Round 2 of the 2014 Gran Turismo D1 Grand Prix series was held at Suzuka Circuit. The Suzuka course layout is the fastest of the series, with a very long straight-away going into the famous Turn 1. The key to this round is speed and a having a good line to take advantage of the speed. Teams that can achieve this, will gain high scores. The obvious weight handy-cap we faced in round one, was far less important on this high speed track, since we could use the raw horsepower of the GReddy-powered VR engine.
In Saturday's first pre-qualifying session, Kawabata was able to take advantage of the 35RX's power with an exciting, high speed run scoring 101.40pts (the highest score ever recorded in D1GP,) placing him in 1st. Kawabata was faster then all the top teams and was clocked at speeds in excess of 227km/h (140+mph.) The team was feeling confident and aimed to better the speed and score in the Qualifying finals (Tanso,) unfortunately it was just over the limit and a slight mistake, placed the Team in the 22nd position for the tandem battles.
In Sunday's Tsuiso round, Kawabata faced Tokita of Goodyear Racing. Kawabata manged to keep an impressive proximity to Tokita and received a decisive victory to move on to the next round. Unfortunately car troubles, which could not be repaired in time, forced the team to retire and miss the next battle.
Round 3 - Autopolis is scheduled for July 26-27th
22 in the final run 1st ■ The single qualifying run ■ single [ dry : sunny road surface ( Sat ) Weather May 24 ]
[ May 25 (Sun) Weather: Fine Surface: dry ] ■ ■ Tsuisou qualifying victory Tsuisou final ( last 16 ) retired
