MUGEN

2014.11.20

TEAM MUGEN finished 13th in the final race, and 9th in the series ranking in this season.

Series name: 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT SERIES ROUND 8
Event name: MOTEGI GT 250km RACE
Course: 4.801km × 53laps (254.453km)
Qualifying: 2014-11-15 Sat / Fine / Attendance 15,500 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2014-11-16 Sun / Fine / Attendance 32,000 (Announcement from the organizer)

#0 MUGEN CR-Z GT (Yuhki Nakayama/Tomoki Nojiri) entered the SUPER GT SERIES Round 8, which was held on November 15th and 16th at Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Prefecture). In the final race in the series, weight handicaps accumulated over the course of a season are removed from all cars in principle to compete in the race with cars of vehicle weight measured at the start of the season.

TEAM MUGEN brought a car provided with a new engine control system, which had been tested, to run the race with the CR-Z GT in its final form.

November 15th (Sat)

■  Qualifying session: 5th position (Q1: 7th position / 00:01:48:776, Q2: 5th position / 00:01:48.583)

The qualifying started at 13:30 under a clear autumn sky. The starting grid is determined using the two-step knockout-based qualifying format, with which all drivers run Q1, and then only the top 13 drivers in Q1 will be able to run Q2.

The team took the strategy of putting Nojiri in Q1, and Nakayama in Q2. Nojiri recorded 00:01:48.776 on the lap 4. He cut the 15-minute Q1 short, and was in the 7th position when he made it to Q2.

Q2 started at 14:17 and lasted for 15 minutes. Nakayama ran Q2, recorded 00:01:48.583 on the lap 3, and made a pit stop after a cool-down. This made us to be in grid 5 for the final race.

November 16th (Sun)

■  Final race: 13th position (49 laps / 01:34:01.165, Best record: 00:01:51.337)

The weather was fine in the region with the temperature of 13.5°C. There was no sign of bad weather, and it was really a good condition. Nakayama ran the race as a starting driver.

Nakayama was in the grid 5 at the start of the race. He kept his position in the early stage of the race. However, he suffered from a trouble of reduced-grip tires due to tire debris off line. Furthermore, he was aggressively chased by FIA-GT3 cars which had superior output performance for regulation reasons. He moved down to the 6th position on the lap 9, the 7th on the lap 10, and to the 8th on the lap 12.

Nakayama made a pit stop when he finished the lap 20 to give way to Nojiri. The team refueled and replaced only rear tires with new ones to reduce the time for the pit stop so that Nojiri could move up. When Nojiri got back on the track, he was apparently in the 18th position. We anticipated that he would move up if other drivers made a pit stop later.

As we expected, Nojiri moved up to the 17th position on the lap 25, the 16th on the lap 28, the 14th on the lap 31, and to the 13th on the lap 32. However, at the same time, #0 MUGEN CR-Z GT had some troubles with its drive system, and this made him difficult to keep his lap time.

As a result, he could not move up as we planned, and on the contrary, he could do nothing but move down on the lap 42. Eventually, Nojiri moved up by one position since a car ahead slowed down. He kept his position on the lap 49, and finished the 13th in the race.

Three points were added as a team point by completing the race with one lap behind. With a cumulative total of 44 points, we got to number 9 in the series. Nakayama/Nojiri pair scored no driver ranking point. With a cumulative total of 26 points, they got to number 10 in the series.

■ Comments from the team director, Junichi Kumakura

We had brake problems during the free practice on Friday. It could put us on a tight clock if it happened during a usual race week. So I think we were still lucky.

The course at Twin Ring Motegi requires frequent stop-and-go driving, and stability while braking is essential. We took it into consideration when we set up the car for the race here. Mounting the engine control system, on which we had been conducting tests, was one of the measures.

The race result is culmination of the development we have been conducting for CR-Z GT. We were anticipating the replacement of rear tires only based on the data from last year and situation in the free practice. Because of the performance adjustment, our cars ran more than 10 km/h slower than FIA-GT3 cars in straight sections, and we were forced to have very difficult races over the season. We did the best we could, and I accept the situation.

We would like to say thank you to our fans, and greatly appreciate your support this year.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round8)