Michelin partner team HASEMI MOTOR SPORT entered the HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R with Ronnie Quintarelli and Hironobu Yasuda as drivers and finished in 8^th place at Autopolis for the penultimate round of the 2009 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series.

In the GT300 class, the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya driven by Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi took 4^th place, while the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT with the driver pair of Takuto Iguchi and Yuji Kunimoto finished the race 7^th.

Autopolis is well known for its large elevation difference of 52m between its highest and lowest points. Except for the 902m main straight, lateral load put on the car is always shifting, which easily generates heat in tires. Moreover, the track surface is bumpy. It may be said to be a circuit that is hard on tires.

The first qualifying session was run under slightly overcast skies with occasional sunlight breaking through. The air temperature was 17 degrees Celsius and track surface 19 degrees. The No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R driven by Ronnie Quintarelli ran a best lap of 1’43.049 to qualify in 9^th place and thus not qualify for the Super Lap, where the top eight cars run to determine the grid order.

In the GT300 class, two cars equipped with Michelin tires gave superb qualifying performances. Shinichi Takagi in the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya ran the fastest lap of the first qualifying session with a 1’52.312 to advance to the Super Lap, while Takuto Iguchi in the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT ran a lap of 1’52.972 to take 7^th place and qualify for the Super Lap as well.
In the Super Lap, the teams run their time trials in reverse order of their times from the first qualifying session. Iguchi was second to run and set a lap time of 1’51.204. None could break this lap time until last runner, Shinichi Takagi. He could not beat the time of Iguchi either over the first two sectors of the course, but the experienced driver made up for lost time in Sector 3 to set a best lap of 1’51.007 and take the pole position.

At the scheduled start time, the weather was fine, the air temperature 17 degrees Celsius and the track surface temperature was 26. The signal turned green at 14:03 to start the 65-lap race. Ronnie Quintarelli made a fairly good start from 9^th position on the grid.

In the first laps, Quintarelli kept 9^th place but the team decided to make an unscheduled pit stop to change tires when they saw that Quintarelli’s speed was not good enough. He returned to the pit at the end of lap 11. When the Italian driver rejoined the race, he was in 12^th place, which was last position, except for two cars that had dropped back due to an accident.

Quintarelli returned to the pit after 39 laps for the team’s routine stop. The crew refueled the car and put on four new tires, which were the same tires used by Ronnie in the second half of the first stint. In the second stint Yasuda lapped consistently quicker through the field to eventually finish in 8th place.

Nitta in the ARTA Garaiya, starting from the GT300 class pole position, took the lead and kept his position in the first laps. Meanwhile, Iguchi in the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT kept 2^nd place. But both of two cars lost speed slightly in the end of the first stint, especially the Garaiya, which was carrying a large weight handicap. The Garaiya dropped down to 3^rd position on lap 26 and then 4^th after being overtaken by Iguchi on the following lap. Nitta went back to the pit after 29 laps to give the wheel to Takagi.

On the other hand, the COROLLA Axio went back to its pit after 34 laps for its routine stop. Yuji Kunimoto took the wheel and rejoined the race. After that, Takagi kept 4^th place with Kunimoto following in 5^th place. But Kunimoto’s pace was good enough to overtake the Garaiya to take 4th place on lap 44. The 19 year-old, aiming for his first podium finish, tried to reduce the gap with the car in front. But would not be a good weekend for him. A backmarker Ferrari closed a line in front of him and the COROLLA collided the Ferrari, sending both cars off the track. Kunimoto rejoined the race but he lost a lot of time. In the end, Shinichi Takagi in the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya finished in 4th place while the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT finishingin 7th place.

Hiroaki Odashima
Motorsports Manager
NIHON MICHELIN TIRE CO., LTD

“The equipped tires of the No. 3 Nissan GT-R were marked according to regulation by the organizer on Saturday. Even though we estimated they were not suitable for the conditions on Sunday, we had not have other choice. As Ronnie’s lap times were not so good and we judged it would be no point to continue running that way. So we decided to change to our other choice of tires and call back him to the pit.
After the change, his lap times were not bad so we chose the same tires for Yasuda. His best lap time was third overall and the fastest among the Nissan camp. We confirmed that the tires had full durability for one stint. We have to improve the average speed, but we found new areas for further development. To our regret, there will not be an Autopolis round on next year’s series calendar, but we built a base for development and we confirmed that we will be able to find further points if we carry out tests properly.
In the GT300 class, the Garaiya became hard to push in the last stage of each stint due to its heavy weight handicap. On the other hand, the COROLLA ran well. Both of the young drivers did well in terms of tire management and ran at proper rhythm. That’s all the more reason why it was regrettable that the COROLLA was involved in the accident with a backmarker. Still, the COROLLA was running in fourth place at the time and still had a chance to make a podium finish. In the next and final round at Twin Ring Motegi none of the cars will carry any handicap weights. So we hope our two cars will run with all their potential. “