SUPER Round 3 : FUJI GT 400 KM

The 2010 season of Japan's famous SUPER GT Championship ran its third race over the weekend, at the TOYOTA-owned FUJI circuit as the FUJI GT 400km. It was a weekend to remember for TOYOTA and their motorsports fans for TOYOTA teams dominated the weekend.

QUALIFYING : TOYOTA takes the pole.

In the qualifying for the FUJI GT 400km RACE, ran on May 1, the GT500 class pole position was won by Kazuya Oshima in the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430. Clear skies and Japan's "Golden Week" holidays brought out a large crowd of spectators at Fuji Speedway. Driving the MJ KRAFT SC430, Oshima had recorded the fastest lap times in both the morning practice and the first session of the qualifying. This first session was 30 minutes long and was a mixed session with the GT500 and GT300 classes running together. It was subsequently followed by two separate ten-minute sessions for each class, known as the 'Super Lap'. The top eight qualifiers in this session moved on to the Super Lap.

In the Super Lap, the eight qualifiers in each class ran one timed lap one car at a time, and those times determined the order for the starting grid. The grid position from 9th place down are determined by each car's best time from the first session.

In the GT500 in the 1st sesssion, it was the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Kazuya Oshima) with the fastest time followed by the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430, the No. 6 ENEOS SC430, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430, the No. 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R, the No. 8 ARTA HSV-010, No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 and in P8 the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R.

In the Super Lap, No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R had a lightning fast lap despite being the first to run. This allowed it to jump 3 cars to qualify in P4. In direct contrast, cars No. 38 ZENT CERUMO and No. 24 HIS ADVAN both had relatively Super Lap session which saw them fell back from P4 to P6 and from P5 to P8 respectively. No. 8 ARTA had a reasonable qualifying, managing to qualify in P5 or 1 position up from their first session placing. No. 17 KEIHIN qualified in the same spot as their first session placing.

Actually it was No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 which had ran the 8th fastest time in the first session and would have been the last Super Lap qualifier. But it had an infringement during the session - it had passed another car after the Red-Flag came out to stop the session while an object that had fallen onto the track was being removed. Consequently, it was given a penalty which puts it right back at the end - the last position - on the starting grid (for GT500).

No. 32 EPSON continues their miserable run this session to qualify in P11, unable to break out of the 1st session for the Super Lap.

As for the last race's winner No. 18 WEIDER HSV-010, they have been plagued with a mechanical problem this round. A lingering problem in the paddle shift mechanism that occurred during the practice session persisted to hinder them in qualifying and they failed to get a good placing even in the 1st session and so was in P12 on the starting grid.

RACE : TOYOTA/LEXUS dominates and sweeps the podium !

Race day on May 2 saw a masterful race by the pole sitting No. 35 MJ KRAFT (LEXUS) SC430 ran practically unchallenged to win the race as well. They had effectively never lost the lead throughout the race.

The race started under fair skies at exactly 14:00. This race is the second longest of the SUPER GT series at 400km and its regulation requires two driver changes during the course of the race due to the length and duration of the race. For the pole-sitting MJ KRAFT SC430, Kazuya Oshima was the starting driver. He managed to hold off the second-starting PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 and the rest of the pack to maintain the lead in the early going. Teammate Hiroaki Ishiura drove through the middle stages of the race with equal success and was able to give the wheel to Oshima again with the lead in tact. Oshima ran on steadily lap after lap without once being threatened and took the checkered first to bring the team its first victory of the season.

Finishing 2nd was last years' champions, the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430, and completing a Lexus sweep of the top three places and the podium came the No. 6 ENEOS SC430. It was a perfect race result for the Toyota camp in front of an excited crowd of 53,100 spectators at their home track the Fuji Speedway.

Of the Honda teams, No. 8 ARTA having qualified well in P5 was initially racing well too. In fact, in the latter stages of the race, they had actually passed the No 6 ENEOS SC430 and thus the last podium position. Sadly, it then got into yet another accident, this time a collision with a GT300 car. This collision knocked No. 8 ARTA out of the battle for the lead. Daisuke Ito was able to hold 3rd place with his SC430 unthreatened to the podium finish.

So the fastest Honda HSV-010 was in 5th place, the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi). In compensation for the collision which sent No. 8 ARTA out of the race, the other factory team the No. 18 WEIDER had rather excellent race to climb 5 places to finish in P7, all the way up from a back of the grid P12 starting position. The rest of the 3 HSV-010s can a mixed race. In P9 was the No. 32 EPSON up 2 places from P11. No. 100 RAYBRIG too recovered from their penalty, sort of, by finishing in P10, up from P13. No. 8 ARTA retired from the race in lap 26, where its collision was.

POINTS RANKING

So a fantastic race for TOYOTA and a rather mixed bag for HONDA. The next round, round 4 will be of special significance for me as it will run at the Malaysian Sepang International Circuit. Once again, I will apply for media accreditation and hope to cover the race from trackside.

Honda goes into this next round with a reasonable position, with No. 18 WEIDER in P5 on the points ranking table with No. 17 KEIHIN in P7 and No. 100 RAYBRIG in P8. No. 8 ARTA is in No. 11 while No. 32 EPSON in P13 or last place on the rankings. This is for the Driver's ranking. But the teams championship points ranking is almost identical. No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S LEXUS SC430 leads the teams ranking like it does with the drivers ranking. Once again the top HONDA team is No. 18 WEIDER in P5, followed by a No. 100 RAYBRIG and No. 17 KEIHIN, curiously reversed in relative position with No. 100 in P7 and No. 17 in P8 respectively. No. 8 ARTA is again in P11 on the teams championship rankings while No. 32 EPSON avoids the indignity of being last by being in P12 on the team's championship table.

Round 4 will run on the weekend of June 19 and 20 at the Sepang International Circuit.