Winter testing doesn’t quite hold tight to its exact words in regards to Super GT, or motorsports in general. When motorsports teams mention ‘winter testing,’ they really mean packing up and shifting to the tropics for warmer conditions so that they can carry on with testing and development.
Recently, the Super GT manufacturers had a ‘winter testing’ session at the Sepang International Circuit that mainly focused on tyre testing and general setup of the machines in lieu of the opening race on April 2 and 3 at Okayama, Japan. Furthermore, the settings will provide an excellent base to setup upon once the Super GT circus pitches its tent here for the third round on June 18 and 19.
You heard it right, after all the speculation that Super GT would be giving Malaysia a skip this year, we have confirmation that Super GT will be landing on our shores for a race.
Testing saw a number of Nissan R35 GT-Rs and Toyota SC430s hitting the asphalt to put the new tyres through their paces, returning every few laps to dial the settings in more accurately.
“The hot weather here in Malaysia is perfect for development and getting the settings right on the cars,” said Yoshimizu Fukuda, representing Toyota for the brief interview sessions.
He also confirmed that we won’t be seeing the Lexus LFA on the Super GT starting grid at least until 2012, when the current approval for the SC430’s platform comes to an end.
Once again, the GT-Rs were looking very impressive on the track and Nissan were quietly confident in continuing their dominance at Sepang, “We have been testing over the last week with both tyre manufacturers and the results are very promising indeed. We have been winning here at Sepang for the past four years and hopefully it will be five in a row this year,” said Yutaka Suzuki, Manager of the Nismo Team.
The full force of the promotional activities for Super GT will kick off soon once the Super GT side and the local organisers have officially put pen to paper. Until then, things are slowly moving ahead with the proper aspects being put into place in preparations for the race.
