GT500

Starting from the pole position, Benoit Treluyer maintained a blazing pace in the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z. Running a fastest lap of 1 min. 58.829 sec. on lap four, he opened up a substantial margin of lead by the time of the first pit stop. Following with a firm hold on 2nd place was the No.25 ECLIPSE ADVAN driven by Takeshi Tsuchiya, but the gap was gradually widening. As No. 25 lost ground it was the No.8 ARTA NSX machine driven by Ralph Firman, the No.6 Mobil 1 SC driven by Akira Iida and the No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Ryo Michigami that moved in to battle for 2nd place. Eventually, however, both No.18 and No.6 would retire from the race with engine trouble. After the first round of pit stops, Jeremie Dufour in the No.12 machine was followed by Daisuke Ito in No.8, Toranosuke Takagi in the No.1 ZENT Cerumo SC (having taken over from Yuji Tachikawa) and Richard Lyons in No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z(having taken over from Michael Krumm). Behind them came Masataka Yanagida in the No.24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z (having taken over from Erik Comas) and Yuji Ide in the No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z (having taken over from Tsugio Matsuda). When Ide tried to lap the No.55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT driven by Hidetoshi Mitsusada, however, a collision occurred and No.55 was forced to retire from the race as a result, while No. 23 was given a drive-through penalty. When Ide failed to recognize the penalty and kept on racing, the team was excluded from the race.

With Dufour now at the wheel, No.12 maintained its lead and the gap over the rest of the field had widened even more by the time the wheel was turned over to the third driver, Kazuki Hoshino. Running in 2nd place, No.8 made its second pit stop and Firman took the wheel from Ito once again. In the No.1 machine, Ronnie Quintarelli had already taken over from Takagi, and at this point No.22 was running in 3rd position. Due to some extremely fast pit work by the No. 22 team (driver change from Lyons to Krumm), they returned to the track in front of No.8, which had made its pit stop on the same lap. With the race half finished at the 500 km point, No.12 had a 40-sec. lead over No.22 in 2nd place. Following No.22 in 3rd position was No.8. Although these two machines continued to battle in close proximity, there was no change in the order. Moving into 4th position with a strategy of increasing the length of driver stints in order to reduce the number of pit stops was the No.35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 driven at this point by Naoki Hattori (having taken over from Peter Dumbreck). Afterwards, No. 35 would grab 3rd place when No.8 made its third pit stop (Firman > Ito driver change). Now in 4th place, No.8 tried to stay on No.35's tail but eventually lost ground when brake pad trouble forced a delay for replacement on its fourth pit stop.

By the 130th lap, three-quarters of the race was over and No.12 remained in the lead. Following in 2nd place and giving the Fairlady Z machines a 1-2 lead was No.22. Moving into 3rd and 4th positions at this point were No.35 and the No.32 EPSON NSX machine, both on Dunlop tires. In 5th place was No.24. After this, No.12 lapped No.35, leaving only No.22 running on the same lap. At the end of the 146th lap No.12 made a pit stop. With this, No.22 closed to within just over 10 seconds of No. 12 but with one pit stop of its own remaining to be made. When that stop was made, the gap widened once again. Meanwhile, the No.66 triple a SARD Supra GT machine had suffered a bad crash at the 130R curve that had many people fearing the worst until they saw the driver Andre Couto make it out of the car by himself.

Soon the "lights on" sign was given and the race entered the night session. The No.12 team gave the wheel to Treluyer again for the final stint and he successfully drove the CALSONIC IMPUL Z machine on to take the checkered and the win at the end of lap 173. With the exception of one short period when pit stop timing put it temporarily behind, No. 12 had held the lead for the entire race. Treluyer's speed had been impressive, but his teammates Hoshino and Dufour had also driven with no mistakes to help score a near-perfect win. This brought their team up to 3rd place in the season ranking. For the Fairlady Z it was also a long-awaited first win of the season in the GT500 class.

Claiming 2nd place was No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z. This team never used its third driver, Fabio Carbone, with the regulars Michel Krumm and Richard Lyons running the entire 1,000 km between them. In 3rd place came No.35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430, winning the team its first podium finish of the season with a strategy of eliminating one pit stop by lengthening the stints of its two regular drivers, Naoki Hattori and Peter Dumbreck (Eiichi Tajima did not drive).

GT300

Proμ TAIYO OIL KUMHO CELICA scores pole-to-checkered win

In the GT300 class, Hironori Takeuchi got a good start from the pole position in the No.52 Proμ TAIYO OIL KUMHO CELICA. Despite being chased close at one point in the early running by Hironobu Yasuda in No.47, Takeuchi would have an 18-second lead over the No.2 Priv_e Zurich Shiden in 2nd place by the time of the first pit stop.

After that, drivers Keita Sawa and Koki Saga took their turns at the wheel of the No.52 Celica and ran an almost perfect race, never relinquishing the lead once, except for the brief period after Sawa's pit stop. Takeuchi took over in the driver's seat once again for the last 22 laps. Rather than trying to push the pace, Takeuchi showed the cool judgment of a veteran driver by keeping a steady pace to the checkered and the class win. This gave Takeuchi and this team he launched himself their first GT victory in the form of an impressive pole-to-checkered win. It also gave their tire partner, Korea's KUMHO, their first victory in the highly competitive SUPER GT arena.

The battle for 2nd place turned out to be a survival race that saw No.19 and No.13 lose ground due to collisions and No.47 dropping back with machine trouble. Meanwhile, the 10th place qualifier, No.27 direxiv ADVAN 320R, moved up steadily through the pack to finally claim 2nd position by lap 108 and hold that position to the finish.

Finishing 3rd was the No.101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S team, which had successfully executed a strategy of limiting itself to three pit stops instead of four.

Comments

GT500 Class Winner

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z

Benoit Treluyer

The car was perfect. It was almost as if all we drivers had to do was go along for the ride. The pit work was perfect too. It was just a great weekend. I want to thank the team, Nissan and the fans. I am really happy!

Kazuki Hoshino

Thank you, everyone! I am just so happy. But, to tell you the truth, I am the one who should have been driving at the end. It is just that the manager [Kazuki's father and team owner, Kazuyoshi Hoshino] doesn't trust me completely yet.

Jeremie Dufour

I feel fantastic. Actually, this is my first race of the season [being a spot entry], so it was great to win. The car was so fast we didn't have to push it at all. I am thankful that Benoit went out an got us a lead from the start. I am also grateful to everyone on the team.

GT300 Class Winner

No.52 Proμ TAIYO OIL KUMHO CELICA

Hironori Takeuchi

Yesterday was the first time we won the pole position [this season], so I still can't believe that we won today. We have been working with KUMHO Tire since last year and I have to admit that we had a lot of problems with communication and such at first. But after a year and a half of working together, we have really come to understand each other and the performance of the tires has improved a lot. It took a year and a half, but with this win I think we have finally been able to pay back KUMHO Tire for their efforts and our fans for their support.