MUGEN

2014.5.19

Though came fifth in the qualifying session, finished third in the race and made it to the first podium in this season!

Series name: 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT SERIES ROUND 2
Event: FUJI GT 500KM RACE
Course: 4.563km × 110 laps (501.93km)
Qualifying: 2014-05-03 Sat / Fine / Attendance 32,200 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2014-05-04 Sun / Fine / Attendance 57,200 (Announcement from the organizer)

#0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Yuhki Nakayama / Tomoki Nojiri) entered the SUPER GT Series Round 2, which was held in Fuji International Speedway (Shizuoka Prefecture) on May 3rd and 4th. Compared to the season-opening race for which the race distance was 300 km, the race distance of Round 2 is 500 km with 110 laps, and it is the second longest race distance after Suzuka Circuit, which is 1,000 km. The car was equipped with aerodynamic parts for dealing with the long straight section and high-speed at Fuji International Speedway. These are of the same specifications with parts used at Fuji International Speedway last season.

Last season, MUGEN CR-Z GT recorded the fastest lap time in the GT 300 class in a race. However, even if the handicap weight of 4 kg is set, the diameter of air inlet restrictors was reduced from 30.0 mm × 2 for the last season to 28.66 mm × 2. Furthermore, the minimum ground height was still increased by 5 mm. With those differences in entry conditions from last season, though any substantial change was made to the car, we needed to take new actions for races in this season.

May 3rd, (Sat)

■  Official qualifying: 5th position (Q1:13th position / 00:01:39.231, Q2: 5th position / 00:01:38.320)

Since we could not make enough setting during the official practice run, we had a meeting between drivers and engineers to decide settings for time attacks in the qualifying session based on the data obtained last season. The starting grid is determined in the two-step knockout format consisting of Q1, which every car enters, and Q2, which the only top 13 cars in Q1 can enter.

We first planned to make Nojiri enter Q1 and Nakayama for Q2, however, in consideration of the unfinished settings for the qualifying, we chose the combination of Nakayama for Q1 and Nojiri for Q2.

Nakayama recorded 00:01:39.231, finished 13th in Q1, and made it to Q2 as the 13th car. We made further changes to the set-up of the car, and Nojiri recorded 00:01:38.320 with the car in the last two minutes of Q2 session while coming in 3rd. Since some cars recorded faster time later, #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT was eventually in grid five.

May 4th, (Sun)

■  Final race: 3rd position (102laps, 03:08:25.797, Best record: 00:01:39:661)

Before the start of the final race at 14:00, air temperature reached 20 degrees C and 32 degrees C for road surface temperature. The track of Fuji International Speedway was in dry conditions. The starting driver was Nakayama.

As soon as the start of the race was signaled, a car behind placed itself next to Nakayama on his outer side. This forced him to be in the 6th position at the beginning of the race. On Lap 2, he lost control of the car and was overtaken by two cars to be in 8th position, however, he overtook one to be in 7th position. This was when a safety car came on to the circuit and made drivers to form a queue behind it due to an accident on the track.

On Lap 10, the race was resumed. Nakayama competed against drivers behind to keep the 7th position, however, when he finished Lap 16, there was an accident again and a safety car came on to the circuit. The team decided to make the first pit stop in this period, got the car back to their pit box for replacing tires and fueling.

The car returned to the track with Nojiri as a driver to join the safety car run. Since some teams made pit stops and some did not, apparent positions were confusing, and Nojiri was in 17th position at this moment.

On Lap 20, the race was resumed. When Nojiri was competing against a driver of a car #4 behind, his car got rear-ended and a left rear diffuser was severely damaged. The car was disadvantaged in terms of aerodynamic characteristics, and was overtaken by the car #4 as well. However, Nojiri kept on driving at a steady pace and went up while competitors, who had not made the first pit stop during the safety car run, made pit stops. He was in 14th position on Lap 30, 6th on Lap 40, 5th on Lap 41, and 4th on Lap 45.

Nojiri kept his position while taking laps, he finished the 60 laps and made a pit stop to be replaced with Nakayama as planned. The team fueled the car and replaced tires before #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT returned to the track.

Because of the second pit stop, Nakayama was apparently in 10th position on Lap 61. However, since other cars made second pit stops, he went up to 8th on Lap 62, 7th on Lap 63, 5th on Lap 64, 3rd on Lap 70, 2nd on Lap 75, and finally on Lap 77, he went to the front.

Though the race consisted of 110 laps, it was expected that around 102 laps would be taken in GT300 class. Though Nakayama had been about eight seconds ahead of a car behind, tires were worn away further, probably because of the change in aerodynamic characteristics due to the damaged diffuser, and on and after Lap 90, the pace started to decrease. As a result, cars behind closed in to gradually reduce the distance.

Nakayama continued driving aggressively not to be overtaken, however, the car got slightly unstable when he applied the brakes at the Dunlop corner on Lap 97 and spun around. The car stayed on the track and immediately resumed the race, however, two cars overtook him before that and he went down to 3rd position. He could not go up after this, and finished 3rd in the race.

As a result, TEAM MUGEN added 14 points in total to team ranking points, i.e., 11 team points (3rd position) and 3 lap points (same as a top), and ranked 5th in the series with cumulative total of 17 points. The pair of Nakayama and Nojiri got 11 driver ranking points (3rd position), made it 13 points in total, and ranked 5th in the series.

■ Comments from the team director, Junichi Kumakura

During the practice run on Saturday, we had transmission oil leak and could not drive the car satisfactorily. We set a plan for time attacks in the qualifying session based on the data obtained last season and comments from the two drivers who drove the car only for a while in the practice run. Since we could not simulate a qualifying session for Nojiri, we created a strategy to make use of Nakayama, who were familiar with races in this class, to make it to Q2 anyway. In Q2, partly thanks to various corrections made based on Nakayama's data obtained in Q1, Nojiri made really a good job. I think we were just too good in the qualifying sessions.

The final race was a rough one which results in the two safety car runs. However, we made pit stops in accordance with our strategy, which also took safety car runs into consideration, took laps at expected lap time without making errors, and found our car heading the race on the last stint. Since FIA-GT3 cars were driving fast, I did not expect we could head the race to be honest. Nojiri kept on driving at a steady pace without making errors though the car was imperfect because of the rear-end collision, and he could pass the torch to Nakayama. However, at the very last minute, the unstable car caused us to miss the chance to win. Since it did not go so well for other cars midway through the race, we could head the race, but finishing 3rd was more than we expected. I can say we owe it to the drivers who successfully controlled the car with degraded performance in a severe situation which constrained speed in straight sections due to performance tuning.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round2)