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| Copyright © NISSAN |
Second round of SUPER GT race was held on April 9, and "MOTUL AUTECH Z" driven by Michael Krumm and Sakon Yamamoto started from 7th grid and finished the race in 3rd. Naoki Yokomizo and Joao Paulo de Oliveira on "YellowHat YMS TOMICA Z" (#3) finished 4th, while "CALSONIC IMPUL Z"(#12) with Benoit Treluyer and Kazuki Hoshino finished 6th place. 56,100 race fans filled the circuit in western Japan.
The race started following a formation lap. However, shortly after the lights turned green, several cars made a spin before the first corner. "XANAVI NISMO Z" (#23, Satoshi Motoyama & Tsugio Matsuda) was hit in the rear by a car that was pushed out by another car, and ran off to the gravel bed. Motoyama fortunately was free from any injuries, but although it started the race from 8th grid, the car damaged the rear right fender.
The car made a return to the track after quick repair, but had lost positions to the last of all GT 500 class cars. Although Motoyama made an aggressive pursuit, the engine stopped suddenly in front of the Redman corner. That was where the car ended the race.
Michael Krumm on #22 Z managed to dodge this mess and kept steady pace in pursuit of #32 NSX. Z had followed the car seeking for opportunity to overtake until the NSX spun out on its own from the pressure. Following a drive through penalty of the competitor ahead, Z reached 5th place by lap 17. The car then retuned to pit on lap 37 and switched to Sakon Yamamoto. Yamamoto made a small mistake of spinning off on the first lap retuned to track with the cold tires, but kept the loss to the minimum. By the time most cars completed the routine pit stop on lap 47, the car was at 4th place. With much display of verve, he kept a steady pace and even overtook Oliveira on #3 Z who was on his tail. On lap 67, the car improved position to 3rd with a competitor in front being penalized. The car then never gave up position and finished in 3rd place to receive checkered flag.
Both #3 and #12 Zs shown an exciting chase with tail-to-nose battle and received a lot of cheers from spectators in the grand stand. "WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z" (#24) with Erik Comas and Masataka Yanagida also suffered a struggle following the accident on the first corner, after Comas was forced out off the track. Comas gradually recovered positions afterwards and on lap 47, the car was passed over to Yanagida who finished the race in 11th place.
Later, the car was given 10th place and scored a point after another car above was given a penalty.
Meanwhile, "Kiccho Houzan DIREZZA Z" (#46) of GT 300 class scored pole position at the qualifying session on the previous day. Along with "ENDLESS ADVAN CCI Z" (#13), the two Zs dominated the front row of the starting grid.
"I expected more difficult race today because we didn't have the set up we wanted" said Michael Krumm of #22 Z. "So I'm happy we came in 3rd place. The team's pitwork was perfect as usual, so we had to do our job well in return. There's a long season ahead of us, and we really can't say anything about the championship, but I know so we should always have good results."
Sakon Yamamoto of #22 Z quoted, "I didn't want to make mistake and pushed hard, but I spun one time.
The car's condition wasn't 100%, but I'm glad we came in 3rd. I'm also honored to receive the 'Exciting Award' given to the driver who had shown most excitement."
"The accident on car #23 was unfortunate and unavoidable," quoted Yoshitaka Iijima, NISMO Team Director. Maybe the hit in the rear had caused the engine to stop. But #22 made a podium finish, and that was very much as planned. We know NSX and Lexus SC430 are both fast, but we were able to keep up a good fight with them. I hope we could work on the car for more speed, and the teamwork as well. Perhaps the next race in Fuji will be very tough, but we will continue to work hard"
