PRE SEASON TESTING: SUPER GT 2010

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES CONFIRMED

Great news for fans of sports prototype & GT racing with the news that the innaugural Asian Le Mans Series scheduled for later this year will go ahead.   Speaking at the Spa 100KMs race the ACO announced an official entry list of 31 cars for the events which will take place at Okayama Japan and the Shanghai International circuit in China.   Among the 8 LMP1s, a 6-sided battle looks on the cards between the Sora-Racing Pescarolo Sport Peugeot HDi FAP 908, the 2 Courage Oreca AIMs entered by the Team ORECA Matmut AIM, the 2 Sora Racing Pescarolo Judds, the Speedy Racing Team Sebah’s Lola Aston Martin without forgetting the Signature Plus Courage Judd and the Tokai University Courage Oreca YGH Power, which will seize any opportunity that comes their way.   The attraction for many of the smaller teams is the prize of automatic selection for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours for the winners of the LM P1, LM P2, LM GT1 and LM GT2 categories.

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.

HONDA KILLS NSX PROJECT

Only a week after pulling out of Formula One, Honda has now announced that it's cancelled its plan to build the new NSX Supercar. The successor to the famous mid-engined V6 machine that still successfully competes in Japan's high tech Super GT series, the new era NSX was to have been a front engined all wheel drive V10. Prototypes of the car were seen testing at the famous Nurburgring circuit. The move comes after Honda president Takeo Fukui told Japanese media that the company had slashed its 2009 profit forecast by 62%. Mr Fukui said that in this rapidly changing environment, the company needed to review investment and development plans and make choices to keep the impact on profit as small as possible. “We need to concentrate limited resources on the right places,“ he said. The original NSX ceased production in 2005.

HYUNDAI UNVEILS MILLEN BUILT “GT” GENESIS

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.

HOLDEN SHOCK AT SYDNEY SHOW

Holden once again stole the show at the Australian International Motorshow at Sydney's Darling Harbour, but this time it was not a stunning locally built concept car but the Down Under debut of the Chevy Volt. The Volt has been seen plenty of times before, most recently from Paris, but the big news was that the car will be sold here in Australia as soon as 2012.

BIG WEEKEND AT SUZUKA FOR NISSAN

Tsugio Matsuda and Sebastien Philippe in a Nissan GT-R have taken round 6 of the 2008 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, at Suzuka. In contrast to the intense summer heat of year's past, this year's 1000 km was under cloudy skies with rather cool temperatures. But that didn't prevent a series of upsets from the start with several machines being plagued with trouble.

IDE LOSES POLE WITH ENGINE CHANGE

Despite setting the fastest time in the qualifying, the Honda NSX driven by Yuji Ide won't be on pole for round six of the 2008 Autobacs SUPER GT, the 37th International Pokka 1000Km at Suzuka. Pole position for the race has instead been awarded to the second fastest qualifier, the Nissan GT-R of Krumm/Yanagidaand D.Schwager.