By winning the first race of the season at Motegi, #38 muta Racing TWS IS350 had to put 20kg of weight on the car as a handicap.
In the qualifying session, #38 couldn't get a clear lap, and became 5th.
#38 started the race session from 5th place, but with Sakaguchi's excellent overtaking skills and race pace, we became 1st in just 5 laps. At the end of his stint, he was more than 24 seconds ahead of the car behind.
Hotta also done a great job by keeping the gap between the car behind, and in the final stint, just as we thought we were going to win the race, the safety car was deplyoed.
Since we were in a bad position on the track when it was deployed, unluckily, we were lapped by the race leader (STX Class car) when coming out of the pit stop during the safety car period. Thus, we had to end the race in 5th place.
By doing a lot of things to the car in the off season such as drastically changing the suspension setup, weight reduction, and installation of the ADVICS brake system, #39 ADVICS TRACY RC350 became almost as fast as the #38 muta Racing TWS IS350.
In the qualifying session, both Tezuka and Maejima marked a lap time faster than 1'30, and became 3rd. It was the first time for the #39 to start the race in front of #38.
In the first stint, Tezuka was continuously battling with #62 DENSO Le Beausset RC350, who was in 2nd at the time. After that, with Suzuki's fantastic race pace, we were able to become 2nd.
But in the final stint, one of the sensor failed, and by that, the car became uncontrollable at the first corner, and Maejima spun out. But with his phenomenal driving skills, he maintained a decent pace with an unfixed car, and we were able to finish the race in 4th position.
#40 55-Garage TRACY 86 SSR ings suffered from a major mechanical failure in the last race at Motegi.
After that race, we rebuilt the car with extra care and precision to prepare for the race at SUGO. Because we couldn't gather enough data to figure out the right setup for the new spec tires from the last race, we had to do it during the practice sessions very quickly.
During the pit stop in the race session, we only changed the left tires to minimize the pit stop time. With that strategy and the excellent race pace of the drivers, we were able to go up in 4th place in the final race results.
It's certain that the #40 team became stronger by overcoming the issus we experienced in the last race.
We will do our best to become strong enough to win the podium in the next race.
スーパー耐久開幕戦、TRACY SPORTSから3クラスに参戦した#38 muta Racing TWS IS350がポールトゥーウィン、#39 ADVICS TRACY RC350が予選2位、決勝2位、見事レクサス2台が1-2フィニッシュとなり、素晴らしいシーズンのスタートを切る事が出来ました!
#38 muta Racing TWS IS350は今年から新しいシャシーの導入、さらに昨年チャンピオンという重圧がチームに掛かった状態での開幕戦となりましたが、堀田選手、阪口選手コンビの終始安定感抜群の速さで見事優勝する事が出来ました!
#39 ADVICS TRACY RC350はシーズン開始前からADVICS製の新しいABSの開発とテストをADVICSと共同で行っており、遂に今シーズンからレースに導入となりましたが、その恩恵をフルに活かす事が出来、見事2位を獲得する事が出来ました!
#40 ゴーゴーガレージ TRACY 86 SSR ingsはフリー走行時に重大なマシントラブルが発生してしまい、急ピッチで復旧作業を行い、何とか最後の予選セッションと決勝に間に合いましたが、決勝途中で再びマシントラブルが発生し、残念ながらリタイアとなりました。次戦までに問題を克服し、菅生での第2戦は良い結果を残したいと思います。
ご協力、応援して下さった皆様、ありがとうございました!
菅生での第2戦も応援よろしくお願いします!
The LEXUS cars from TRACY SPORTS has dominated the first race of the season of Super Taikyu Series 2017 class-3, at Motegi Twin Ring!
#38 muta Racing TWS IS350 has won the race from pole position, and #39 ADVICS TRACY RC350 has finished 2nd place from 2nd on the starting grid.
There was a lot of pressure on the #38 muta Racing TWS IS350 team, since it was the first race with a brand new chassis, and from the fact that it won the championship last year, but thanks to the drivers, Hotta and Sakaguchi's stable and excellent race pace, we managaed to win the race from pole position without any trouble.
We were doing a lot of testing and development of a new ADVICS ABS for the #39 ADVICS TRACY RC350 with the ADVICS team before the beginning of the season, and finally, it was ready for use for the race.
The drivers were able to fully make use of the benefit of the new ADVICS ABS, and managed to finish 2nd place for both qualifying and race session.
#40 55-Garage TRACY 86 SSR ings suffered from a major mechanical failure during the whole race weekend.
The car failed on the first few laps during the practice session. The mechanics worked all night to fix the car, and it was ready for the last qualifying and race session, but during the race, another different mechanical problem has occurred, and we had no choice but to retire from the race.
We will analyze and solve the issue by the next race at Sugo Circuit, and do our best to achieve a good result!