Three NASCAR Winston Cup racing cars led by Honda NSX, pace car of Suzuka
Circuit as parade laps, then Earnhardt and Japanese veteran Akihiko Nakaya who
drove Ford Thunderbird run as four laps as race simulation. Nakaya's Ford
Thunderbird was bought by Suzuka Circuit and painted to Million Card Card color
(Million Card is official sponsor for Suzuka's F3000 races.)
Nakaya took lead at first lap, but Earnhardt passed Nakaya on main
straight at front of grand stand, then he kept lead until checkered flag.
After simulation race laps, Earnhard run again to show the pit work for
Japanese fans. He run total four laps including pit stop simulation on main
straight. His best time was 54.554 seconds, set on first lap of this final
simulation laps. East-Course's record time is 53.326 seconds, set by Briton
Anthony Reid when he drove Opel Vectra at All Japan Touring Car Championship
race in last summer.
"Surface is good," said Earnhardt after his first experience at home of
Formula One Japanese Grand Prix. "But, main straight is long. So First Corner
is difficult."
Several hundreds of fans attended to Earnhardt's autograph session on pit lane.
Japanese young F3000 driver Toranosuke Takagi drove Formula One Tyrrell
020 Honda before Earnhardt drove NASCAR Winston Cup car. They will show the
demonstration laps on Sunday, too with many other auto racing cars and motorcycle
racing machines demonstration runnings.