Sendai Hiland Raceway -RIJ- Veteran Toshio Suzuki set the fastest lap time 1 minute 58.379 second for Sunday's All Japan GT Car Championship Round-3 on wet track of Sendak Hi-land Raceway Saturday. Suzuki drove Toyota Supra in heavy rain due to Typhoon No.8. He will start from pole position and share seat with another veteran Masanori Sekiya.
"I set the fastest time on lap four or five in first session. After it, rain has been heavier. So I was lucky," said Suzuki.
Second fastest time 1 minute 58.553 second was set by French ex-Formula One driver Erik Comas in brand new 1997 version Nissan Skyline GT-R. He will drive with another ex-F1 driver Aguri Suzuki.
Kunimitsu Takahashi set third fastest time with Honda NSX at end of first session when rain changed to lighter. In those conditions, Satoshi Motoyama's new Nissan Skyline GT-R spun off and crashed hardly at chicane. His team mate Kazuyoshi Hoshino couldn't run in qualify sessions and had to start from end of grids.
Starting Grids for Hi-land GT Championship Race:
June 29, 1997
Pos No CLASS Driver Driver CAR TIME
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 37 5 Masanori Sekiya/Toshio Suzuki TOYOTA SUPRA 1:58.379
2 2 5 Aguri Suzuki/Erik Comas (F) NISSAN SKYLINE 1:58.553
3 100 5 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Akira Iida HONDA NSX 1:58.590
4 38 5 Hironori Takeuchi/Katsutomo Kaneishi TOYOTA SUPRA 1:58.881
5 36 5 Michael Krumm(D)/Pedro De La Rosa(E) TOYOTA SUPRA 1:58.962
6 18 5 Takuya Kurosawa/Katsumi Yamamoto HONDA NSX 1:59.038
7 39 5 Masami Kageyama/Tatsuya Tanigawa TOYOTA SUPRA 1:59.178
8 556 5 Masahiko Kageyama/Masahiko Kondo NISSAN SKYLINE 1:59.389
9 5 5 Eiichi Tajima/Mark Gousen(B) TOYOTA SUPRA 1:59.762
10 30 5 Yoji Yamada/Kazuo Motegi PORSCHE 911 GT2 1:59.970
11 8 5 Wayne Gardner(AUS)/Naoki Nagasaka TOYOTA SUPRA 2:00.495
12 10 5 Kaoru Iida/Ralf Firman Jr.(GB) PORSCHE 911 GT2 2:00.836
13 510 5 Bertrand Gachot(F)/Paul Belmond(F) TOYOTA SUPRA 2:00.851
14 34 5 Keiichi Tsuchiya/Hideshi Matsuda PORSCHE 911 GT2 2:01.507
15 13 5 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita/Mitsuo Fujimura NISSAN SKYLINE 2:01.703
16 3 5 Masahiro Hasemi/Tetsuya Tanaka NISSAN SKYLINE 2:02.694
17 21 3 Yasushi Hitotsuyama/Kenji Yamamoto BMW E36 2:06.772
18 910 3 Seiichi Sodeyama/Tomohiko Sunako PORSCHE 993 RSR 2:07.413
19 6 3 Hironori Kato/Takahiro Fujita TOYOTA MR2 2:07.437
20 81 3 Nobuyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Kinoshita NISSAN SILVIA 2:07.607
21 25 3 Takeshi Tsuchiya/Masaoki Nagashima TOYOTA MR2 2:07.759
22 7 3 Shinichi Yamaji/Haruhiko Matsumoto MAZDA RX7 2:08.184
23 27 3 Tetsuya Ota/Steven Andskar(S) FERRARI F355 2:10.325
24 19 3 Manabu Orito/Hideo Fukuyama NISSAN SILVIA 2:10.583
25 26 3 Keiichi Suzuki/Morio Nitta PORSCHE 964 RSR 2:10.879
26 72 3 Norio Makiguchi/Takeshi Asami BMW E36 2:11.161
27 20 3 Kenji Takahashi/Hiroaki Suga PORSCHE 993 RSR 2:11.547
28 91 3 Masahiro Matsunaga/Junko Mihara TOYOTA MR2 2:15.019
29 16 3 Motoji Sekine/Hiroyuki Iiri BMW E36 2:15.627
30 70 3 Yoshizo Ishibashi/Nobuo Komiya PORSCHE 993 RSR 2:16.344
31 55 3 Toshihiro Fukasawa/Masaaki Nagashima MAZDA RX7 2:18.651
32 28 3 Masahiro Yamazaki/Masami Sugiyama FERRARI 355 2:20.942
12 5 Satoshi Motoyama/Fuminori Mizuno NISSAN SKYLINE 2:07.666*
88 5 Takao Wada/Hisashi Wada DIABLO GTR3 2:09.350**
71 3 Kaoru Hoshino/Masaki Kiuchi PORSCHE 911 GT2 2:11.591***
-----------------[ DNQ:]------------------------------------------------
17 3 Toshihiko Nogami/Tomoyuki Hosono MAZDA RX7 No Time
51 3 Masamitsu Ishihara/Katsunori Iketani PORSCHE 993 RSR No Time
4 5 Tatsuhiko Kaneumi/Mitsutake Koma PORSCHE 911 GT2 No Time
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Qualification Time (130%): 2'34.059
* = Kazuyoshi Hoshino did not mark lap time due to crash of Motoyama.
** = Hisashi Wada could not set 130% time.
*** = Masaki Kiuchi did not mark lap time.
#12, 88, 71 were allowed to start the race from back of grids.
Course length: 4.029km
Class: 5 = GT500, 3 = GT300
Weather: Rain, Course: Wet.
RIJ-Mitsuru Sugaya/Tokyo,