PODIUM FINISHES FOR THREEBOND NISSAN AUTOMOBILE TECHNICAL COLLEGE GT-R

October 19 – 21, Suzuka Circuit (Mie prefecture)

The fifth round of the Super Taikyu (endurance) Series was held at Suzuka Circuit. Participating in the GT3 class, the #24 Threebond Nissan Technical College GT-R (Tomonobu Fujii/GAMISAN) finished second in the 1st race and third in the 2nd race.

#24 Threebond Nissan Technical College GT-R

Held in conjunction with the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), this round consisted of two 1-hour semi-endurance races. Refueling was prohibited during each race, and only one pit stop was allowed. A total of 8 Nissan cars participated in each race; 1 in the GT3 class, 1 in the ST1 class and 6 in the ST3 class.

Starting from 13th position overall in the first of the two contests, the #35 Asset Techno Z33 (Kazuhiro Koizumi/Hiroki Yoshida/Makoto Horita) suffered from an oil leak and 25 minutes after the start had to stop at the side of the track. Other cars then ran over the oil deposited by the stricken machine, spinning off and ending up with a crash that brought out the red flags. Although the race was stopped, the leading cars had completed nine laps and the #24 GT-R was classified 2nd in the GT3 class, the #3 ENDLESS ADVAN 380RS-C (Kyosuke Mineo/Yukinori Taniguchi/Shinichi Takagi) was awarded 2nd in the ST1 class, and #34 Asset Techno Z34 (Masahiro Sazaki/Shuji Maejiima) finished at the top of the ST3 class.

In the 2nd race, the #24 GT-R started from 3rd overall on the grid. GAMISAN, who had been the starting driver for the first time in the 1st race, also started in race two. He kept his 3rd place behind the two leading Mercedes SLS for 19 laps before handing the baton over to teammate Fujii. Based on the rules governing Platinum drivers, a stint in excess of 23 minutes will not be recognized, so Fujii had to push hard for the remaining 8 laps. Showing his form in improving on his best time, he managed to finish in 3rd place.

In the ST1 class, the #3 380RS-C started at the top of its class, only temporarily giving up the lead to the rival BMW, though this situation was reversed at the pit-stop midway through the race. The car went on to take its second class victory of the season. In the ST3 class, the #5 Okabe Jidosha Makers Z34 (Daisuke Imamura/Mitsunori Atake/Tsuyoshi Shirai) took the checkered flag in fourth place, top among the NISSAN-equipped teams.

Student mechanics from the Nissan Technical College programme, together with the racing team mechanics, are running the #24 GT-R in the 2012 Super Taiku Season. Alongside pupils from Nissan Technical College Yokohama, who are in attendance at every race throughout the season, students from their sister school, Nissan Technical College Aichi, joined the team for the Suzuka weekend. On the day of the races, several hundred supporters gathered at Suzuka Circuit, including guests from Nissan dealers and others, in addition to all the students from the Aichi school.
While there was some confusion on the opening day among the Aichi students, all learners were soon able to cooperate across school lines, with the members of the Yokohama school, having gained several rounds of experience already, providing backup.

Tomonobu Fujii (1st race: 2nd in GT3, 2nd race: 3rd in GT3)
"For this round we had GAMISAN as our starting driver, and with the track being relatively empty he drove at a good pace. According to the Regulations I could only drive eight laps, but I was able to drive at a pace similar to the Mercedes team, and it seemed to me that the machine's performance had improved. Also, even though it may have appeared as if the students were nervous on the first day, that gradually went away, and they started dealing with a lot more of the car and doing more work – and also learned to handle high-priority work. I realized that while the level of our team has improved, the level of the students has also rapidly increased."

• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 GT3Class Race 1>
• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 ST1Class Race 1>
• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 ST3Class Race 1>
• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 GT3Class Race 2>
• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 ST1Class Race 2>
• <Super Taikyu Series Round 5 ST3Class Race 2>

<Related Link>
NISSAN MOTORSPORTS Web Site

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