Round 3 Autopolis : Preview
Autopolis round (Oita Prefecture) was canceled last year due to the affect from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, but this year the race will be held as the Round 3 “SUPER GT in KYUSHU 300km” on May 20 (Saturday, Qualifying) and 21 (Sunday, Race). The race is certainly what everybody hoped to see back as it is the only SUPER GT event held in the Kyushu Island for the local fans and the track is often referred as one of the favorite tracks by many drivers. In addition, the Kyushu round would be a crucial point of the early stage of the season and important for foreseeing how the championship contention will progress. Also, this would be a chance to recover for the teams or car models that are having difficult season so far, and, on the other hand, those with a good start of the season would want to fully grasp the flow. It certainly is a must-see race.
Lexus LC500, for the first time in the history of SUPER GT, dominated the podium two races in a row at the Okayama season opener and Round 2 Fuji. Will the advantage in terms of the vehicle the fleet has been enjoying sustain? That will be revealed at Round 3 Autopolis. Two races so far in this season are different in their natures, one at the technical track of Okayama and the other at the high-speed track of Fuji with a long straightaway. Autopolis is another one with a different characteristic with steep up-and-down and mid- and high-speed turns. If the LC500 fleet can continue to finish the race with a good result here, then they would get a good control of the championship.
However, there is a concern too as the internal battle between LC500 teams may heat up a little too much. In fact, the fleet had set a slogan for the Round 2 Fuji, “Bring back victory after 4 years at Lexus/Toyota’s home track Fuji!”, which united all LC500 teams into one. However, from here it’s “no mercy battle” where all teams will be focusing on the championship. Teams like No.6 WAKO’S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima / Andrea Caldarelli), which had to settle with a second place in both of the first two races, and defending champion No.1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen / Kohei Hirate) would want a number one result at upcoming Round 3. No.36 au TOM’S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima / James Rossiter) driven by Kazuki Nakajima, who’s mistake cost an upper position finish at the season opener, should also be fired up as they return to the track. Moreover, Nakajima would definitely be a driver to watch for especially with his recent performance, consecutive wins in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and a win at the season opener of the Super Formula. Yokohama tire user No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto) is also a team that should not be ignored.
Contrastingly, it has been a difficult season so far for Nissan GT-R and Honda NSX-GT squads and they must be seeking ways to strike back at upcoming Autopolis. Especially, Autopolis is a favorable circuit for GT-R as the car has scored five wins in the recent seven races at the Kyushu circuit. At Round 2 Fuji, No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) displayed an evidence of improvement by breaking into the LC500 reign by qualifying second and finishing the race at fourth place. Also, Autopolis is a track hard on the tires and that would give a positive effect to the GT-R squad to stay competitive because the squad puts more importance on using the tires effectively in their strategy. So the boost is there for the GT-Rs to strike back here. No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo) is the other car that uses Michelin tires besides No.23 car, and the car is another fair contender in that sense.
Naturally, NSX-GT should also be competitive on a high-speed track. Although the potential has not lead to a notable result at Autopolis, there is a higher expectation on NSX-GT at this year’s event since the car appears to be even faster around the corners than last year’s model NSX-CONCEPT-GT. No.16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima) with Yokohama tires as well as No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure) driven by two drivers both boasting good records at the track are likely to be fighting strong.
Car models in GT300 class can be divided largely into three groups. In brief, they are JAF-GT300 cars, which have a wider range of modification and setting but less powerful, mother-chassis cars (JAF-GT300MC that belongs to JAF-GT300 category in terms of the vehicle regulation), which the inside of body and engine are standardized but can accommodate a variety of settings, and FIA GT3 cars, the highest entries of the class currently, which are loaded with a powerful engine but an adjustment of performance is made before sales by the manufacturer thus a smaller range of setting. So there are advantage and disadvantage in each type of cars, and a clear distinction between strong and not strong become prominent by the characteristics of the tracks such as technical, high-speed, etc.
At Autopolis where the Round 3 will be hosted, cars that are fast around corners tend to be advantageous since there are many mid- and high-speed turns. In fact, JAF-GT300 and mother-chassis cars were indeed fast at the track two years ago. However, the current majority FIA GT3 cars only debut last year and, therefore, the situation at Autopolis is unclear for the cars since there was no event last year.
Nonetheless, to name candidates for victory, it would be No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi), No.25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui / Kenta Yamashita), hybrid TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga / Rintaro Kubo), and pole-sitter of 2 years ago No.2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Kazuho Takahashi / Hiroki Katoh) from the JAF-GT3000 and mother-chassis cars. Out of FIA GT3 cars, Mercedes AMG GT3 strong in cornering would be first in the list, but it may not be quite so for No.65 LEON CVSTOS AMG (Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou) and No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) as they have to carry 40kg-some handicap weight in return for their podium-finishes. No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Mitsunori Takaboshi) can be another candidate as the team fields GT-R which boasts good record at Autopolis like the GT500-spec car. No.60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Akira Iida / Hiroki Yoshimoto) fielding the same RC F as the winner of previous race, No.51 JMS P.MU LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Yuichi Nakayama / Sho Tsuboi), is another interesting team to watch.
There are more than a few drivers who say they look forward to the race at Autopolis because the track has many mid- and high-speed turns which you can enter fast and maintain the speed, which it makes it challenging but attractive to the drivers. Of course, all SUPER GT drivers share the same spirit to encourage the people of Kyushu by showing their up-to-the-limit driving and exciting race. All reasons are there to liven up the Round 3 Autopolis more than usual. This is also a positive effect to the fans outside of Kyushu who enjoy watching the broadcast by J SPORT or GT Plus. Don’t miss the Round 3 Autopolis on May 20 and 21.
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