Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Zent Cerumo #38

The #38 Zent Cerumo that won the GT500 championship in 2005

Looking back when I first started to catch the Super GT actions was about 4 years back, it was the 2005 season in which the red and silver Toyota Supra Zent Cerumo #38 machine took the GT500 Championship. What make the #38 Zent team to watch was, their two very commited driversYuji Tachikawa and Toranosuke Takagi. The fought from race to race and made a dramatic finale at round 8 in which they won their 3rd race of the season and clinched the GT500 2005 title. They only managed to finish four out of eight races, and won three out of the four finished races. What a marvelous result.

Lexus SC430 replaced the Toyota Supra in 2006 seasons.

Tachikawa and Takagi continued their partnership for 2006 season with the new car the SC430. Unfortunately luck wasn't on their side, they crashed out (Source from SuperGT.net “No. 1 ZENT CERUMO SC (Toranosuke Takagi), who still had a shot at the title, and No. 8 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman) collided at the "Dunlop corner" on the opening lap. This forced No. 1 off the course. It returned to the pit where damage to the left front suspension was found, retiring the machine. Their dream of back-to-back titles went up in smoke.”) while leading in last round. Their concluded the 2006 season with 71 point and ranked 5th place in the driver championship.

Takagi left the team after a disastrous 2007 season which saw them picked up only 53 points held 7th place in the driver championship.

2008 season was a close one to team Zent Cerumo. They won in round 2 and finished runner up in both driver (4 point short to champion Xanavi Nismo) and team (short by single point) championship.

No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 with brand new '09 coloring.

Again they were competitive in 2009 preseason. Yuji Tachikawa clocked the fastest in second test session last weekend. Can he repeat his championship success this season? Go for it Yuji....

Yuji Tachikawa.

One of my favorite driver is Yuji Tachikawa. In my opinion his driving styles really excited me, he is a very determined driver and always give his best to achieve great thing on tracks. Recalled, last year his team were rewarded for the most exciting overtaking maneuver in round 5 Sugo. He had been a regular racing driver for Toyota since 1999 after joined team Massimo CERUMO and won 2 GT championship in 2001 and 2005.

Career:
1993 Karting Regional Championship Kanto, West A2class Series champion.
1994 French Formula Renault Elf Campus 4th in the series.
1995 Formula Toyota West Japan Series champion.
1997 All Japan F3 Championship 2nd in the series(1win, four 2nds out of 9races)
Macau F3GP.
1998 Formula Nippon (-2001,02-04,05-) JTCC (team CERUMO) 3rd in the series.
1999 JGTC 8th in the series.
2000 JGTC 5th in the series (1win)
2001 JGTC Series Champion.
2002 JGTC 3rd in the series (2wins)
2003 JGTC 9th in the series.
2004 JGTC 5th in the series (1win)
2005 SUPER GT Series champion (3wins)
2006 SUPER GT 5th in the series (1win)
2007 SUPER GT 7th in the series (1win)
2008 SUPER GT 2th in the series (1win)


I'll collect every of my favorite driver car. Therefore no exception for Yuji Tachikawa.


2004 Cerumo Supra - 1 win

2006 SC430 - 1 win

2 comments:

diecastmini.com said...

its the first time i see a LEXUS RACING CAr ...

thx for share ... hope u enjoy mine

RealCollector said...

Welcome, (Vehen)... wow! you are from Turkey... Nice collection you got there and creative photo shoots... very unique and entertaining blog... Thanks mate!