2008 SUPER GT : TAKATA DOME NSX grabs second pole position this season

2008 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 5
SUGO GT300KM RACE Qualifying

#18 TAKATA DOME NSX

On July 26, the qualifying for the “SUGO GT 300KM RACE," Round 5 of the 2008 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at Sports land SUGO (one lap: 3.704 km) in Miyagi Prefecture. In the GT500 class, the TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Takashi Kogure won pole position as No.1 qualifier and will start from the front position in he race on the 27th.


In the morning's first qualifying session the track condition was complicated by wet patches remaining from last night's rain that caused a few machines to spin out. When the session had ended Takashi Kogure in the TAKATA DOME NSX had come through with the fastest lap time of 1 min. 16.935 sec. to put him tentative lead for the pole position and make him first among the ten qualifiers for the afternoon Super Lap (time trial run one machine at a time to decide the starting grid order).
After that, the rain that everyone had feared never fell and the track became completely dry for the afternoon Super Lap. Running last in the Super Lap, Kogure drove the TAKATA DOME NSX to an even faster time of 1 min. 16.697 sec. to keep his position as the fastest qualifier. This gave the TAKATA DOME NSX the pole position.
Or the TAKATA DOME NSX team this is their second pole position of the 2008 series, following the one in round three. It is also their second PP in two consecutive years here at the SUGO round.
In the GT300 class the pole position went to the WedsSport IS350 driven by Manabu Orido with a time of 1 min. 23.938 sec. This is also the first GT pole position for new Lexus IS350 since it began full-fledged competition in round three of this season.

SPORTSLAND SUGO
Length : 3.704256km | Weather: Cloudy | Course : Dry
SUPER LAP TOP 3

Po.	No.	Machine	Drivers	Times
GT - 500 Class
1	18	TAKATA DOME NSX	R.Michigami/*T.Kogure	1'16.697
2	17	REAL NSX	K.Kaneishi/T.Kaneishi	1'17.013
3	1	ARTA NSX	R.Firman/T.Izawa	1'17.534
GT - 300 Class
1	19	WedsSport IS350	*M.Orido/T.Abe	1'23.938
2	43	ARTA Garaiya	M.Nitta/*S.Takagi	1'23.985
3	41	JIMCENTER ADVAN F430	*T.Tanaka/M.Ueda	1'24.252

*=Driver running the Super Lap

[Full : Qualifying result]

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[Source : SUPERGT PR. sec.]