Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - Weider HSV-010 takes second straight pole position from season opener!

The un-NSX continues to perform well during SuperGT qualifying. Now if they can only manage to stay out of the walls maybe they can win a race or two.

Press release follows.

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2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 2,
�OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE� Qualifying
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Weider HSV-010 takes second straight pole position from season opener!

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The qualifying for the OKAYAMA GT300km RACE, Round 2 of the 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT held at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3.703 km) in Okayama Pref. on April 3. Under fair skies, the Weider HSV-010 driven by Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval won the pole position in the GT500 class, giving them the right to start from the front row in the race on the 4th.

The Weider HSV-010 team also won the pole position at last month's season opener at Suzuka, making this their second consecutive pole. The HSV - 010 GT is Honda's new machine making its SUPER GT debut this season and it has certainly proven its speed without a doubt with these results.
In the last round, the Weider HSV-010 suffered a bad crash that damaged the machine, in the two weeks since then, the team has clearly brought it back to top condition. In tomorrow's race they will be looking to grab that first win that escaped them in the last round.

Most SUPER GT qualifying rounds use the �Super Lap" format of time trials run one machine at a time. As with the season opener, however, this round adopts a �knock out" format run in three sessions of timed laps. The cars with the slowest lap times in the first two sessions are �knocked out" of the competition and only the cars remaining for the last session run the individual time trails to determine the top grid positions for the race.
In the first qualifying session, Takashi Kogure drove the Weider HSV-010 to the fastest time, thus qualifying for the second session easily. In the second session Duval also advanced the team to the next session. In that third session, Kogure once again drove the fastest lap at 1 min. 23.815 sec. to win the pole position.

In the GT300 class, the top team to emerge from the Knock-out qualifying and take the class pole was the JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 driven by Koji Yamanishi and Yuhi Sekiguchi.

========== Pole position winner comments ==========

No. 18 Weider HSV-010 [GT500]
Takashi Kogure: �I am sincerely happy to have won this pole position. But, since we had the nightmare (crash) in the last round (the season opener at Suzuka), I know I won't be able to relax until tomorrow's race is over. In the final session it was hard to get the tires warmed up, so I had to run two consecutive time attacks. Unlike in the last round, I will not be the starting driver tomorrow, which I hope will be a relief for everyone (laughs). The tires that we have chosen for the start are delivering good performance, and I am sure that Loic will run strongly to the finish in the second half of the race. So, I'm not worried. If the two of us can do our jobs well, we should be able to win."
Loic Duval: �I am quite satisfied with the car's performance. Last race we had that crash, but besides that, the team and Honda and we drivers have all been doing a good job. As soon as I started driving today, I knew that things were going well. This is an excellent team, and I think that is the reason we have won this pole position. I want to have a good race tomorrow. Last round we also had the pole position but we had bad luck. This time I hope luck will be on our side."

No. 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 [GT300]
Koji Yamanishi: �From this season, all three of our teams are using the Gallardo, and quite frankly, I am pleased that we have been able to win the pole position in this second round of the season. Sekine ran very well for us in the second session of the Knock-out, and that gave me the confidence to run well too. In my final timed lap I made some slight mistakes that I didn't really feel good about. The tires that we will be using for the start of the race tomorrow are of a rather soft compound, so I am a bit worried about what the temperature will be. But, I will do my best to run away in the lead."
Yuhi Sekiguchi: �I wasn't very satisfied with my run in the second session of the Knock-out but the time proved to be fast. That made me real certain that Yamanishi-san could win the pole position for us. In tomorrow's race we will be shooting for the win, of course. Because we were able to win the pole position even though neither of us were 100% satisfied with our performances. I hope to see us running out in the lead from the start tomorrow and go all the way to the win."

[Qualifying Result]
http://ww2.supergt.net/gtcgi/prg/Nh1.dll/?No=NS014904

[Qualifying Day Report]
http://ww2.supergt.net/gtcgi/prg/Nh1.dll/?No=NS014896

[Saturday Practice]
http://ww2.supergt.net/gtcgi/prg/Nh1.dll/?No=NS014891