Super GT Round #8 Kyushu 300km @ Autopolis. *Results!*

[Shiba-Kun]

Round8 Race 2007-10-14 sun Autopolis

(Spectator: 24,600)
Race Start 14:00
Race Distance 65 Laps / 303.810 km
RESULT REVIEW
Race Weather:Cloudy | Coursery


GT500 Class

1 8 ARTA NSX Daisuke Ito Ralph Firman 01:55'57.024 65 BS 100
2 100 RAYBRIG NSX Dominik Schwager Shinya Hosokawa 0'10.145 65 BS 30
3 39 DENSO SARD SC430 Andre Couto Katsuyuki Hiranaka 0'19.887 65 BS +2
4 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z Michael Krumm Tsugio Matsuda 0'37.125 65 BS 35
5 18 TAKATA DOME NSX Ryo Michigami Takashi Kogure 0'37.407 65 BS 90
6 1 houzan TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka Andre Lotterer 0'43.05 65 BS 45
7 3 YellowHat YMS MobaHO ! TOMICA Z Sebastien Philippe Masataka Yanagida
0'43.709 65 BS
8 6 Forum Eng. SC430 Tatsuya Kataoka Bjorn Wirdheim 1'06.252 65 BS 20
9 32 EPSON NSX Loic DUVAL Fabio CARBONE 1'22.753 65 DL 15
10 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 Takeshi Tsuchiya Manabu Orido 1Lap 64 YH +2
11 35 BANDAI 00 DUNLOP SC430 Naoki Hattori Peter Dumbreck 1Lap 64 DL +2
12 23 XANAVI NISMO Z Satoshi Motoyama Richard Lyons 19Laps 46 BS 20

Classified (GT500: 45 Laps)
12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z Benoit Treluyer Kazuki Hoshino 35Laps 30 BS +1
38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa Toranosuke Takagi 36Laps 29 BS 5
24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z J.P.L. De Oliveira Seiji Ara 36Laps 29 YH 10+2
17 REAL NSX Katsutomo Kaneishi Toshihiro Kaneishi DNR BS


GT300 Class
1 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R Shinsuke Shibahara Haruki Kurosawa 01:56'13.041 60 YH 30
2 46 houzan DUNLOP Z Kota Sasaki Naoki Yokomizo 0'20.196 60 DL
3 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii
0'23.333 60 YH
4 19 WedsSport Celica Akira Iida Yuhi Sekiguchi 0'43.392 60 YH
5 43 ARTA Garaiya Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi 1'04.032 60 MI 55
6 47 houzan DUNLOP Z Shigekazu Wakisaka Shogo Mitsuyama 1'24.777 60 DL
7 110 GREEN-TEC KUMHO BOXSTER-GT Takuya Kurosawa Hidetoshi Mitsusada
1'29.278 60 KH
8 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE Nobuteru Taniguchi Dominik Farnbacher 1'30.411 60 YH 35
9 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S Kazuya Oshima Hiroaki Ishiura 1'31.139 60 MI 55
10 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh 1Lap 59 YH 80
11 33 HANKOOK NSC PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Yuya Sakamoto 1Lap 59 HK
12 11 TOTAL BENEFIT JIM CENTER F360 Masayuki Ueda Ichijo Suga 1Lap 59 YH +2
13 9 LEYJUN DUNLOP MT900 Masaki Tanaka Katsuhiko Tsutsui 2Laps 58 DL
14 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA Tetsuya Yamano Takayuki Aoki 3Laps 57 DL
15 118 NobelBiocareSpecialOlympicsGT3 Takashi Miyamoto Takashi Ohi 3Laps 57 YH
16 71 NOMAD GAIKOKUYA GT3-RS Yoshimi Ishibashi Yutaka Yamagishi 4Laps 56 YH
17 112 KUMHO GREEN-TEC BOXSTER-GT Guts Jyonai Hiroshi Koizumi 6Laps 54 KH
18 5 KUMHO Proμ MACH-GO 320R Tetsuji Tamanaka Hironori Takeuchi 11Laps 49 KH 5

Classified (GT300: 42 Laps)
31 DOUBLEHEAD apr MR-S Kyosuke Mineo Yuya Sakamoto 20Laps 40 MI +1
67 triple a GALLARDO RG-3 Tsubasa Kurosawa Hisashi Wada 30Laps 30 YH
66 triple a GALLARDO RG-3 Naohiro Furuya Muneyuki Kurihara 35Laps 25 YH
7 RE AMEMIYA ADVAN RX-7 Hiroyuki Iiri Ryo Orime 38Laps 22 YH
4 EBBRO 350R Tetsuya Tanaka Shinsuke Yamazaki 39Laps 21 YH
666 Rakuten BOMEX 320R Shogo Suho Junichiro Yamashita 49Laps 11 YH +2
55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT Daisuke Ikeda Taku Bamba DNR YH +2


Tire = BS:Bridgestone / DLunlop / HK:Hankook / KH:Kumho / MI:Michelin / YH:Yokohama
WH = Handicap Weight (kg) / +1:Promotion of Performance (Level 1) / +2:Promotion of Performance (Level 2)
GT500 Best Lap Top3 :
1'42.759 : No.32 EPSON NSX (Loic DUVAL)
1'42.770 : No.6 Forum Eng. SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim)
1'43.111 : No.8 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman)

GT300 Best Lap Top3 :
1'51.372 : No.2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Kato)
1'51.631 : No.46 houzan DUNLOP Z (Kota Sasaki)
1'51.782 : No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa)

[Shiba-Kun]

Woot! ARTA NSX = series champs in the 500 class. I can still recall the horrible growing pains the team was going through during the last stages of Dori Dori's professional career. Great to see that Aguri-San has got his team back on top.


