MUGEN

2014.7.22

MUGEN CR-Z GT completed the race with no point due to unexpected weather condition.

Series name: 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT SERIES ROUND 4
Event: SUGO GT 300KM RACE
Course: 3.704km × 81 laps (300.024km)
Qualifying: 2014-07-19 Sat / Rain / Attendance 9,000 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2014-07-20 Sun / Cloudy / Attendance 28,000 (Announcement from the organizer)

#0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Nakayama / Nojiri pair) participated to the SUPER GT Series Rd.4 took at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Pref.) from July 19th to 20th.

Team MUGEN did modification on front section of the #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT to increase cooling capacity, improved rear section for more strength and adapted hang type rear wing to gain straight speed. MUGEN handy weight is 38 kg for this race.

July 20th, (Sun)

■  Qualifying session: 4th position (00:01:27.855)

The qualifying session has been positioned to 9:05 and took 25 minutes time trial session. One of the drivers needs to take the steering for the session and Team MUGEN decided Nakayama to take the driving seat.

There was wet announcement and the course was still wet condition due to misty rain. Nakayama took time attack with 3 laps tire warm up and marked 00:01:29.814 for his 1st attack to become 4th position.

Raining was stopped. Nakayama marked 00:01:28.933, 00:01:28.44 on his 2nd and 3rd attack and finally marked 00:01:27.937 on his last attack to become 2nd position with 5 minutes session remained. Nakayama completed the qualifying session with 4th at the end.

■  Race: 11th position (72 laps / 01:48:47.483, Best record: 00:01:22.237)

Raining was stopped completely and started to get dry on the course at 2:00pm before the race starts. It was sun shining when the machines taking staring grid. Team MUGEN chose slick tire for dry condition and Nakayma took the starting driver.

Rolling start was taken with the pace car, however it started to rain again and 2 more laps were extended before the race starts.

While some teams started to change to rain tires after the race starts, Team MUGEN and the driver decided to continue the race with slick tire. Nakayama is straggled with wet condition and completed the 1st lap with 4th position, 10th position on 3rd lap and 11th position on 4th lap.

Wet tire equipped machines were 5 seconds faster than dry tire equipped machines. FIA-GT3 machines were faster than JAF GT 300 including #0 MUGEN CR-G GT even the same dry tire was equipped. It was because FIA-GT machines were arrowed to have ABS and traction control system while JAF GT 300 machines were not. It was very tough race for MUGEN CR-Z GT.

Rain tire equipped machines made pit stops to change to the slit tires at the lap of 7 when raining started to stop and the truck surface started to get dry. Nakayama kept 10th position at the lap 10th. Nakayama marked his best lap 00:01:22.237 and continued to run the machine for 39 laps to take over the steering wheel to Nojiri.

Nojiri also chose slick tire and fueled to return to the course. #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT was at the 13th position when the top machine complete 45 laps. It started to become raining again after Nojiri marked his best time 00:01:22.735. Nojiri started to have late lap time due to the heavy wet condition. Team MUGEN decided to exchange the tires to wet tire when the top machine completed 59 laps.

Nojiri earned the laps and completed the race at 11th position with 2 laps behind from the top. Team MUGEN earned 1 point in total of 27 points to become 8th in the series ranking. Nakayama and Nojiri became 9th on the drivers point with 19 points.

■ Comments from the team director, Junichi Kumakura

I would say there were no mistake or wrong decision but kept 72 laps with bad condition for the machine. I had no hesitation to keep slick tires right after the start as #10 and #11 were, the same slick tires with the top machines. However the combination of the machine and the wet tire did not match very well that #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT lost the positions.

We had no choice to exchange the tire and completed the race. It was a very hard race for CR-Z GT without any electrical control devices. We are going to have next race in Fuji and we need to cope with the straight speed next time.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round4)