Japanese Series

Japan Le Mans Challenge - Sugo 1000km Saturday

© Japan Le Mans Challenge

The opening round of the Japan Le Mans Challenge is held this weekend at the Sports-Land Sugo race track. During Fridays free practice sessions it was the Zytek 05S of Hideki Noda and Shinsuke Yamazaki that was quickest in all three sessions. The best lap set by the Zytek was a 1:14.292. Second fastest was the Courage LC70 of Shinji Nakano and Haruki Kurosawa, lapping almost two tenths of a second slower than the Zytek.

© Japan Le Mans Challenge

On Saturday things were entirely different. During the final free practice, which started at 10:40, Nakano stopped the clocks on 1:13.306, nearly four tenths of a second quicker than the Courage. Third fastest in the session was the LMP2-spec GC21 of AIM Sports, the car was almost seven seconds slower than Nakano’s Courage though. The LM GT1 Ferrari 550 Maranello of Akira Iida and Tomonobu Fuji was fourth overall.

At 14:40 local time the 10 cars that participate this weekend were let out on the track for the important qualifying session. Once again it was Shinji Nakano who was fastest around the 3.7 kilometres long track, taking pole position for the Sugo 1000 kilometres with a lap time of 1:13.271. As expected it was the Zytek 05S that took the second front row spot after lapping the track half a second slower.

In the LMP2 class it was again the AIM Sports GC-21 car that was fastest, taking third overall and LMP2 pole. The RS. KK-LM car of Max Racing is the second fastest LMP2 and will start from the fifth place.

In GT1 the Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 550 had no problems beating the Arktech Porsche Boxter for the class pole position. The Ferrari was 2.5 seconds quicker than its opponent and ended up on the fourth place overall.
With four cars the GT2 class is the largest class this weekend. Pole in GT2 went to the Team Kawamura Ferrari 430 GT, the latest addition to the series.

Last year the reliability of the LMP1 cars was a big issue leading to overall victories for the Ferrari 550 in the first two races and only one victory for the Team Mugen Courage LC70 at the final race, the Okayama 1000 kilometres. Hopefully these problems have been solved and the Japanese fans will see a nice battle between the two LMP1’s for the entire race.

marcel@planetlemans.com