Podium Finish for Nissan Z
Xanavi NISMO Z (#1) Finished 3rd
G'ZOX SSR HASEMI Z (#3) and MOTUL KEY VALUE Z (#22) Finished 4th and 6th
Pole-sitter CALSONIC IMPUL Z (#1) Retired
JGTC Rd. 3 Japan GT Championship MALAYSIA Race Report
Sepang International Circuit (Malaysia) - June 18-19, 2004
2004 JGTC Round 3 Japan GT Championship Malaysia was held at Sepang International Circuit located at a suburb of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on June 19th 2004. The race day was favored with very fine day with the temperature of 32 degrees (C) which was a typical weather condition at Sepang in this season.
Although CALSONIC IMPUL Z (#12) started from the pole allowed Toyota Supra (#36) to go faster on the opening lap, it regained the top position on the lap 2 and the starting driver Benoit Treluyer kept the leading position at the beginning of the race. He kept the top until he entered the pit lane for driver change on the lap 26. Next driver, Yuji Ide rejoined the race with the 4th position and went faster to move up to, however had the misfortune to run up against a GT300 car when he was the 2nd on the lap 32. The back-marker went across the track just in front of Ide and missed the course. Ide obliged to go out and hit his nose against the car stuck in a gravel bed. He managed his car to rejoin the fields but hit the other car at the next corner and spun out. and retired.
Erik Comas moved up to the 4th position driving G'ZOX SSR Hasemi Z (#3) started from the 7th grid by his tactical driving. Next driver, Toshihiro Kaneishi drove the car further up to the 3rd position on lap 32 and evaded skillfully his pursuer Supra (#35).
During the close battle with #35, his car hit Xanavi NISMO Z ran just behind of him and spun. Then #1 Z took the 4th position but finally the checkered flag was waved for the car #3 for its 4th position.
Xanavi NISMO Z (#1) was driven by Satoshi Motoyama from the 8th qualifying position. He drove the car at a consistent speed keeping 7th position gained on lap 3. The car returned to pit to change driver on lap 24. Richard Lynos left the pit with medium compound instead of the hard tires shod by Motoyama, drove the car at a higher speed and overtook the leading cars. He took the 4th position on the lap 32. Supra (#35) also increased its pace in the latter half of the race and once overtook #1. On the lap 43, #1 Z took the 4th position back after the fighting with #3 Z and outstripped another leading car to cross the line with the 3rd position. The two drivers of the car #1 achieved their aims of celebrating their results on the podium and stood the 2nd in the championship.
MOTUL KEY VALUE Z* (#22) was started by Michael Krumm from the 4th position. As all the cars behind him rushed toward inside of the first corner the moment the green light was on, he was pushed out to outside and dropped 3 positions when he passed the corner. The car regained one notch after that and kept going the first half of the race under difficult conditions. Masami Kageyama took the wheel from lap 26 when the car was at the provisional 4th position. Kageyama's persistent driving kept the car at the 6th and moved up to the 5th position in the final phase of the race without involving any accidents of the other cars. Although he drove the car in a steady pace until the penultimate lap, he had to slow down the speed on the final lap and somehow gained 6th position at the end. Immediately after the checkered flag, the car stopped before it came to the first corner. Kageyama stepped off the car and sank down on the spot. His extreme exhaustion caused dehydratrion.
"The retirement of the car #12 was quite pity," said Hiroshi Degawa, Team Director of NISMO. "However, Motoyama in the car #1 lasted well with those hard tires in the early stages and the latter medium compound matched with Richard's driving. I felt sorry for Hasemi's team when they went too far and hit the car #3. Finally we could obtain the position for podium which was the original target. It was a tough race and we thank all the fans for their support."
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RACE RESULTS
JGTC Rd. 3 JAPAN GT Championship MALAYSIA - Saturday,19 June, 2004
SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT [ 17:15^ÿ54Laps fine / dry ]
| Pos |
Car Name |
No. |
Driver Name |
Time/Diff. |
| 1 |
DENSO SARD SUPRA GT |
39 |
Jeremie Dufour / Andre Couto |
1:53'47.096 |
| 2 |
Yellow Hat YMS SUPRA |
35 |
Naoki Hattori / Shigekazu Wakisaka |
+2.113 |
| 3 |
Xanavi NISMO Z |
1 |
Satoshi Motoyama / Richard Lyons |
+21.470 |
| 4 |
G'ZOX SSR HASEMI Z |
3 |
Toshihiro Kaneishi / Erik Comas |
+36.077 |
| 5 |
DYNACITY TOM'S SUPRA |
37 |
James Courtney / Tatsuya Kataoka |
+42.987 |
| 6 |
MOTUL KEY VALUE Z* |
22 |
Masami Kageyama / Michael Krumm |
+45.702 |
| 7 |
au CERUMO SUPRA |
38 |
Yuji Tachikawa / Seiji Ara |
+1:14.961 |
| 8 |
TAKATA DOME NSX |
18 |
Ryo Michigami / Sebastien Philippe |
+1:25.118 |
| 9 |
EPSON NSX |
32 |
Tsugio Matsuda / Andre Lotterer |
+1'51.137 |
| 10 |
WOODONE TOM'S SUPRA |
36 |
Takeshi Tsuchiya / Marco Apicella |
+2:20.890 |
| R |
CALSONIC IMPUL Z |
12 |
Benoit Treluyer / Yuji Ide |
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*For this race only, MOTUL PITWORK Z has used the PITWOK's overseas trademark "KEY VALUE" and participated as MOTUL KEY VALUE Z.
TRACK INFORMATION
Length: 5,542m |
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