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Yamano’s Team Won 3rd Place with Porsche,
becoming a Three-Time-Winner of the Podium!
Tetsuya Tanaka’s team with Fairlady Z is now supported by TEIN.
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The third round of Super Endurance Series 2007 (commonly known as “S-Tai” in Japan) was held from July 15 to 16 in Tokachi Internationl Speedway in Hokkaido.
TEIN supported 3 machines in ST1 (#1 Yamano (Porsche), #17 Matsunaga (Porsche), #23 Tanaka (Fairlady Z)) and 6 in ST3 (#7 Iiri (RX-7), #15 Nagashima (Fairlady Z), #41 Shiobuchi (Fairlady Z), #74 Kobayashi (Fairlady Z), #113 Ohi (Fairlady Z), #333 Maejima (Fairlady Z)). |
The starting grids become fixed according to the ranking of the previous two rounds. #1 Yamano started in 3rd, #23 Tanaka in 4th, #17 Matsunaga in 6th position in ST1 class. In ST3, #113 Ohi started out 1st, #74 Kobayashi in 2nd, #15 Nagashima in 3rd, #7 Iiri in 5th, #41 Shiobuchi in 6th, and #777 Maejima in 7th position to fight for the championship.
This extremely tough 24-hour race started on the 15th at 3pm. The temperature was lower than usual even for Hokkaido, and rain started to wet the road surface until next morning.
In ST1 class, #23 Tanaka led the race but backed off due to engine trouble. #1 Yamano then became 1st in the race and kept his position for 17 hours. Then, the brake rotor broke so suddenly and dropped his position to 3rd place. The best he could do is to keep his position in 3rd; however, Yamano won the winner’s podium 3 times in a row, still placing 2nd in ranking.
#23 Tanaka suffered from many other troubles. The main drive shaft got damaged 30 minutes before the checker flag, and they had to retire from the race.
In ST3 class, #74, #113, #41 (Fairlady Z) and a BMW fought for the championship. #74 Kobayashi was the fist to drop out of this group. #41 Shiobuchi also crashed, so #113 Ohi and BMW were the ones to fight for the championship. Ohi suffered from engine trouble and finished 2nd, but his ranking remained 1st place! Although #15 Nagashima retired, other drivers performed well, too. #7 Iiri finished in 3rd place, #74 Kobayashi in 4th, #333 Maejima in 5th, and #41 Shiobuchi in 6th. |
