PRE SEASON TESTING: SUPER GT 2010

SATO HEADS TO INDYCAR

Popular Japanese Formula One racer Takuma Sato is headed to the Indianapolis 500. Sato will contest the entire  2010 IZOD Indycar Series with the Indianapolis-based team KV Racing Technology, headed by champion driver Jimmy Vasser and Australian business man Kevin Kalkhoven. Sato's move to Indycar will be a huge boost for the struggling series in Japan where Sato remains the country's best known and most popular driver. “This is a very exciting time for me and all my supporters. I have really missed racing last year and can’t wait to get started in this new challenge with such a great team. To me, KV Racing is a team with massive potential and great team spirit." he said.

WILD COROLLA TAKES ON SUPER GT

The 2009 Super GT series in Japan will continue the tradition of having some of the wildest looking cars in all motorsport. Making its debut at the recent Tokyo Auto Salon was this wild Corolla Axio from top Japanese race preparation house APR. At the presentation held at the Toyota booth, Team manager/chief engineer Hiroto Kaneso explained the reason for picking the popular Japanese road car as their based vehicle. "My team has been using Corolla on the street, and, in spite of having a manual transmission, I often have taken the wheel also. I always thought that the car has everything in a pack: good balance, manoeuvrability, drivability, etc.. From there, I thought 'Would we be able to make a racing car out of it?'" He described the key points of the development as, "Utilise its characteristics and not to spoil them. Only a few people notice it, but the angle of Axio's windshield is ideal for a racing car. The size of the car also fits right in the numeric that I consider ideal. The windshield is about the only thing on the car that may have any resemblance to the original. The car is clothed in a full carbon fibre body with the front engine, front wheel drive configuration replaced by a mid mounted normally aspirated 3.5 litre V6 driving through the rear wheels. All up weight of the beast will be 1100kgs. The car has been designed for the GT300 class which believe it or not is the milder of the two categories. Cars in the GT 500 category include the Nissan GTR, Honda NSX and the Lexus SC430, the 2009 series kicks off at the Okayama International Circuit on March 21-22. The series will also visit Malaysia again with a race at Sepang on June 20 - 21, with airfare to Malaysia now cheaper than ever I'm thinking a visit for that weekend might be a pretty good plan. inpitlane.com will keep you up to date with all the news from Super GT and viewers in Melbourne can get the latest on In Pit Lane on C31 Tuesday nights 9.30 p.m.

BIG DAY FOR NISSAN AT AUTOPOLIS SUPER-GT

The Nissan GT-R of Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer, won Kyushu 300, Round 8 of the Autobacs SUPER GT series at the Autopolis in Japan.  Starting from pole position lead driver Benoit Treluyer, made a great start to open up a significant lead. Co-driver Motoyama took over for the second half of the race and from then on was never threatened. The win was the team's third of the season but their first since way back in round two. They now lead the series outright with one round remaining.