ARTA NSX wins revenge race
The JAPAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP MALAYSIA, Round 4 of the 2006 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held on June 25 at the Sepang International Circuit.
Images by: Andy Goh
Despite the thin cloud cover, the temperature rose higher than Saturday. Before the start of the race it had reached 33 C. with a track temperature of 44 C. During the race the clouds cleared and the temperature rose further, making for tough conditions on the track.
GT500
The start was made with no real trouble, but by the end of the first lap No.1 ZENT Cermo SC (Toranosuke Takagi ) had dropped from a 3rd-place start to 6th position.
The pole starter No.8 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman) was running strongly and had developed a roughly 2 second lead over 2nd-place No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) by the end of lap five. That gap continued to widen to 5 seconds by the end of lap ten. Behind No.22, No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z(Benoit Treluyer) was moving up slowly but steadily.
Around this time signs of concern could be see in the No. 8 pit. A crew made the word "Cool?" with tape on a signboard to show Firman as he went by. Not only had his cool-suit stopped functioning but they had lost radio contact with him as well. What's more, Firman had not been feeling well during race weekend and the team was naturally worried how he was doing out there in the brutal heat. But, Firman continued to run steady lap times of about 2 min, 02 sec. and he was maintaining the gap with the 2nd-place machine. Finally, at the end of the 20th lap he returned to the pit and gave the wheel to his teammate Daisuke Ito. The two rear tires were also changed. This seemed to start the other machines returning for their routine pit stops as well. On lap 31 No. 12 changed drivers from Treluyer to Kazuki Hoshino and the No.24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z that had been leading in the meantime made its pit stop and changed drivers (Erik Comas to Masataka Yanagida), at which time No. 8 took over the lead again.
At this point in the race, No.8, with Ito driving, had a 10-sec. lead over No. 22 driven by Lyons. These two had battled for the lead in last year's Malaysia round here Sepang. And, like last year, Ito's cool-suit was not working again. The loss of strength Ito suffered because of that malfunction had caused him to lose the lead near the end of the race.
By lap 36, Lyons had closed the gap to about 8 seconds. By lap 37 it was down to 6.7 sec. and by lap 41 it had narrowed to 6.5 sec. One could sense the tension as the two teams watched each other's lap times and the narrowing gap. With ten laps remaining the gap was down to less than 5 sec. and there was now visual contact between the two machines. But, with five laps remaining, Lyons' lap times were beginning to slow down, while Ito maintained his pace. Entering the last lap the margin had grown to 6.3 seconds again, and at the finish Ito still had a 5.6 sec. lead when he took the checkered. With this, Ito had made up for last year's disappointing 2nd while giving his team their first victory of the 2006 season.
Finishing second was No. 2 and in third came No. 12. Kazuki Hoshino, who had taken the wheel from Treluyer in the second half, was able to keep the machine on pace in the closing stages of the race despite the pressure from behind and get his first podium finish in the GT500 class. Meanwhile, the SC430 teams suffered from mechanical trouble and penalties. Eventually, the highest placing Toyota machine was No.25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SUPRA(Manabu Orido>Takeshi Tsuchiya)in 10th.
GT300
Starting in the pole position in the GT300 class was Kazuho Takahashi in No.2 I.M JIHAN CO.LTD-APPLE-Shiden, but the early stages of the race saw him lose considerable ground. Taking the early lead was Masami Kageyama in the No.13 ENDLESS ADVAN CCI Z. Behind him followed the No.7 AMEMIYA ASPARADRINK RX7 driven by Tetsuya Yamano, who moved up to No. 13's tail by the seventh lap and finally passed it to take the lead on the last corner of that lap.
Meanwhile, 3rd place was changing hands time and again. In the early stages, Hideshi Matsuda in the No.110 TOTALBENEFIT GREENTEC BOXSTER held 3rd until he fell back considerably after lap 10. The No.14 HANKOOK ENDLESS PORSCHE driven by Mitsuhiro Kinoshita took over until he was passed by the No.55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT(Daisuke Ikeda)on lap 14. After that, No.14 lost ground gradually to be replaced by the No.27 direxiv ADVAN 320R(Nobuteru Taniguchi)and the No.19 WedsSport Celica(Koji Matsuda).
The leading No.7 made its pit stop on lap 27. Hiroyuki Iiri took over the wheel and returned to the track after refueling and a tire change. In 2nd place, No.13 also made its pit stop on the next lap, but it suffered a big time loss when the engine failed to restart and lost the chance to finish among the leaders.
This put No.27 (Taniguchi>Syogo Mitsuyama) in 2nd place and No.19(Matsuda>Shigekazu Wakisaka)in 3rd. In the latter stages of the race the distances between the top three machines varied some but always maintained a buffer of a couple of seconds, so no tail-to-nose battles developed before the end of the race. They finished in that order with Iiri in No. 7 taking the win. But as soon as Iiri crossed the finish line he stopped his car, almost ready to collapse with heat exhaustion due to the malfunction of his cool-suit. Mitsuyama, who had been chasing in 2nd place in No. 27 had the same trouble and was carried straight to the medical room after finishing. His condition was so bad that he was unable to take his position on the podium for the awards ceremony.
This was the fourth win in five outings for the victorious No.7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 team (three wins in the Super GT series). For Tetsuya Yamano, his first JGTC win ever was with the Amemiya RX7 here at Sepang.
Comments
GT500 Class Winner
No.8 ARTA NSX
Daisuk Ito
It suddenly got hot today, and perhaps we weren't quite ready for it. Ralph didn't feel well, and when I heard the cool-suit was not working, I thought we were really in trouble (laughs)! But I made myself stay calm and think about the job ahead. Physically I was all right. Richard Lyons (MOTUL AUTECH Z) was fast out there, too, but I kept driving with the belief that we could win if I just didn't make any mistakes.
Ralph Firman
Good afternoon. Yes, we obviously wanted to win. We obviously knew that it would be a very tough race especially like last year we had a big lead and then lost it. So, we had a good start of the race and the first fifteen laps were easy. I was just saving my tires and then I start to push again but the Nissans were catching. It was a very very tough race doing so many laps and we still got a lot of pressure from the Nissans. I think Ito is a fantastic driver. After last year when he had a problem with his fitness. I think his fitness is great this year and I think that is a good sign for the rest of the year. So, Honda has done a great job as a team and Bridgestone as well. So, everything went perfectly.
GT300 Class Winner
No.7 AMEMIYA ASPARADRINK RX7
Tetsuya Yamano
I love Sepang. The car and the tires were both good this weekend. I started from third position but the RX7 was able to get past two machines using a fast place. After that I pushed hard to give Iiri good position for the second half of the race. My first GT win was with this team here at Sepang It makes me very happy to be back here and win again today.
Hiroyuki Iiri
They say that the RX7 is strong here at Sepang, but things are never that easy in the Super GT. So, it is important that we were able to actually go out and get the win. In the second half the cool-suit wasn't working and it was really tough out there. Was having trouble keeping a good range of vision, but I hear that Mitsuyama behind me also have a broken cool-suit, so was lucky, I guess.
Images by: Andy Goh
Images by: Wong SW
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