Super GT Round 4, Sportsland SUGO: Race Report31/07/2011
Sportsland SUGO, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Super GT Round 4
The fourth round of the Super GT Championship took place at Sportsland SUGO on 31 July and 27,000 spectators visited the venue on race day. The weather was unpredictable the whole weekend, and the driver pairing of Daisuke Ito and Kazuya Oshima in their Toyota Lexus SC430 started from 12th on the grid to finish in fifth place. In the GT300 class, Sinichi Takagi and Kosuke Matsuura in their Bridgestone shod Garaiya started from pole position and finished in third.
Qualifying
Rain fell intermittently during the morning, with the track drying up once in Q1 but with the rain starting again during the Super Lap. Takuya Izawa and Naoki Yamamoto in their Honda HSV-010 qualified in fifth. This was the highest placed car on Bridgestone tyres and Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli in their Nissan GT-R claimed pole. In the GT300 class, Garaiya, the only make of car on Bridgestone tyres, took pole position for the first time this season.
Race
It was cloudy on race day, with dry conditions for the final 68 laps. Pole sitters Yagagida and Quintarelli led from right after start and scored their maiden win. Ito and Oshima struggled in qualifying and started from 12th. During the race, Oshima drove 42 of the 68 laps for the first stint and then handed over to Ito, the team making a pit stop in the early stages of the race. Both Oshima and Ito gained positions for them to finish higher up the field in fifth. In the GT300 class, Takagi and Matsuura dropped positions in the early part of the race, but then made it back up to finish third.
Daisuke Ito:
“We had a bad qualifying so we made a plan to build up positions in race. We made it as we planned, and scored a finish in the points in a hard race.”
Kosuke Matsuura:
“I got stuck on my out lap but I was able to make good pace after I was out of the traffic. We could have done better in the final part of the race. But thanks to Bridgestone and Garaiya for working well together to give us the podium finish. I am looking forward to finishing better in our next race.”
Bridgestone Tire engineer: Yoshihiro Hosoya
“We suffered from unexpected cold weather and low track temperatures. A track temperature of 20 degrees at this time of the summer was totally out of the tyre temperature range we had prepared for in the GT500 class. We will do our best to deliver a dominant win at the next round in Suzuka.”
