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]

Layout of the Sugo

Report

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Entry

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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

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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

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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

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Result

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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

References

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  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".