The end of August saw the GOODRIDE Radial Challenge latest round at Central Circuit, and I knew a few drivers that would likely be running on the day, so I made it a plan to head over and see what went down.
First things first when I get to any circuit, leave the camera alone, and have a walk of the pit area with whatever is remaining from my must have Family Mart Cafe Latte.
That done, it's time indeed to grab the Canon and exchange hello's with drivers and the like and take some snaps.
First time I has seen Shimizu-San in his Team Imperial E46 running. Something a little different to all the regular type of chassis you might expect to find at a Japanese track event.
Horuchi-San and his better half were out at Central as I expected, His EK9 going through warm-up and making some adjustments ahead of going out for his first session of the day.
One car you may have seen on the FB or IG post recently was the Garage Kiyotaki EG6 being piloted by Nakayama-San.
A little off the pace on the day, but still fighting strong as he'd go through qualifying with a 01:30.950 and go on to improve that in race conditions with a best of 01:30.522.
I can't wait to see if the pairing of these two will be entering into some of year ending Time Attack events, surely the extra pace is there, and it would be great to see.
HAZARD Racing were on hand with two eye catching cars on the day. Tomomitsu-San in the S15 parked up next to Kominato-San in the CL7.
The latter securing a second place finish in the C-Group race, and the best of the OPE class with a quick 01:29.340 being the best of the laps he laid down.
TEMPLE Racing being represented on this beautiful looking S2K.
If you hadn't seen previous, we've become the exclusive supplier of TEMPLE Racing goods to overseas customers. We'll have some of their goods up on the store soon.
Another car you could not miss on the day, was this Orange colored AE111 being driven by Komune-San.
This was another car being support by the HAZARD Racing team above.
Coming to a track and seeing support shops not only undergoing track time, but given their down time to support their customers too is a really nice thing to see. Everyone pitching in to change a wheel, check tire pressures, or max a fix to something that's decided to stop working.
FULL-Stage were another shop on hand that were running with their shop car, but also taking care of those that were flying the flag for the shop too.
Possibly the trickiest part of Central, is a Medium left hand turn on the downhill which enters this under-the-bridge section of the course which exits onto an uphill hairpin right which is the start of the main straight.
An absolutely key area to get right, over wise all your hard work can be undone in a few seconds.
Adachi-San here in his HAZARD Racing supported RX-8 doing his best to tackle the tricky section.
That shot might not do his ride justice, so here he is back in the pits after completing on his qualifying shot, a 01:32.493 being the best he could manage in the Group-B outing and in the O16N class.
More and more FT's seem to making a showing on the track as their prices are becoming more attractive, and with an ever growing catalog of parts being manufactured for the chassis.
Horuchi-San heading out for the race. And once in the lead and with clean air to run in, he'd have no problems going on to secure first place in the Group-B race and with an impressive time of 01:30.406. But again i'd like to see what he could really do in Time Attack and more giving weather conditions that would lean towards that.
One car that luck didn't seem to award me with seeing on the track was the HAP EG4 being piloted by Tetsuji-San. Between communicating with drivers, staying out of the blistering heat, and shooting from various locations, I just kept missing it...
There's always next time.
Shimuzu.
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