REAmemiya won the 2006 SuperGT GT300 class!!!!

[Glenn Butcher]

Thought this was worthy of putting in the Club News section.
 
What a sensational effort!!! and congratulations to all the team!
 
http://supergt.net/en/ - then click link \'Point Ranking\' --> GT300 Teams.

 

GT300
Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 captures title!
TOY STORY Racing MR-S wins race for first victory this season
In the GT300 class, No. 777 Ryozanpaku apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima), which took the pole in qualifying, was late getting his engine started and could not get to the starting dummy grid, making it a pit start for them, raising the curtain on a race full of turmoil. But with the way things would develop later, this was nothing more than a preface to an unbelievable drama.
 
In effect, this put No. 19 WedsSport Celica (Koji Matsuda) in the top starting position, but it was overtaken by No. 9 NOMAD ADVAN LeyJun MT (OSAMU) that had a faster top speed on the main straight. What\'s more, No. 26 CARCHS TOMO TAISAN GT3 (Shinichi Yamaji), starting from 10th position on the grid, drove at a remarkable pace to improve positions by moving up to 6th during the opening lap, then to 4th on lap 4, 3rd on lap 9, and 2nd on lap 10. No. 26 then went on to whittle away the gap with the leader and was in range by the time 25 laps had passed. However on lap 28, No. 9 running in the GT500 class made contact with it. No. 26 was just barely able to avoid more serious trouble, but in the interval he allowed No. 19 and the machine behind it, No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa), to pull in front. But then No. 19 and No. 62 went into the pit. With this, No. 26 was able to take back top position, and the damage to the suspension of the No. 9 machine forced it to retire.
 
This provided the opportunity for each of the machines to go into the pit. Front-running No. 26 made its pit stop at the end of lap 35, but the work took a little time and the wheel was handed over to Kazuyuki Nishizawa. When he returned to the course, it had fallen out of podium contention. On the other hand, No. 777 which had to make a pit start, had put up successive fastest laps and was moving up. It put off making its pit stop until lap 40 and finally took provisional possession of the top spot. In a daring ploy to save time, the tires were not changed and pit work time was shortened to 18 seconds. When it returned to the course it was still holding on to the top spot. But as may be imagined, traction was down and Minoru Tanaka spun. He wasn\'t able to move up the pace from then and his position fell. With this, No. 62 Shinsuke Shibahara was in the top spot, No. 101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi), who had finished their pit work on lap 25, were in 2nd, and rounding out the top three was No. 19 Shigekazu Wakisaka. These positions would not change until the last lap where a big surprise was waiting at the last corner.
 
In what would have been a victory in just a few more seconds, No. 62 ran out of gas and stalled. The machine stopped on the inside of the last corner. This resulted in an upset win for No. 101 and put No. 19 in 2nd. Third place was taken by No. 13 ENDLESS ADVAN CCI Z (Masami Kageyama/Tomonobu Fujii) who had started from 5th place on the grid.
No. 62\'s stall also had a big impact on the race for series title. Tetsuya Yamano had spun on lap 7 and for a time the No. 7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 (Tetsuya Yamano/Hiroyuki Iiri) had fallen to 22nd place, but managed to recover by changing only two tires instead of all four and had worked its way up to 7th by the last lap. With the leader out that improved to 6th. On the other hand, No. 2 Privée Zurich Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi) had only changed the front tires in a ploy for time that would come back to haunt them. They failed to maintain their position and fell out of point range.
 
With this, both machines were tied at 86 points. Since No. 7 had finished in the top spots more often, they captured a long-awaited series title. No. 7 also took the team title for its first double crown. It was the third year-on-year title for Tetsuya Yamano. It was his spin that caused them to fall in position, and for a time it seemed that chances for the title had indeed become slim, but the dramatic upset at the end brought tears to his eyes that he could not hold back. This was the first crown for Hiroyuki Iiri. Although they were helped by the retirement of the leader and the penalties on their rivals, the fact that they moved up in position by their own power led to them getting the title in the end.
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Initial-D]

Yeah way to go Ama-san, they have done so well for such a small tuner competing with massive corporations!

[Ada7]

Congratulations to them :Party
Great result

Adam

[Carl]

Rotaries still have what it takes!!
It is good to see,lets hope that Mazda take note and consider another Lemans attempt with a prototype soon.
Regards
Carl

[Ada7]

Aren\'t they banned from using Rotary engines in the Lemans race?

Adam

[Carl]

Aren\'t they banned from using Rotary engines in the Lemans race?

Adam

Not banned,it was just that the rules changed a fair bit in 92 so that it kind of made the car non competitve.
Rotaries have raced their since,but as privateers.
No out and out factory efforts have been back.
Regards
Carl

[Initial-D]

We all know that rotary power is the way to go, I guess there not out to prove themselves after the 92 win.

[Carl]

91 win you mean!
Regards
Carl

[Initial-D]

Oops! Yes 91!!
(I\'d only just got out of bed)!

[Andrew Harper]

Yes that race will remain on the Sky+ box for a little while yet, lol!

Well done to them.

Thanx to Motors TV as well, It\'s a shame they cut the celebrations off but at least we got to see the event.

I wonder if when Fuji has the Japanese Grand Prix they will run the SuperGT championship on the same weekend? That would be worth making the trip.