Sendai Hi-land Speedway, Miyagi Pref., Japan -RIJ- German Ralf Schumacher set the pole position time for Sunday's All Japan GT Car Championship (JGTC) Round-3 at Sendai H-iland Raceway in Miyagi Pref., Japan. Shucmacher, won twice in Formula Nippon (F3000) and won once in JGTC series, drove McLaren F1 GTR with Naoki Hattori and clocked 1 minute 45.745 seconds on 4.0296km length hill top track.
Schucmacher's time was marked at 10 minutes to go to checker in second qualifying session and got pole from temporaty pole sitter Erik Comas (with Hironori Takeuchi) and second qualifiers Eiichi Tajima (and Yoji Tajima.)
Another McLaren F1 GTR, driven by David Brabham and John Nielsen, will start from sixth grid and former Motorcycle Road Race World Champion Wayne Gardner and veteran Alain Ferte in Toyota Supra will start from eighth grid, followed by Japanese Indy 500 driver Hideshi Matsuda and veteran Osamu Nakako's Porsche GT2.
Ralf Schumacher's quote after qualifying: "After I set pole time, engine was cut off. But it was fixed. So I think it will be OK in race. I just hope it won't be happened again. I'm pleased to get pole position, but winning is more important. I hope to win again. Tomorrow's start driver will be Hattori even though it is still secret (grin). I hope to run faster than Toyotas in race."
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1996 All Japan GT Championship Round-3,
Hi-land GT Championship Race Starting Grid
Weather: Fine, Course: Dry June 29, 1996
Pos No Class Driver Driver CAR TIME
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1 60 GT5 N.Hattori R.Schumacher(D) McLAREN F1 GTR 1:45.745
2 8 GT5 T.Kristensen(DK) T.Tanigawa TOYOTA SUPRA JZA80 1:46.447
3 30 GT5 Y.Yamada E.Tajima PORSCHE993/380LL 1:46.544
4 37 GT5 E.Comas (F) H.Takeuchi TOYOTA SUPRA JZA80 1:46.664
5 36 GT5 M.Sekiya P.D.La Rosa (E) TOYOTA SUPRA JZA80 1:46.747
6 61 GT5 D.Brabham(UK) J.Nielsen(DK) McLAREN F1 GTR 1:46.983
7 3 GT5 M.Hasemi T.Tanaka NISSAN SKYLINE BCNR33 1:47.672
8 39 GT5 W.Gardner(AUS) A.FERTE (F) TOYOTA SUPRA JZA80 1:47.885
9 34 GT5 H.Matsuda O.Nakako PORSCHE 911GT2 1:48.163
10 1 GT5 Kaz.Hoshino Masahiko Kageyama NISSAN SKYLINE BCNR33 1:48.242
11 100 GT5 Kuni.Takahashi K.Tsuchiya HONDA NSX NA1(E-NA1) 1:48.575
12 35 GT5 O.Larrauri(RA) T.Tsuchiya PORSCHE 911GT2 1:48.696
13 2 GT5 Aguri Suzuki H.Fukuyama NISSAN SKYLINE BCNR33 1:48.929
14 5 GT5 K.Iida T.Ohta PORSCHE 911 GT2 1:49.290
15 556 GT5 Toshio Suzuki M.Kondo SKYLINE BCNR33 1:49.306
16 55 GT5 K.Tohira H.Kawai NISSAN SKYLINE BCNR33 1:51.135
17 43 GT5 Y.Okamoto Y.Hinoi PORSCHE CARRERA RS 1:51.223
18 25 GT5 Masami Kageyama Y.Tachikawa NISSAN 3000X-GTS 1:51.427
19 19 GT5 T.Kobayashi N.Furuya NISSAN SKYLINE BNR32 1:52.072
20 69 GT5 K.Kawagoe S.Kasuya PORSCHE 911GT2 1:52.622
21 12 GT3 S.Motoyama Y.Ide NISSAN SILVIA 1:54.042
22 26 GT3 K.Suzuki M.Nitta PORSCHE964 CARRERA RSR 1:54.176
23 72 GT3 T.Kinoshita N.Makiguchi BMW M3 E30 1:54.441
24 91 GT3 M.Matsunaga J.Mihara Toyota MR-2 1:55.066
25 910 GT3 S.Sodeyama N.Nagasaka PORSCHE 933RSR 1:55.135
26 7 GT3 S.Yamaji H.Wada MAZDA RX7 FD3S 1:55.627
27 15 GT5 M.Sekine T.Ito PORSCHE 911 TURBO 1:56.679
28 6 GT3 T.Kawasaki T.Fukushima TOYOTA MR2 SW-20 1:56.814
29 21 GT3 Y.Hitotsuyama T.Yamamoto BMW M3 E36 1:57.707
30 38 GT3 A.H.C.Fu M.Nagashima PORSCHE CARRERA RS 1:57.922
31 70 GT3 Y.Ishibashi Kaoru Hoshino PORSCHE993RS 1:58.006
32 51 GT3 M.Ishihara H.Noji PORSCHE911 CARRERA RSR 1:58.294
33 95 GT3 N.Oyagi T.Mankumo NISSAN SILVIA PS13 1:59.014
34 18 GT3 S.Kobayashi H.Enomoto Porsche 1:59.051
35 11 GT3 H.Ishimori M.Saitoh NISSAN SKYLINE GTS-R 1:59.473
36 31*GT3 K.Iketani K.Mogi PORSCHE993 CARRERA RS 1:54.671
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GT5=GT500, GT3=GT300
Qualification time (130%) 2:18.118
Data: Sendai Hiland Raceway/All Japan GT Association via
NIFTY-Serve Auto Racing Forum.
RIJ-Mitsuru Sugaya/Tokyo,