kirameki san experiences sustained loss of traction

I had all kinds of nifty plans for the Fuji 300 today. Given my camera limitations, I was going to cruise the site & record all kinds of “lifestyle” images to keep & share. Making me a missionary of sorts. The weather forecast all week was sunny with cloud with 15 degrees for most of the day. Yeah well, thanks NHK and Fuji TV (you wouldve thought… never mind). 11 degrees at 10.30am, then it started raining and got colder. So I wussed out & stayed in my seat and bleated about my awol feet. The pit complex on one side of the straight and the grandstand on the other creates a concrete canyon of sorts, meaning the sounds are all there. WHAT? SORRY – YOU’LL NEED TO SPEAK UP! YES THANKS, I DO LIKE COFFEE AND MOTORCYCLES!

The good news is that Nismo have finally won another championship. All right!

Here is a photo of the car. In the pits. I thought that it would be better to include the big TV because it was quite dark. And cold.

Congratulations Satoshi and Benoit! And Nismo. Its been a long time waiting. And speaking of last year, even though nobody was, last years co-champ Daisuke Ito finished third in the race in the Eneos SC430 with Bjorn Wirdheim, after not racing for most of the season due to his nasty TV star accident.

The race was won by the Calsonic GT-R of Tsugio Matuda and Sebastien Phillippe. In the cold. The car has a livery similar to this bike:

The day had started not too cold, until we climbed into the hills. We trained to Shimatsuda, then took the Fuji Speedway Express (!). Nothing wrong with old buses. Dont be so judgemental.

Here’s some atmosphere. Looks a bit cold…

I think we may have jinxed the Woodone GT-R by sitiing almost opposite their pits as they were out after 20 laps…  Nobuteru Taniguchi & Dominik Farnbacher fared a bit better in GT300, winning the class. The Yunker Power Porsche had a great Battle Of The Drifters with Orido San’s Wedsport IS350 for many laps. Not sure how many. My brain had begun to freeze.

Clear, well focussed shots of Super GT Nissans are over rated I reckon.

Calsonic got new power unit. And they dont care who knows. Thats how they won the race. When you got new power unit you might win too. Word.

The Desperate and Dateless Camera Squad were throwin’ it down when the Race Queens came out.

All through the pitwalk, there was some kind of TV Shopping Network deal going on with the big screen broadcast. Didnt sell me on the cheesecake however. Looked a bit cold.

I aint watchin’ no damn Marches.

Something exciting happened in the opposite direction to the one I was facing. Maybe a March hit an iceberg.

I reckon Ralph Firman’s Cowboy Stance won the Pose Off. I was hoping he would bust out Blue Steel, but nah.

I was wearing two shirts, a jacket, hat, gloves (yes, gloves) & still whining about the cold. Shouldve shut up after this, but didnt.

Cars are on the grid. Must be time for some rain.

Getting a bit close to Daytona Prototype here… Didnt win the GT300 championship thankfully. Kazuki Hoshino and Hironobu Yasuda did that with the Mola Leopalace Z. Nice one chaps!

The Nissan supporters were going at it S-Pulse style. Juichi Wakisaka’s fans gave it a bit of a go, but he drives the wrong car, so, yeah.

Smiley geezer – Bibendum San.

Dammit. It’s not a GT. It’s a Prototype!

This was nuts. When the Japanese Anthem played, it was as if Jimi Hendrix had returned as a 12 year old Japanese girl. Unfortunately it took some time to defrost my wits, so here she is leaving the podium with her smokin’ gitbox.

The race start. I know. Im sorry.

Qualified first. Shrieked like a banshee. Dropped like a stone to 10th.

Perhaps as a concession to the ambitious name applied to the bus service (That said – “Express” generally means that the journey will be uniterrupted, which was true. The bus was just quite slow. Almost as much as the Studie Glad Z4. I know. That’s mean. It did look and sound great. WHAT?!) the bus fellow gave us a cool ChoroQ of the bus itself when we boarded. Yeah. I love Japan too.

The race photos are pretty dire, but if youve nowt better to do, are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pigsofdarkness/3014745777/in/set-72157608785785129/

To finish off, as the Super GT site doesnt usually have the English stuff up too quickly, for shits & giggles I ran the Jp version through Google Translater(tron):

Just before the final race, the rain suddenly降RI出SHI, many car tires selected for the rain. However, qualifying 12th IMPUL GT-R Calsonic, director Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s decision to remain at the start of Sunny tires. The start up soon after the rain, the track began to dry, the top team in the pit and be forced to replace the tire. Calsonic IMPUL GT-R in the top surface.寄SE付KEZU subsequent to the first six races after his second victory of the season.
The victory, GT-R victory in seven years. Most models of the single-season wins, the same record.
Drivers, the race finished in ninth place in the main temple XANAVI NISMO GT-R / TORERUIE win pairs. The team title, was seventh place finish in the No.36 PETRONAS TOYOTA TEAM TOM’S have said.

GT300 class, sixth in qualifying YUNKERUPAWATAISANPORUSHE No.26 out of the early lead in the melee, just ahead of the pack was the first win of the season.
Drivers in this class champion, was seventh Kazuki Hoshino / win pairs Hironobu Yasuda. The same pair of championship teams MOLA Hoshino said.

Bewdy.