We qualified in 7th place and Maejima-san, as the starting driver, quickly picked off several spots and ran a good pace. By the 2nd pitstop, he actually got up to first in class, but an issue with a lug on the right rear tire made the stop extremely long.
By the time I got out of the pits, I was in 6th place with the BuddyClub Z on my tail waiting for an opening. As I was running on cold tires, this was a slightly stressful situation for the first lap, but then I settled into a rhythm and continued to put distance between myself and the car in the rear-view mirror. Then a car ahead pitted and we got up to 5th place. I drove for 29 laps and remained in the same spot at the finish line, with over a minute to the 4th place car ahead.
We have six 350Zs in the Class-3 category, and another two in Class-1, so NISMO conducted a photoshoot of all the entrants.
Next up is the Tokachi 24-hour race in Hokkaido in July. However, I have a few FCJ races in-between - going to Motegi tomorrow for this weekend's Rd. 5/6 for the Formula Challenge Japan series. I am definitely beginning to settle in inside the cockpits of these two cars and am looking forward to surprising more people.
