April 28-29, Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi prefecture)
The second round of the Super Taikyu Series (S-Tai) was held at Twin Ring Motegi, with the #34 asset Techno Z34 (Masahiro Sasaki/Hideshi Maeshima) taking first place in the ST-3 class. Meanwhile, the #3 ENDLESS ADVAN 380RSC (Kyosuke Mineo/Yukinori Taniguchi/Shinichi Takagi) took second place in the ST-1 class. It was also the racing debut of the #24 Threebond Nissan Motor College GT-R (Tomonobu Fujii/GAMISAN) after the team's participation in the race was only announced on the previous day.
It has been one month since the opening race of the S-Tai season, and already the second race was upon them. As in the opening event, there were five Fairlady Z entries, a single car in the ST-1 Class, and four in ST-3. The #24 NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 machine also made an appearance at Motegi, its participation announced the day before the race, and drew the attention of the crowd.
On Friday the 27th, the #24 GT-R performed its shakedown. Tomonobu Fujii and GAMISAN have experienced the potential of the machine during the shakedown. They had originally planned to only do a shakedown, but a sudden decision was made to participate in the qualifying session and the race. On its first run, the machine took third place in qualifying, and in the race, completed five laps before returning to the pit and ending its first competitive outing.
In the ST3 Class, the #34 Z took a crushing victory, more than a lap ahead of the competition, contrary to the predictions that "the heavy weight will be a disadvantage on this stop-and-go circuit." This is the second consecutive win for the team, following their victory in the opening round. In the furious, hectic battle for position in the final stages of the race, the #5 OKABE JIDOSHA Makers Z34 (Daisuke Imamura/Mitsunori Atake/Tsuyoshi Shira) took fifth place, while the #35 asset Techno Z33 (Kazuhiro Koizumi/Hiroki Yoshida/Makoto Hotta) scored sixth, and the #15 OKABE JIDOSHA DIXCEL Team Tetsuya Z34 (Masaaki Nagashima/Tetsu Tanaka/Manabu Yamazaki) came home seventh.
The #3 Z in the ST1 Class had drive system trouble from the start of the race, but persevered through the four-hour event with only routine pit stops, and took second place on the victory stand for the second time running.
Hideshi Maeshima (ST-3 Class race winner)
"I had brake trouble from the first stint, but aside from that, the car was in excellent shape. I didn't have to push myself that hard to extend my lead at the start, and since I knew that the (second-placed) RX-7 doesn't have very good fuel efficiency, I focused my efforts on consistency and controlling the pace without overdoing things."
Pos | No | Machine | Drivers | Time / Behind |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Faust Racing Team | Kazutomo Robert Hori/Naoya Yamano/Takeyuki Okamoto | 4:03'16.113 |
2 | 3 | ENDLESS·ADVAN·380RS-C | Kyosuke Mineo/ Yukinori Taniguchi/Shinichi Takagi |
+1Lap |
3 | 25 | SAMURAI Porsche | Takeshi Tsuchiya/Shinichi Ito/Akira Shibuya | +2Laps |
Pos | No | Machine | Drivers | Time / Behind |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 34 | asset techno Z34 | Masahiro Sasaki/Shuji Maejima | 4:02'39.984 |
2 | 14 | Okabe Jidosha my road Kyoshin-Keisoku RX-7 | Kazuomi Komatsu/ Kenichi Sugibayashi/Yoshinobu Masuda |
+1Lap |
3 | 80 | PETRONAS TWS GS350 | Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shinya Sato/Keiichi Kobayashi | +1Lap |
5 | 35 | asset techno Z33 | Kazuhiro Koizumi/Hiroki Yoshida/ Makoto Hotta |
+1Lap |
6 | 15 | Okabe Jidosha DIXCEL Team Tetsuya Z | Masaaki Nagashima/Toru Tanaka/ Manabu Yamazaki |
+1Lap |
7 | 5 | Okabe Jidosha Makers Z34 | Daisuke Imamura/Mitsunori Atake/ Tsuyoshi Shirai |
+1Lap |
<Related Link>
NISSAN MOTORSPORTS Web Site
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