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 CALSONIC IMPUL Z team
runs a perfect race!
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• GT 500 Class
Starting from the pole position, Benoit Treluyer maintained a blazing pace in the No.12
CALSONIC IMPUL Z. Running a fastest lap of 1 min. 58.829 sec. on lap four, he opened up
a substantial margin of lead by the time of the first pit stop. Following with a firm
hold on 2nd place was the No.25 ECLIPSE ADVAN driven by Takeshi Tsuchiya, but the gap
was gradually widening. As No. 25 lost ground it was the No.8 ARTA NSX machine driven
by Ralph Firman, the No.6 Mobil 1 SC driven by Akira Iida and the No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX
driven by Ryo Michigami that moved in to battle for 2nd place. Eventually, however, both
No.18 and No.6 would retire from the race with engine trouble.
After the first round of pit stops, Jeremie Dufour in the No.12 machine was followed by
Daisuke Ito in No.8, Toranosuke Takagi in the No.1 ZENT Cerumo SC (having taken over from
Yuji Tachikawa) and Richard Lyons in No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z(having taken over from Michael
Krumm). Behind them came Masataka Yanagida in the No.24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z (having
taken over from Erik Comas) and Yuji Ide in the No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z (having taken over
from Tsugio Matsuda). When Ide tried to lap the No.55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT driven by
Hidetoshi Mitsusada, however, a collision occurred and No.55 was forced to retire from
the race as a result, while No. 23 was given a drive-through penalty. When Ide failed
to recognize the penalty and kept on racing, the team was excluded from the race.
With Dufour now at the wheel, No.12 maintained its lead and the gap over the rest of the
field had widened even more by the time the wheel was turned over to the third driver,
Kazuki Hoshino. Running in 2nd place, No.8 made its second pit stop and Firman took the
wheel from Ito once again. In the No.1 machine, Ronnie Quintarelli had already taken over
from Takagi, and at this point No.22 was running in 3rd position. Due to some extremely
fast pit work by the No. 22 team (driver change from Lyons to Krumm), they returned to
the track in front of No.8, which had made its pit stop on the same lap.
With the race half finished at the 500 km point, No.12 had a 40-sec. lead over No.22 in
2nd place. Following No.22 in 3rd position was No.8. Although these two machines continued
to battle in close proximity, there was no change in the order.
By the 130th lap, three-quarters of the race was over and No.12 remained in the lead.
Following in 2nd place and giving the Fairlady Z machines a 1-2 lead was No.22. Moving
into 3rd and 4th positions at this point were No.35 and the No.32 EPSON NSX machine,
both on Dunlop tires. In 5th place was No.24.
Soon the "lights on" sign was given and the race entered the night session. The No.12
team gave the wheel to Treluyer again for the final stint and he successfully drove
the CALSONIC IMPUL Z machine on to take the checkered and the win at the end of lap
173. With the exception of one short period when pit stop timing put it temporarily
behind, No. 12 had held the lead for the entire race. Treluyer's speed had been
impressive, but his teammates Hoshino and Dufour had also driven with no mistakes
to help score a near-perfect win. This brought their team up to 3rd place in the
season ranking.
For the Fairlady Z it was also a long-awaited first win of the season in the GT500 class.
Claiming 2nd place was No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z. This team never used its third driver,
Fabio Carbone, with the regulars Michel Krumm and Richard Lyons running the entire
1,000 km between them. In 3rd place came No.35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430, winning the team
its first podium finish of the season with a strategy of eliminating one pit stop by
lengthening the stints of its two regular drivers, Naoki Hattori and Peter Dumbreck
(Eiichi Tajima did not drive).
• GT 300 Class
In the GT300 class, Hironori Takeuchi got a good start from the pole position in
the No.52 Proľ TAIYO OIL KUMHO CELICA. Despite being chased close at one point in
the early running by Hironobu Yasuda in No.47, Takeuchi would have an 18-second lead
over the No.2 Priv_e Zurich Shiden in 2nd place by the time of the first pit stop.
After that, drivers Keita Sawa and Koki Saga took their turns at the wheel of the
No.52 Celica and ran an almost perfect race, never relinquishing the lead once, except
for the brief period after Sawa's pit stop. Takeuchi took over in the driver's seat
once again for the last 22 laps. Rather than trying to push the pace, Takeuchi
showed the cool judgment of a veteran driver by keeping a steady pace to the checkered
and the class win. This gave Takeuchi and this team he launched himself their first GT
victory in the form of an impressive pole-to-checkered win
The battle for 2nd place turned out to be a survival race that saw No.19 and No.13
lose ground due to collisions and No.47 dropping back with machine trouble. Meanwhile,
the 10th place qualifier, No.27 direxiv ADVAN 320R, moved up steadily through the pack
to finally claim 2nd position by lap 108 and hold that position to the finish.
Finishing 3rd was the No.101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S team, which had successfully executed
a strategy of limiting itself to three pit stops instead of four.
Source: Super GT
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