TGR Team au TOM’s & Sho Tsuboi Sweep Okayama Pre-Season Test
The #36 au TOM’s Toyota GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Giuliano Alesi wrapped up Super GT’s first pre-season test at Okayama International Circuit on top, as reigning GT500 champion Tsuboi set the fastest time of the two-day test on Sunday morning.
Session number three of the Okayama test began at 9:00 local time, under mostly cloudy skies and cool, comfortable temperatures.
The session was halted by three red flags, the first of which came near the second hour, when the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Hideki Yamauchi spun off at Williams Corner (turn two) and crashed into the barrier. Yamauchi was uninjured, but the front end damage sustained forced the reigning GT300 champions to withdraw from the fourth and final session that afternoon.
In the second hour, reigning GT500 co-champion Yuhi Sekiguchi went off at the first corner in the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra, resulting in a second red flag. The third came soon after, when the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Takashi Kogure hit the #3 CraftSports Motul Z of Katsumasa Chiyo, leaving Chiyo stranded at the run-off in turn two.
Before the end of the first hour in Session 3, Tsuboi was at the wheel of the #36 au Supra, and recorded the top time of 1’18.116, surpassing his 1’18.150 that he’d set Saturday morning in Session 1.
The time would stand as the best of the session, and with teams focusing on race simulations for Session 4, it would be the best time of the day.
“We’ve only just finished the first official test, and we haven’t the power structure of our rivals,” Tsuboi said after the test. “But even so, we were able to record the fastest time on both days, which is a great feeling for me as a driver, but I think it has also increased the team’s motivation.”
“Yesterday, I did the short test and Giuliano did the long run. Today we switched and I ran the long run in the afternoon. Everything was on schedule and we were able to complete the test menu we had prepared. I think there is still more work to be done. But in any case, I was able to set the top time on the opening stage of the season, so I hope to make a dash for the start of the season in Okayama.”
Continuing to find the balance on the new Nissan Z GT500, the #23 Motul Autech Z of Tsugio Matsuda recorded the second-quickest time of the day, at 1’18.246.
And despite the run-in with Kogure, Chiyo’s best time of 1’18.487 was still enough for the CraftSports Z to finish third on the day, keeping Nissan within reach of the defending champion team out of the Toyota camp.
The best of the Honda fleet was the #100 Stanley NSX-GT. Tadasuke Makino set a time of 1’18.584, good for fifth in the standings in Session 3 and for the second day’s overall rankings.
Following the session, there was another Full Course Yellow and Safety Car training exercise. Session 4 would actually begin at 1:45 PM, with a simulated race start. The green flag officially waved at 2:00 PM, and the session was extended by 15 minutes due to the multiple red flags in Session 3.
Nobuharu Matsushita in the #17 Astemo NSX-GT finished with the best time in this session, of 1’19.361. As mentioned, race simulations were the focus of this session.
Reigning Super Formula champion Tomoki Nojiri of ARTA remarked on Honda’s second day of testing. “We have different menus for different teams, so I’m not particularly concerned about the time on the second day,” Nojiri said.
“Our feeling is that with yesterday’s conditions, we should be able to close the gap by two or three tenths of a second. We don’t know what the situation is like for our opponents, so it’s just our own feeling. This season’s NSX-GT has a different way of producing downforce compared to last year’s car. It feels like downforce is being generated more efficiently. So we need to try different things in the tests, and I think it’s fine to wait until race week to make the final adjustments.”
While TOM’s were at the top of the leaderboards, TGR Team ZENT Cerumo languished towards the bottom of the standings after both days. Cerumo’s ace driver, three-time GT500 champion Yuji Tachikawa, gave his assurances, saying: “There were no problems, and the car did not feel bad.”
Speaking on the aero refinements made to this year’s Supra, Tachikawa added, “The cowl is finished to generate more downforce, and of course in high-speed corners like Suzuka (130R), but even here in Okayama, I could feel that the downforce was working. This season, Kotaro (Tanaka) became the director and selected young engineers, so we tried many different things in this test.”
Toyota teams topped the mileage leaderboards, led by the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz/Ritomo Miyata), which completed 260 laps or 962.78 kilometres of running across both days. Miyata was fourth-fastest on Sunday.
Saturday testing saw FIA GT3 cars lead the way in GT300, but on Sunday, the GT300-spec #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra GT of Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai took the top time. Kawaai, fresh off a Super Formula Lights test at Suzuka, was the only driver to break the 1 minute 26 second barrier during Sunday, leading Session 3 with a time of 1’25.917. GreenBrave also led the GT300 mileage standings, running 253 laps or 936.859 kilometres across four sessions.
“The test menu this time was still mainly tyre testing. Today, we tried three sets of new tyres from this morning, and I was able to attack at 100 percent and set the top time,” Kawaai said. “But we can’t rest easy because we don’t know what kind of menu our competitors are testing.”
“And our GR Supra GT has a narrower air restrictor (compared to FIA GT3 cars), so to be honest, it’s a bit harder. It is also a matter of concern that car #2 (muta Racing GR86 GT), another GT300 car running on Bridgestone tyres, was not participating in this test because their car was not ready in time.”
From the morning session, the #9 Pacific Hololive NAC Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO continued its surprising form from Saturday. Pacific-CarGuy Racing’s pro driver Kei Cozzolino was second-fastest.
Third-fastest in Session 3 was the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou, also on Bridgestone tyres.
In the afternoon session, the #56 Realize Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R of João Paulo de Oliveira was quickest with a time of 1’26.454.
痛々しい
#SUPERGT pic.twitter.com/Md3CfCAk7R— ファスラー(レイ@びっくらぽんず) (@grandprix300) March 13, 2022
The #61 Subaru BRZ, after crashing out of the test, finished 15th overall out of 25 cars on Sunday, with Takuto Iguchi setting a 1’27.248 early in Session 3.
In addition to the debuts of the BMW M4 GT3 and Toyota GR86 GT300, and the introduction of Audi’s Evo II package to the R8 LMS, LM Corsa have introduced their own unique aero kit for the existing Toyota GR Supra GT300 this season.
The kit bears a closer resemblance to the road-going Toyota GR Supra’s front fascia. The #60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra of Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno completed testing without any major issues, but they were also towards the bottom of the leaderboards on both days, finishing 22nd on Saturday and 20th on Sunday.
The Autobacs Super GT Series will hold their second pre-season test at historic Fuji Speedway on 26-27 March.
Images courtesy of the GT Association (GTA)
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