perfect win

Race day was on April 4th 2010, an 82 laps race around the 3.703 km circuit located in the Okayama Prefecture. Fierce battles unfolded on the track under fair spring skies, and when the racing was over, the pole-starting Weider HSV-010 driven by Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval held onto the lead throughout the race to take the win. This gave the new Honda HSV - 010GT its first win in only the second race of its debut season.

Starting from the front row of the grid, Loic Duval got a fine start in the Weider HSV-010 and pulled out into the lead. Through the early stages of the race, the second-position starter ZENT CERUMO SC430 held on stubbornly to the pace about four seconds behind. Eventually, however, Duval began to pull away and open up the margin over the ZENT CERUMO SC430. Duval finally brought the Weider HSV-010 back to the pit for its routine pit stop at the end of lap 47. The team performed the pit work with no mishaps and during the second half of the race Takashi Kogure took charge and used his well-known sprint ability to widen the gap further to the 2nd place runner to over 10 seconds.

While keeping one eye on the increasingly intense battle for 2nd going on behind him, Kogure ran steadily lap after lap to the goal and the win. With the exception of the time in their pit stop, the team never lost its lead during the race to score a perfect pole-to-checkered victory. This win made up for the frustration of the opening round, where the same Weider team had won the pole position only to be forced out of the competition by an accident.

The name of Honda's new HSV-010 GT machine contains a reference to the "speed" that was the key concept in its development. It has certainly proven that speed already, by winning the pole position in its debut race at the season opener and then winning the race convincingly here in round 2.

Of the other HSVs, No. 8 ARTA erased the dissapointment from its bad-luck during qualifying to run a fine sensible race to finish in P6, 5 positions higher than its starting position. Actually the No. 8 ARTA lead a parade of 3 HSVs, as finishing immediately behind it are the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV and the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV in P7 and P8 respectively. Of the Honda HSVs, the No. 32 EPSON HSV had a dissapointing race to finish in P11, down 5 positions from where it started. In a way, the No. 32 EPSON swapped places with the No. 8 ARTA as they qualified in finished in the reverse positions respectively.

Into Round 3

The championship now goes into round 3 which will be run on the weekend of May 1st and 2nd 2010 at the TOYOTA owned FUJI circuit. Their 'magnificent win' this round brings the No. 18 WEIDER HSV back into contention as they now sit in P3 on the points table for the drivers championship, with the No. 6 LEXUS pair in the lead and No. HIS ADVAN R35 in P2. The No. 24 is actually tied at equal 20 points with No. 18 and both are only a single point behind the No. 6 SC430.

A little bit further down is the No. 100 RAYBRIG in P6 with No. 17 KEIHIN a little bit further in P8. Both of them are the only HSVs to have scored points in both races so far. No. 8 ARTA is now in P11 with 5 points from their P6 finishing but not scoring any the previous race. No. 32 EPSON laments in P13 or last place on the rankings table, with a solitary point from the previous race.

The teams ranking table is a little bit different with No. 18 WEIDER HSV in P4 instead of P3. The No. 1 SC430 leap-frogged it, thanks to the perculiarity of the points award system for the teams ranking table where additional points are awarded for finishing the race. So consistent finishers are rewarded over those who crashed out with DNFs in the races. The No. 18 WEIDER HSV recorded a DNF in the previous race while No. 1 finished in P4. So No. 1 has a 2 points advantage over No. 18 thanks to the 3 extra points it gained by finishing within the same lap as the winner in Round 1. So the 3 points negated the 1 point deficit in the drivers table to give them a 2 points advantage over No. 18 in the teams table.

No, 100 RAYBRIG maintains their P6 ranking in the teams table but No. 17 KEIHIN similarly benefitted from the finishing points to jump to P7 in the teams table. Both No. 8 ARTA and No. 32 EPSON maintained the same P11 and P13 positions in the teams table.

With the Honda HSV-010GT showing such a good pace right at its debut, this year promises to be an exciting year for Honda's racing fans.

WongKN
April 2010
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