The qualifying for the Motegi GT 300 km Race, Round 7 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Twin Ring Motegi (lap = 4.801 km) in Tochigi Pref. on Sept. 8. In this day’s qualifying, the TAKATA DOME NSX (drivers: Ryo Michigami / Takashi Kogure) won the GT500 class pole position and will start from the front row in the final race on the 9th.
Up until this point in the season, the qualifying has been conducted in a Super Lap format with each of the top 10 qualifying machines making a single timed-lap run one machine at a time. For this 7th round at Motegi, however, a new “knock down” style format was tried. This involves three timed-lap session, with the slowest cars from each of the first two sessions being eliminated (knocked down) from the next session. In the third session the remaining top machines compete for grid position. This is the only race of this season to use the knock-down qualifying format.
The TAKATA DOME NSX machine, which has already won four pole positions this season, was driven this day by Takashi Kogure. In the third session where the grid positions were decided, Kogure ran a 1 min. 45.720 sec. lap to claim the top qualifying position. This is the fifth PP for the TAKATA DOME NSX team this season and the fourth for Kogure personally this season.
In the GT300 class, the ARTA Garaiya driven by Shinichi Takagi was top qualifier in class for the first time this season.
No. 18 TAKATA NOME NSX [GT500]
Takashi Kogure: “Since this was the first “knock-down” type qualifying, I was uncertain about how to run it. But I consulted with [teammate] Michigami san, our manager and the engineers and in the end everything went well. Because we could only use one set of tires, the grip got worst as the sessions went on, and in the second session I fell behind some of the other teams. But in the third session I pushed it 100% and was able to win the pole position. With this, I have now won four pole positions this season, but we have not had good results in the actual races. So, tomorrow I want to run the kind of strong and sure race that will change the flow of things that has hampered us until now. “
No. 43 ARTA Garaiya [GT300]
Shinichi Takagi: “In the first two sessions I struggled to finish near the top while causing as little wear as possible on the tires. In the final session, however, I no longer had to worry about being easy on the tires, so I pushed hard from the beginning, and the machine balance was good. We have had a lot of bad luck this year, so I want to go out tomorrow with the intention of going easy to get a podium finish. ”
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