AUTOPOLIS SHOWCASE DENOTES SUPER GT PENULTIMATE EVENT
2009-10-15 15:06:26 Author: admin Source:
The 2009 AUTOBACS SUPER GT approaches its penultimate event with Round 8 of the SUPER GT in KYUSHU 300km in Autopolis this weekend. Several contenders for the GT500 and GT300 categories are already prepared to take it to the brink against the league leaders. Besides winning or losing, the tactics that top teams decide to outrun rivals in Autopolis will be another key point for observation. After the Autopolis event, the Championship moves to the finale at the Twin Ring Motegi on 7 -8 November.
In GT500. the top three; No.1 Motul AUTECH GT-R (NISMO) (above), No.8 ARTA NSX and No.36 Petronas TOM'S SC430, are all vying for the coveted Teams' Championship crown with NISMO leading Petronas TOM'S and ARTA NSX by 11 and 14 points respectively.
The Drivers ranks see veteran Satoshi Motoyama leading by a slim margin to team mate Benoit Treluyer, only 5 points separate the duo. The duo cannot afford to slip up as lurking in third and fourth in the rankings are several strong contenders namely, Ralph Firman, Takuya Izawa, Jyuichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer who are all tied with 53 points, only 10 points behind Motoyama.
Since Benoit Treluyer stayed out for one race, his chance to clinch the title is almost next to zero. But he is very committed and said, “I will put out all I have for Motoyama and the team.”
Motul AUTECH plays a major role in NISMO's current top ranks in the Teams' standings and the race in Autopolis signifies the Team's resolute to stay on top. NISMO must secure all important points here through its four nominated drivers which will denote positive Championship status at the finale in Motegi next month. The NISMO drivers favor the track at Autopolis and are gunning for podium
finishes.
ARTA NSX (above left) and Petronas TOM'S hope to finish the race in front of No.1 GT-R and shorten the point-gap in between as much as possible. But, the Honda front runner Firman is determine to score another win here and the NSX usually runs well on this very circuit.
From that perspective, Teams like No.3 HASEMI EBBRO TOMICA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli / Hironobu Yasuda), No.18 ROCKSTAR DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami / Takashi Kogure), and No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa / Richard Lyons) are not to be overlooked for a possible and surprising win.
The situation is more scrambling in GT300 than GT500. The drivers’ ranking is lead by No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta / Shinichi Takagi) (above), but there are two other teams with the same points and same number of wins, No.2 APPLE・K-one・Shiden (Hiroki Katoh / Hiroki Yoshimoto*) and No.19 WedsSports IS350 (Manabu Orido / Tatsuya Kataoka).
All three leading cars are mid-engined and suit Autopolis fairly well, and are also on similar points standings which means all three cars have similar weight handicaps. The battle between the three sure will be one of the hottest topics in the race.
No.46 S Road MOLA Z (Kazuki Hoshino / Masataka Yanagida), No.7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Ryo Orime), No.81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki / Tomonobu Fujii), and No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka / Katsuyuki Hiranaka) all must slog for a win to survive in the series title contention.
