24h Le Mans
With the rain and winds of Typhoon Wipha now long past, the FIA World Endurance Championship looks forward to more favourable conditions for a weekend full of exciting racing, with the highlight being the 6 Hours of Fuji on Sunday, 20th October.
Photo : OYAMA-CHO
The many thousands of fans due to attend will be proudly waving the Japanese flag for not only Toyota Racing but also the many Japanese drivers on the grid.
The event at Fuji International Speedway begins, as always, with administrative and technical scrutineering for the teams and their drivers throughout the whole of Thursday, 17th October. The cars are presented for technical verification, and the drivers must ‘sign on’ – presenting their licences, medical licences and equipment to the scrutineers for verification.
The field of 29 cars takes to the track for the first time on Friday, 18th October. This first free practice session will follow on from driver and team manager briefings, during which a minute’s silence will be held in memory of Sean Edwards, the popular GT driver who raced in last year’s 3rd round of the FIA WEC, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Two free practice sessions of 90 minutes are scheduled for Friday, from 11:00-12:30, then from 15:30-17:00, for all competitors. A third and final one-hour practice session will take place on Saturday at 09:30 before qualifying from 13:20 to 13:45 for the LMGTE Pro and Am categories, and from 13:55-14:20 for LMP1 and LMP2.
Spectators will be able to make the most of a visit to the pits (pit walk) between the final free practice and qualifying sessions, for one hour from 12:15-13:15. A second pit walk is on the programme for Sunday 20th from 08:45-09:45 during which time there will be the driver autograph session. Drivers will be at tables in front of their pit garages so fans can see the cars being worked on as well as get autographs from their endurance heroes.
The 6 Hours of Fuji will start at 11:00 and run until 17:00, with a round of the Japanese Formula 3 championship as the curtain-opener on Sunday from 08:00-08:30. The first F3 race will be on Saturday from 14:50-15:30. Fans will also get the chance to take a close look at the new electric prototype, the Nissan ZEOD RC, on track for demonstration runs and in the Fuji paddock throughout the course of the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend.
Fiona Miller
PHOTO: OYAMA-CHO (SHIZUOKA, JAPAN), FUJI INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, 6 HOURS OF FUJI, SUNDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2012. The Fuji racetrack welcomes the sixth round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship next weekend.
