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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">24/08/2001</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Short Tales</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">From Japan</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><img border="1" src="Storage/alesFromELS.jpg"></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">Martin Short forwards this news of his Rollcentre team's adventures getting to Japan and trying the Suzuka Circuit for the first time.<BR> <BR> <BR> "We have just finished our first day at Suzuka and it has already been quite an experience! Before we got to the circuit we had drama with the suit cases for Richard, Rob and myself all conspicuous by their absence at the Osaka Airport....they were still in Zurich, our first stop...great! This is not the best place in the world to have no fresh underwear!<BR> <BR> "Japanese efficiency comes into play, and our cases arrive by Taxi from the airport today. Brilliant. The cock up was in London......<BR> <BR> "We have spent a total of 4 hours on track today in temperatures of a balmy 31 degrees. The car and drivers are running cool, with no problems at all. We are around 4 seconds off the pace of the GT cars ahead of us which include Cor Euser's Marcos, a Chamberlain Viper driven by Stephen Watson, Geoff Lister and Ben Devlin and a Porsche GT3. We are running on very hard Dunlops to make sure we keep the stress levels on the car as low as possible, all with the intention of finishing the race, rather than trying to be competitive.<BR> <BR> "Suzuka Circuit is an amazing place, and the circuit is very Spa-like with lots of blind corners ready to catch the unwary. Not too hard on the car, but very challenging to find a quick time.<BR> <BR> "We have just finished the night session which is our first time driving in the dark... all of us... and we need bigger headlights! The famous Suzuka Catherine wheel is quite a sight at 150mph in the dark.<BR> <BR> "Qualifying tomorrow and we continue with our conservative approach. We and the car will continue hopefully to behave ourselves, but now it's off to eat and head for the famous Log Cabin and drink some beer!<BR> <BR> "The Japanese people here have been nothing short of miraculous in the way they help us, particularly H and K TVR Japan, and Naoki Ito from Suzuka Circuit.<BR> <BR> "OK, off to the pub!"<BR> <BR> <BR> </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>