00-04-02 Round1 Race Report HONDA NSXS SHOW THE SPEED, BUT THE SKYLINE'S RELIABILITY WINS THE RACE! In front of a huge crowd of 42,500 spectators (announced by organizer), the start of the 63-lap race was given under fine blue skies. Pole man Juichi Wakisaka, making an excellent start in the No.18 HONDA NSX, led into the first corner followed by Ryo Michigami in the No.16 NSX, Akira Iida in the No.100 NSX and Erik Comas in the No.1 NSSAN SKYLINE GT-R, the same order coming off the grid. In the early stage of the race, Comas overtook Iida going low inside on the first corner to move into 3rd place. While the top runners were running smoothly, there a number of skirmishes in the middle of the pack. Aguri Suzuki, in the No.8 NSX, bumped Takayuki Kinoshita in the No.32 SUPRA. Kinoshita had to pit to change damaged tires. On lap 12, Takeshi Tsuchiya in the No.36 SUPRA connected with the No.911 Porsche driven by Masamitsu Ishihara, who had spun around on the track. This brought out the Safety Car for 5 laps. At the restart of the race, Comas gave a fantastic performance, slipping by Michigami in the No.16 NSX, putting the Frenchman in 2nd. But the lead was in the hands of Wakisaka, who was pulling away from Comas little by little each lap. For the GT300 class, it was Hideshi Matsuda, in the No.26 PORSCHE 911GT3R, who led the group followed by Atsushi Yogo in the No.910 PORSCHE 911GT3R, Nobuyuki Oyagi in the No.81 SILVIA and Haruhiko Matsumoto in the No.7 MAZDA RX-7. The two PORSCHEs increased their gap over the SILVIA, while an exciting side-by-side battle took place between four cars, those of Oyagi and Matsumoto, and Takahiko Hara in the No.19 CELICA and Morio Nitta in the No.31 TOYOTA MR-S. The top teams began making their routine pit stops around lap 25, changing drivers and tires, and refueling. On lap 40, a scene that sent shockwaves through the circuit: the top running No.18 NSX at the time driven by Katsutomo Kaneishi, slowed suddenly. The car was forced to retire due to gearbox problems. Bad luck hit on the Hondas again when the No.100 NSX driven by Naoki Hattori stopped after lap 52 due to engine failure. Masami Kageyama, driving the No.1 SKYLINE GT-R after the scheduled pit stop, found himself running alone in first place with Nakako alone in 2nd as well. Back a bit further in 3rd was the No.64 NSX driven by Daisuke Ito. They ran in this order to the checkered flag. In the GT300 class, the race was dominated by Hideo Fukuyama in the No.26 PORSCHE who built up a wide margin over second place finisher Tetsuya Yamano in the No.7 RX-7. No.1 LOCTITE ZEXEL GT-R Erik Comas : "This is a dream weekend. We could win the opening race and take 20points. A big thanks to NISMO." Masami Kageyama : "I'm very happy to win the race. I want to say thanks so much to NISMO, NISSAN and Erik. I wasn't fully satisfied because I couldn't raise my rhythm during my stint. I want to check the data to find the reason."