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Yamano's Team Won 3rd Place with Porsche
TEIN supported machines now count up to 10!
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 The second round of Super Endurance Series 2007 (commonly known as "S-Tai" in Japan) was held from May 12 to 13th in Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. There are usually 5 classes in S-Tai according to the displacement and drive system of the machines; however, since only 1 machine entered in STS class (~2200cc, two-seater), the class got canceled and the machine joined ST3 class. 37 machines in total competed: 6 machines in ST1 class (~3501cc), 10 in ST2 (2001~3500cc, AWD), 14 in ST3 (2001~3500cc, 2WD) and 7 in ST4 (~2000cc).
There were 10 TEIN supported machines in this race: Yamano (#1, Porsche) in ST1, Iiri (#7, RX-7), Yoshitomi (#14, RX-7), Nagashima (#15, Fairlady Z), Shimoyama (#39, Fairlady Z), Shiobuchi (#41, Fairlady Z), Kobayashi (#74, Fairlady Z), Ohi (#113, Fairlady Z) and Maejima (#333, Fairlady Z) in ST3, and finally Minami (#77, Integra) |
In the preliminaries held on the 12th, which turned out to be a sunny Saturday, Yamano's team made 3rd place in ST1, and Iiri became the winner for class pole position twice in a row in ST3. Other TEIN supported drivers followed them: Kobayashi (#74) in 2nd place, Ohi (#113) in 3rd, Yoshitomi (#14) in 4th, Shiobuchi (#41) in 7th, Maejima (#333) in 8th, Shimoyama (#39) in 9th and Nagashima (#15) in 11th place. Also, Minami (#77) placed in 7th in ST4.
Sunday the 22nd was a perfectly shiny day for a final round with early summer breeze. Yamano failed to keep his position but constantly drove in 4th place through 29 laps and switched with Ho. As Ho marked the Porsche right in front of him and made attempts to move up, the machine in 1st place suffered from a mechanical trouble. Finally, he finished in 3rd place twice in a row since the opening round.
In ST3 class, 5 of TEIN drivers (#7 RX-7, #14 RX-7, #74 Z, #113 Z, #333 Z) were competing against each other; however, #7 RX-7 had a machine trouble, and #14 RX-7 failed to keep up. #113 was the one to take the lead among the crowd and resulted in 2nd place again this year. #74 Z also won their first winner's podium. |
