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1st
June, Sepang -
Declaring that the Super GT International
Series is the best racing series in the
world, visiting GT Queens Ayami Sasaki and
Kotomi Kurosawa say that they are enjoying
every moment of their association with the
series and are very excited with the
upcoming Malaysian round at Sepang Circuit
from 20th June to 22nd June.
As the official GT Queens for the 2008
Super GT International Series Malaysia,
Ayami and Kotomi, who prefer to be called
Amie and Tomie, are ambassadors and key
promoters for the event. And, they would
be leading the other GT Queens at the grid
presentation on Race Day.
"Super GT is very good. It's No. 1 in the
world. We love Super GT very much, we love
to become GT Queens," says the 20-year old
who also works as a part-time model and
dancer in Tokyo and occasionally follows
the Formula One World Championship.
Despite her limited English vocabularies,
Amie was crystal clear in explaining
herself why she loves the series. "I like
racing and I like race cars," Amie said
expressively as she held up both her
hands; trying to gimmick some driving
maneuvers to stress the point.
The introduction of both Amie and Tomie as
the official GT Queens were made at the
official launch of the 2008 Super GT
International Series Malaysia, which was
performed by Youth and Sports Minister
Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the ministry
in Putrajaya (30 May) today.
Amie said : "Super GT is good because it
got many beautiful cars," said Amie in
clear reference of the massive numbers of
participating stylish race cars; featuring
all of the world top sports car models
from the auto makers of Nissan, Toyota,
Honda, Mazda, Subaru, Ford, Ferrari,
Lamborghini and Porsche.
"Super GT got good drivers ... all famous
drivers," she said, adding she like all
the drivers and all the competing teams
without any preferences. "I like all of
the drivers," said Amie, who dreams of
driving her own Ferrari car.
First introduced in 1994 as a local series
as the All Japan GT Championship, the
series had grown into a prominent
international series; drawing top
international drivers with the likes of
former F1 driver Ralph Firman, Michael
Krumm, Erik Comas, Richard Lyons, Andre
Loiterer, Andre Coute, Peter Dumbreck,
Frenchmen Benoit Treliyer and Sebastian
Phillipe, and Bjorn Wirdheim.
Since 2002, Sepang hosts an official
championship round of the series and the
2008 International Series Malaysia would
be Round 4 of a nine-round championship
this year. As a championship round,
drivers and teams pushed their cars to the
limit to secure maximum points in their
effort to win the overall crown.
While Amie is impressed with the drivers,
Tomie spoke highly of the mechanics and
the supporting team crew. "I like the
mechanics," as she gestured some tyre-changing
actions during a pitstop.
With the race running up to 300kms and two
drivers to a car, activities at the pits
especially the driver change and pit-stops
added more live and colour to the highly
entertaining Super GT International
Series.
Having worked with Team Toyota Kraft for
three years in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Tomie
had understandably picked the No #35
Toyota Lexus SC430 racecar as her
favourite with the Scottish Dumbrek as her
top driver.
And, having come to Sepang for the past
three years, Tomie rated the Malaysian
track as No 1 in her list of favourite
race tracks; upstaging the likes of Fuji
Speedway, Suzuka, Sportsland Sugo,
Autopolis and Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.
"Sepang is big and beautiful. I loves
coming to Sepang," said Tomie, who also
declared that she would always prefer the
sunny and hot Malaysia weather than the
cold, chilling air at the Japanese race
tracks.
"Hot weather good. It makes you active,"
said Tomie, adding that the entire Team
Toyota Kraft also loved coming to race in
Sepang. "They also love Sepang ... they
like (to) race in Sepang," added the
25-year old Tomie, who hailed from
Nagasaki.
Tickets can be purchased by calling TICKET HOTLINE
at 603-87782222 or via internet at
www.malaysiangp.com.my
Copyright © 2008 MalaysiaCurrent. All
rights reserved.
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