FNIPPON: Fuji results

Formula Nippon Rd.3

FUji International Speedway(4.470km/lap) June 1, 1997 Weather: Partly Cloudy

1 19 Takuya Kurosawa LolaT96-52/Mugen 45L 59'08.195(203.821km/h) 2 9 Pedro de la Rosa(ES) LolaT97-51/Mugen 45L +1.986 3 64 Torahnosuke Takagi Reynard97D/Mugen 45L +19.107 4 11 Hidetoshi Mitsusada LolaT96-52/Mugen 45L +21.969 5 20 Masahiko Kageyama LolaT95-50/Mugen 45L +22.920 6 1 Norberto Fontana(RA) Reynard97D/Mugen 45L +41.353 7 33 Toshio Suzuki Reynard97D/Mugen 45L +57.059 8 65 Koji Yamanishi Reynard97D/Mugen 45L +1'04.612 9 2 Esteban Tuero Reynard97D/Mugen 45L +1'17.630 10 6 Risto Virtanen(SF) Reynard96D/Judd 44L -1 lap 11 27 Masami Kageyama Reynard96D/Mugen 43L -2 laps 12 17 Masahiko Kondo Reynard97D/Mugen 43L -2 laps 13 36 Tetsuji Tamanaka LolaT95/Mugen 43L -2 laps 14 63 Dillantha Malagamuwa(CL) Reynard96D/Mugen 43L -2 laps 15 18 Ralph Firman,Jr.(GB) Reynard97D/Mugen 42L -3 laps 16 3 Atsushi Kawamoto Reynard96D/Mugen 41L -4 laps

--------------------------------------DNF-------------------------------

     5 Marc Goossens(B)          Reynard96D/Judd     34L   -11 laps  Engine
    34 Mauro Martini(I)          LolaT96-51/Mugen    32L   -13 laps  Accident
    35 Michael Krumm(D)          Reynard96D/Mugen    32L   -13 laps  Gearbox 
     8 Juichi Wakisaka           DomeF104R/Mugen     31L   -14 laps  Contact
    28 Katsumi Yamamoto          Reynard97D/Mugen    31L   -14 laps  Contact
    55 Katsutomo Kaneishi        Reynard96D/Mugen    27L   -18 laps
    10 Akira Iida                LolaT97-51/Mugen     9L   -36 laps  Contact
    37 Masao Yamada              LolaT94/Mugen        9L   -36 laps  Contact
    56 Satoshi Motoyama          Reynard97D/Mugen     3L   -42 laps  Clutch

Fastest Lap: #19Kurosawa 1'17.919(206.522km/h) on Lap 4

Just look at the top five in the results. Lola is the thing to have at the moment in Formula Nippon. Why? Ask Bridgestone.

If you think back last year you also had Yokohama which meant competition and continuous development.

It is the thing of the past today. With Yokohama gone, everybody use one same type of rubber in any given dry session.

And Lolas somehow match the tyre better than Reynards do.

De la Rosa dominated the first couple of races and it was Kurosawa's turn this time in Fuji. He took the pole, and led the race convincingly to the flag.

Hail to Lola.

A couple of days later one German, namely Michael Krumm, announced his resignation from the series.

The reason was that new teammate Mauro Martini at Stellar got a Lola. Krumm thought why not him. Went ask the team for the same toy to play for himself, too. They said no.

There's someone out there who needs to grow up.