SUPER GT 2012 Pre-Season Insights with Kohei Hirate and Michael Krumm

SUPER GT 2012 Pre-Season Testing at Sepang International Circuit – The Party Has Just Begun.

Just recently from the 23^rd January to the 27^th January 2012, at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC), at a closed event where SUPER GT teams tested their machines and tires before the start of the season, JPM Motorsport being the organizers and promoters for the Malaysian SUPER GT round were present to bring inside scoops to Malaysian fans. They were even fortunate to speak to 2 big time professionals in the field: Kohei Hirate and Michael Krumm.

Pre-season Testing are usually done around January in Malaysia because the temperatures of the Malaysian tropical weather is a great platform for durability test, which allow the teams testing their machines to plan and strategize race strategies for the season. Present at the event were the GT500 manufacturers such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda, while the GT300 Hankook Porsche team also made an appearance.

Kohei Hirate, 26 this year, and a driver for Lexus under Team Lexus Cerumo said that he was happy to be in Malaysia again, and was estatic to see that the Malaysian fan base has grown in 2011 when JPM Motorsport took over the helm of organizing and promoting SUPER GT. He further hopes that in 2012, all Malaysian fans would come out in bigger number to attend, watch and support SUPER GT, as the crowd and fans are his source of motivation in this competitive series. He even added that with his team’s continuous support, he foresees that 2012 will hold a better and more competitive season for him. Before ending the interview session, Kohei Hirate expressed his thanks to all his fans, SUPER GT fans, his team members and sponsors for the support and encouragement. He even mentioned that if time permits, there may be sessions to meet him in person when he’s in Malaysia, and he will be looking forward till Round 3 arrives. So all SUPER GT fans should not miss out on this opportunity come June 2012.

As for Michael Krumm, a veteran in the racing fraternity with a string of impressive achievement, with the most recent, being crowned the 2011 FIA GT1 champion, was seen testing the Team Nismo GT500 Nissan GT-R. At this point of time, it is still unknown if he was just testing the machine or if he will be coming back to compete in SUPER GT. Krumm expressed that these 2 races are 2 very different playing fields and while he has driven essentially the same model – the Nissan GTR, the GT1 car focuses more on outright power, which makes the machine quick at the straights but with early braking strategies which makes cornering speeds slower. In SUPER GT however, it is more of an overall control, which makes it all the more competitive and SUPER GT machines are made to tackle corners at faster speeds compared to GT1 machines. Krumm’s victories are attributable to his competitive nature, and though he mentioned that he was currently just testing, coupled with the fact that GT1 and SUPER GT machines are of 2 different characteristics – signalling perhaps he needs time to get used to the SUPER GT machine, but should the occasion arise for him to compete, he will do what it takes to win.

It has been an interesting 5 days of scorching heat and burning rubber and this is only just the beginning. So calling all SUPER GT enthusiasts, do not miss out on all the fun as SUPER GT will be coming your way this June 2012 at Sepang International Circuit. 

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