Saturday, September 21, 2013

Super Taikyu: Team Nova Audi Top 5 and front row at Suzuka Day 1


Johan Laubscher

The Japanese Super Taikyu Endurance Championship headed to Suzuka for round six. Nova Engineering took part with their 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra and performed very well on Saturday,  day one of the event.

Round six of the Super Taikyu had a three race format. The weekend was split into three races, each with a duration of forty minutes, instead of the normal single endurance race setup. Qualifying along with the first race was held on Saturday, followed by the second and third races on Sunday.

Nova Engineering (Team Nova) have now become a regular team in the Super Taikyu with their R8 LMS ultra. Their #8 car was driven by the duo of Seiji Ara and Shohei Yuzawa this weekend. 

Qualifying was split between the drivers of each car, up to three drivers per car. Seiji Ara was able to post the second fastest time during the A driver segment of qualifying. His teammate, Shohei Yuzawa, posted the fourth fastest time during the B driver segment. 

The grid for race one was comprised of the times from segment B, thus the #8 Audi R8 LMS ultra lined up fourth for race one. The second race starting grid was based on segment A and the Audi would line up second on the grid. The third and final race starting grid was a combined aggregate from segments A and B, the Audi pairing netted fifth place.

The first race was held on Saturday and the Team Nova R8 LMS ultra, with Shohei Yuzawa behind the controls, crossed the line in fifth place. Race one was won by the #1 Petronas Syntium Mercedes-Benz SLS ahead of two Nissan GTR GT3s and the sister #28 SLS in fourth.

The Super Taikyu results can be seen HERE.

Races two and three are set for tomorrow at Suzuka. We wish the best of luck to the Nova Engineering squad to continue their good form. 

Photo credit: Super Taikyu