1991 Sugo 500km

The Sugo Inter 500 km, was the fifth round of both the 1991 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and the 1991 Long Distance Series, held at the Sugo on 15 September, in front of a crowd of approximately 45,000.^[1]

Report

Entry

A total of 14 cars were entered for the event, in two classes, one for cars running to Group C1 specification and the other to IMSA GTP regulations.^[2]

Qualifying

The Nisseki Racing Team of George Fouché and Steven Andskär took pole position, in their Porsche 962GTi ahead of the Toyota Team SARD’s Toyota 91C-V of Roland Ratzenberger and Pierre-Henri Raphanel, by only 0.047secs.^[3]

Race

The race was held over 135 laps of the Sportsland Sugo circuit, a distance of 500 km (actual distance was 500.075 km). Eje Elgh and Geoff Lees took the winner spoils for the Toyota Team Tom’s, driving their Toyota 91C-V. The European duo won in a time of 2hr 57:30.838mins., averaging a speed of 105.641 mph. Second place went to Akihiko Nakaya and Volker Weidler in the From A Racing’s Nissan R91CK who finished about 6.5 seconds adrift. Also on the lead lap, in third place was the Nissan Motorsport of Anders Olofsson and Masahiro Hasemi.^[4]

Classification

Result

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos.	No.	Class	Drivers			Entrant	Car — Engine	Time, Laps	Reason Out
1st	37	C1	Eje Elgh	Geoff Lees		Toyota Team Tom’s	Toyota 91C-V	2:57:30.838
2nd	27	C1	Akihiko Nakaya	Volker Weidler		From A Racing	Nissan R91CK	2:57:37.020
3rd	1	C1	Masahiro Hasemi	Anders Olofsson		Nissan Motorsport	Nissan R91CP	2:58:55.982
4th	100	C1	George Fouché	Steven Andskär		Nisseki Racing Team	Porsche 962GTi	132
5th	25	C1	Hideki Okada	Masahiko Kageyama		Team Le Mans	Nissam R90VP	132
6th	18	C1	Mauro Martini	Jeff Krosnoff		TWR Suntec Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-11	129
7th	38	C1	Roland Ratzenberger	Pierre-Henri Raphanel		Toyota Team SARD	Toyota 91C-V	127
8th	21	C1	Hideo Fukuyama	Hideshi Matsuda		Aoshima Tsunemasa	Spice-Ford SE90C	127
9th	202	GTP	Tetsuya Ota	Takashi Yorino		Mazdaspeed	Mazda 787B	126
10th	36	C1	Masanori Sekiya	Hitoshi Ogawa		Toyota Team Tom’s	Toyota 91C-V	126
11th	119	C1	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Toshio Suzuki		Nissan Motorsport	Nissan R91CP	119
DNF	201	GTP	David Kennedy	Yojiro Terada		Mazdaspeed	Mazda 787B	23	Course Out
DNF	230	GTP	Tetsuji Shiratori	Masatomo Shimizu	Syuuji Fujii	Pleasure Racing	Mazda 767	3	Differencial
DNQ	3	C1	Taku Akaike	Karou Iida		Navi Connection Racing	Mazda-Ford 767B

Fastest lap: Masanori Sekiya/Hitoshi Ogawa, 1:14.593secs. (111.74 mph)^[5]

References

[1] "Sugo 500 kilometres 1991 - Racing Sports Cars".

[2] "Sugo 500 kilometres 1991 - Racing Sports Cars".

[3] "Sugo 500 kilometres 1991 - Qualifying Results - Racing Sports Cars".

[4] "Sugo 500 kilometres 1991 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars".

[5] "Sugo 500 kilometres 1991 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars".

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