MUGEN

May 25, 2018

7th position at Q2, however, DNF at the race

Series name: 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT SERIES Round 3
Round name: SUZUKA GT 300km -Fan Festival-
Course: 5.807 km × 52 laps (301.964 km)
Qualifying: May 19 (Saturday) / Fine / Attendance: 20,000 (announcement from the organizer)
Race: May 20 (Sunday) / Slightly cloudy / Attendance: 33,000 (announcement from the organizer)

#16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (driver team of Hideki Mutoh, Daisuke Nakajima) participated in the GT500 class at Round 3 of the Super GT Series on May 19 and 20 at Suzuka (Mie Prefecture). Till previous year this race was recognized as the long-distant Summer Suzuka 1000km race, however, from this year was to be carried out as the Spring Suzuka 300km.

 

May 19 (Sat)

Official practice: 10th place in the GT500 class, Hideki Mutoh: 00:1:46.961 / Daisuke Nakajima: 00:1:48.103

Due to rain in previous day the course was fully wet, but rain itself stopped in the morning, and by the time when the official practice session started from 9:00 AM, the course was totally dried. Though clear sky appeared, due to low atmospheric pressure the storng15 mph wind blew. Because of that, it was 36℃ but feeling temperature was much colder.

It was Daisuke Nakajima who took a wheel of #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT first. He immediately recorded a time of 00:01:48s and was positioned in the top group. Through a red flag interruption, he took 15 laps and finished his session with a time of 00:01:48.103, and came back to the pit to give way to Hideki Mutoh.

Hideki Mutoh who took over Daisuke Nakajima took 13 laps between the second red flag and GT300 session. After GT300 he tried a time attack, and shortened the time to 00:01:46.961. In the end #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT was in 10th place at the official practice session.

 

Qualifying session: 13th place in the GT500 class (Q1: 4th place, 00:1:45.572 / Q2: 7th place, 00:1:46.405)

AThe qualifying sessions was held under a 2-stage knockout formula with all 15 racing vehicles driving in Q1 and then only the top 8 GT500 class vehicles advancing to Q2 where the starting grid was decided. The positions in the starting grid for the final race were decided in order of the Q2 times for the 8 vehicles that advanced to Q2, and in order of the Q1 times for the other vehicles. Q1 and Q2 must be raced by different drivers, and one set of tires could be used for Q1 and another set for Q2.

The 15-minute Q1 session started at 3:05 PM 10 minutes late. The weather got better and it was so sunny but the strong wind also blew. On the straight course such a wind pushed the car to get more speed and in the sector one helped the car to get more down-force. Hideki Mutoh who was in charge of Q1 stayed at the pit till 7 minutes had remained before the session ended. He entered the course as 2nd place to the last. He then recorded the fastest time, 00:01:45.572 at the time attack, and advanced to Q2 in 4th place.

Q2 session started at 3:48 PM 10 minutes late. It was Daisuke Nakajima who started out the first and took 2 laps to warm up the tires, and tried time attacks. Daisuke Nakajima made a mistake at the Degner curve and his time remained 00:01:47.640. He again tried another time attack at the next lap, however, the tires were not in their best condition, and in the end he finished his session with a time of 00:01:46.405. As the result the starting grid of #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT was determined 7th.

 

May 20 (Sun)

Race: DNS (23 laps 29 laps behind / best time: 00:1:50.871)

On May 20 the race day, it was fine from the morning. Wind became weak, but the temperature was still cold, 20℃. Due to disorder of the facility at Suzuka circuit, 20-minute warm-up session at the race started late at 1:45 PM. Hideki Mutoh controlling #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT finished the session with the second fastest lap, 00:01:50.945.

The parade run began at 3:20 PM. The air temperature was 21℃ and that of the road surface was 34℃ but showed declining trend. That meant the condition tended not to bother tires. It was Hideki Mutoh nominated as the first driver. TEAM MUGEN selected tires which were easily warmed up but at the same time worn out. Hideki Mutoh started the race from the 6th position. He was placed in tense situation between the cars he was chasing and being chased for some laps.

At 14th lap when the tires were worn out, a SC came into the track to cope with the accident. At 16th lap all the cars were lined up again, and after a formation lap at 19th lap, the race resumed. Though here most of the cars came back to pit for driver change, #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT continued to go and moved up to apparent 4th position. But at 24th lap #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT went off the track at Degner curve and dove into the sponge barrier. #16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT then was not able to move and had no choice but to retire the race.

As a result, the team of Mutoh/Nakajima driver team did not receive any points, placing them in 16th in the season point ranking. TEAM MUGEN did not get any points, either and was ranked 15th in the team ranking preparing for Round 4 in Thai.

Comments from team director Nagataka Tezuka

MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT was in good shape from the qualifying session and I had much more confidence in speed compared to one in the last year, however, we could move up to bit a better position. It was lucky to go half way of the race with the first set of the tires. We at the same time prepared various patterns of long-life tires installed after tire change. But MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT crashed and the race ended. We could collect informative data for next races, though. We would like to try various patterns of driving to win the race. I am afraid that the weather in next round, Thai will be scorching hot. We will well prepare the car and ourselves to get some points at the race.

 

Comments from driver Hideki Mutoh

I could not deal with this race week well. I could have gotten better position at the qualifying. Due to my mistake, I crashed MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT. I faced a difficulty of the tire balance after the SC, and went out of the track. Even if I had continued to compete in the race, I could not have gotten a better position since the car speed itself was not fast enough. But at least we could collect informative data for next races. At the first stage of qualifying, performance of MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT was not bad, however, not really during the long distance race. Hopefully the car will be able to cope with the long distance race.

 

Comments from driver Daisuke Nakajima

I could take over the car quite smoothly from Hideki Mutoh so then I tried hard at Q2, but made a mistake at the Degner curve. I abandoned that lap and tried another time attack, but performance of tires was already on the way down. I regretted at the result of the Q2 so much. I wanted to go well at the race, however, could not make it. I finished this race week with frustrated feelings. The car has been developed so much more and we can compete in the race with higher performance, but there is tendency in when the driving condition changes, the performance can go down. We can flight at the qualifying, shorter distance but not really at the race, longer one. We have to solve this issue and win the race.