Fuji Intl. Speedway, Japan -RIJ- Young Japanese duo Masami Kageyama and Tatsuya Tanigawa won the second round of All Japan GT Car Championship, All Japan Fuji GT Race at foggy Fuji International Speedway. Their Team Sard received unhappy news from Le Mans that their regular driver Olivier Grouillard drove Sard MS8R in Saturday's Prequalifying session for Le Mans 24 Hours Race and failed to qualify (Tanigawa replaced Grouillard for this race.) Then they would hear sad news again from Le Mans that their second Sard MC8R could not qualify the Sunday's Prequalifying session for Le Mans 24 Hours Race.
Today's race started in fog. Start time was delayed and original 67 Lap race was shortened to 66 Lap after two formation laps. Then race started, it was not rain, but black clouds moved quick over the track and deep fog came in. Track was still damp and most of teams chose rain tires before start.
After start, many collisions happened and went into gravel bed, including two Honda NSXs, until lap 3. Pace car was out and led remaining cars after lap 3 until lap 9. After re-start, track changed to dry quickly. Leader Aguri Suzuki, will drive Nissan R390 at Le Mans, slowed down because his Nissan Skyline GT-R shod rain tires. Then Masami Kageyama in Team Sard's Toyota Supra with dry tires led the race, followed by veteran Masahiro Hasemi's Nissan Skyline GT-R.
At routine stop, Tanigawa took steering wheel from Kageyama and kept lead, but pace car was out again on Lap 53 until Lap 59. When green light came again, leader Kageyama's margin to second runner Hasemi's team mate Tetsuya Tanaka was 6 seconds. Several lap markers were running between Kageyama and Tanaka, but Tanaka passed all back markers within one lap at just six laps to go to checkered flag. Young student of Hasemi chased Tanigawa and decrease the margin to 3 seconds, but Tanigawa could run away until finish.
Team Sard would hear another unhappy news from Le Mans taht second Sard MS8R failed to pass the Prequalifying after they won the Japanese GT Car Race.
All Japan Fuji GT Race Result
May 4, 1997
Weather: Cloudy, Course: Dry
Pos No CLASS Driver Driver CAR LAP TIME
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1 39 5 Masami Kageyama/Tatsuya Tanigawa TOYOTA SUPRA 66 2h09'53.311
2 3 5 Masahiro Hasemi/Tetsuya Tanaka NISSAN SKYLINE 66 0'03.523
3 36 5 Michael Krumm(D)/Pedro De La Rosa(E)TOYOTA SUPRA 66 0'30.534
4 2 5 Aguri Suzuki/Marco Apicella(I) NISSAN SKYLINE 66 0'32.626
5 12 5 Satoshi Motoyama/Fuminori Mizuno NISSAN SKYLINE 66 0'53.852
6 37 5 Masanori Sekiya/Toshio Suzuki TOYOTA SUPRA 65 1 Lap
7 10 5 Kaoru Iida/Ralf Firman Jr.(GB) PORSCHE 911 GT2 65 1 Lap
8 4 5 Tatsuhiko Kaneumi/Mitsutake Koma PORSCHE 911 GT2 65 1 Lap
9 26 3 Keiichi Suzuki/Morio Nitta PORSCHE 964 RSR 65 1 Lap
10 19 3 Manabu Orito/Hideo Fukuyama NISSAN SILVIA 64 2 Laps
11 7 3 Shinichi Yamaji/Haruhiko Matsumoto MAZDA RX7 64 2 Laps
12 27 3 Tetsuya Ota/Anders Olofsson(S) FERRARI F355 64 2 Laps
13 51 3 Masamitsu Ishihara/Katsunori Iketan iPORSCHE 993RSR 64 2 Laps
14 71 3 Kaoru Hoshino/Masaki Kiuchi PORSCHE 911 GT2 64 2 Laps
15 81 3 Nobuyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Kinoshita NISSAN SILVIA 63 3 Laps
16 910 3 Seiichi Sodeyama/Tomohiko Sunako PORSCHE 993 RSR 63 3 Laps
17 72 3 Norio Makiguchi/Takeshi Asami BMW E36 63 3 Laps
18 21 3 Yasushi Hitotsuyama/Kenji Yamamoto BMW E36 63 3 Laps
19 55 3 Toshihiro Fukasawa/Masaaki Nagashima MAZDA RX7 63 3 Laps
20 38 5 Hironori Takeuchi/Katsutomo Kaneishi TOYOTA SUPRA 62 4 Laps
21 17 3 Toshihiko Nogami/Tomoyuki Hosono MAZDA RX7 62 4 Laps
22 79 3 Masanori Sugiyama/Hiroyasu Aoyagi NISSAN SILVIA 62 4 Laps
23 91 3 Masahiro Matsunaga/Junko Mihara TOYOTA MR2 61 5 Laps
24 16 3 Motoji Sekine/Hiroyuki Iiri BMW E36 61 5 Laps
25 11 3 Hiromoto Isimori/Kinji Suzuki NISSAN SKYLINE 60 6 Laps
26 70 3 Yoshizo Ishibashi/Nobuo Komiya PORSCHE 993 RSR 57 9 Laps
------------[ Did Not Finish: ]---------------------------------------------
30 5 Yoji Yamada/Kazuo Motegi PORSCHE 911 GT2 42 24 Laps
556 5 Masahiko Kageyama/Masahiko Kondo NISSAN SKYLINE 42 24 Laps
5 5 Eiichi Tajima/Mark Gousen(B) TOYOTA SUPRA 39 27 Laps
25 3 Takeshi Tsuchiya/Masaoki Nagashima TOYOTA MR2 35 31 Laps
6 3 Hironori Kato/Takahiro Fujita TOYOTA MR2 30 36 Laps
13 5 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita/Yasushi Kikuchi NISSAN SKYLINE 28 38 Laps
8 5 Bertrand Gachot(F)/Paul Belmond(F) TOYOTA SUPRA 23 43 Laps
45 3 Tsuyoshi Yuasa/Toshiaki Hanai NISSAN SILVIA 16 50 Laps
20 3 Kenji Takahashi/Hiroaki Suga PORSCHE 993 RSR 11 55 Laps
88 5 Takao Wada/Hisashi Wada DIABLO GTR3 5 61 Laps
28 3 Masahiro Yamazaki/Masami Sugiyama FERRARI 355 4 62 Laps
100 5 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Akira Iida HONDA NSX 2 64 Laps
18 5 Takuya Kurosawa/Katsumi Yamamoto HONDA NSX 1 65 Laps
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75 5 Yuji Tachikawa/Tsuyoshi Takahashi NISSAN 300ZX
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Course length: 4.470km
Class: 5 = GT500, 3 = GT300
Fastest Lap: #36, Michael Krumm (D), 1'31.640 On Lap 37/66, 175.600 km/h
Penalty: #910, #21, #51, #12; added 10 seconds pit stop penalty.
RIJ-Mitsuru Sugaya/Tokyo,