Round8 Autopolis : Race Flash
ARTA NSX (Ito/Firman) Win for Third Time This Season! Clinching their long-awaited title with one race remaining
On Oct. 14, the SUPER GT IN KYUSHU 300KM, Round 8 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held at the AUTOPOLIS (one lap 4.674km × 65 laps) in Oita Pref. In the GT500 class the ARTA NSX driven by Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman won their third victory of the season to clinch the GT500 Drivers Title.
Just before the start of the race the 2nd-place grid sitter REAL NSX caught fire in an incident that immediately enveloped the race in an ominous atmosphere. Starting as the third-place qualifier, Firman in the ARTA NSX began chasing the pole-sitting ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Toranosuke Takagi. A gap gradually began to open between the leading ZENT and the chasing ARTA until the ZENT got caught up in the spin-out of a back-lapper on the 30th lap and crashed out of the race. This left the ARTA NSX in the lead, and after the change drivers, Ito kept the competition well behind him as he ran on unchallenged to the checkered.
This win gave the Ito/Firman pair the season Drivers Title in the GT500 class with one race remaining in the series. This was the first GT500 title for Ito and Firman and the second for the NSX since the 2000 title.
In the GT300 class, yesterday's 2nd-place qualifiers, the No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R team took the lead after a well-timed pit stop at mid-race and went on to their first win of the season.
(Spectators: 24,600)

Winner Comments
No.8 ARTA NSX [GT500]
Daisuke Ito: "To tell you the truth, I still can't believe that we have won the series title. The ZENT went out into the lead in the first half but I believed that we could come back and catch them in the second half of the race. It is too bad that they crashed, but that is part of racing. After I took the wheel, I kept in mind to keep pushing the pace, but the last ten laps felt very long. At the goal they told me over the radio that we had clinched the title but it was so hectic out there that I couldn't hear what they were saying. After getting out of the car back in the pit, I even asked the TV interviewer if it was really true that we had the title. In the opening round of the season we had to drop out of the race [while leading] in the last lap, but we and Honda and the entire team overcame those early misfortunes. I am full of the feeling now that we all came through this together to win."
Ralph Firman: "At the start I was thinking about not letting myself get pulled into any dangerous situation. The ZENT got a 5 or 6 second lead on us but I thought it was something that we could earn back. The ZENT was out in front where I could see it when it crashed and there was no way that Takagi could have avoided the car that spun out. I was able to avoid it because I was running a different line at the time. I believe that we have been able to win this title because we kept running consistently fast throughout the season. I want to thank Ito, who ran so fast this season, and the team and Honda for putting together such a good machine."


No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R [GT300]
Shinsuke Shibahara: "It is our first win in quite a while, so I'm very happy. I want to thank the team. The team brought in a new machine from round five and we had less mechanical trouble after that. They also took measures to help us drivers avoid mistakes and that got us going faster and faster. It will be difficult in the last round at Fuji with the added weight handicap we will have, but it has been a good course for VEMAC, so I want to try my best to help us win the title. The GT500 title is already decided but the there are still four machines in contention for the GT300 title. I want to give the fans an exciting race that they will really appreciate."
Haruki Kurosawa: "We were in a position where we would be out of the title race if we didn't win here today, so we had to go all out. I believe that I was brought to this team to make it a winning team, so I am happy that I could contribute to this good result today. I am grateful to WILLCOM and to everyone on the team. The top ranking team now is not one that has done well at Fuji in the past, but we are. That will be an advantage for us. I want to pay back my dept for being called to this team by helping to win the title in the final round."

[95accordlx]

Im so happy for them! Im glad an NSX is finally back on top. It seems theyre all doing well this season. I just realized that there's not 1 honda entrant in GT300

[theflipimage]

you know what pisses me off?

i WAS IN KYUSHU when the race took place...

had i known about the race prior, my wife and i would have gone way down to kumamoto prefecture to attend the festivities...

unfortunately, i found out about the race on the 17th, while stopping to use the restroom at a service area...

as i'm walking to the mens room, i pass this HUGE map full of pics of famous things/places all around the island... in the bottom left hand corner, i noticed a checkered flag, partially obscured by an iced coffee/condom/porn vending machine, and looked closer to find out it was autopolis! but lo and behold, the date for the big race was listed as only a few days prior...

shucks...