GT500

The race started at 14:00. The temperature at the start was 22 C. With the strong sunlight, the track surface temperature had risen to 43 C.

In the opening lap Ryo Michigami in the No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX dropped from the pole position to 4th position. It was the No. 8 ARTA NSX driven by Ralph Firman that took the lead with the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO Z driven by Tsugio Matsuda in 2nd and the No.100 RAYBRIG NSX driven by S_bastien Philippe in 3rd position at the end of the first lap. After that No. 8 opened up a lead of 3 sec. over No. 23, but on lap 8 an orange disc flag came out for No. 8. In a collision with No. 23 there had been damage to the right rear fender. With a danger of it falling off, the officials had ordered No. 8 back to the pit for repairs. This gave No. 23 the lead. Following five seconds behind was No. 100 with No. 18 right behind. A fierce battle raged between the two NSX machines No. 100 and No. 18 until lap 26, when No. 18 passed No. 100 to claim 2nd place.

On the next lap No. 23 made its pit stop while running in the lead. In addition to changing drivers from Matsuda to Satoshi Motoyama, the team also changed tires and refueled, taking just under 33 sec. to return to the track. No. 100 made its pit stop a lap later on lap 28 and No.18 made its pit stop on lap 31. No. 100 changed drivers to Shinya Hosokawa and No. 18 changed to Takashi Kogure, with both teams changing all four tires and returning to the track in roughly 30 seconds. These two machines now ran with No. 18 leading closely followed No. 100. No. 23 trailed another 7 sec. behind No. 18.

By lap 38 all the machines had finished their pit stops and No.23 had regained the lead. No. 18was running fast and had moved up to tail No.23 and No. 100 was just a few seconds behind. From here to the finish the raced developed into a close battle between these three machines.
With five laps remaining No. 18's pace dropped considerably and No. 100 was able to pull away. After that, No. 100 began closing on the tail of No. 23 in the turns but No. 23 was able to open up a gap again on the straights. This catch-and-run battle continued until the last corner of the last lap but No. 23 was able to stay in the lead all the way to the checkered flag.

This was the first win of the season for the No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z team. The 2nd-place finisher, No.100 RAYBRIG NSX, was given a penalty after the race for a pit-work violation and 30 seconds was added on to their finishing time as a result. This dropped No. 100 to 3rd place and moved the No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX up to 2nd place.
This result moved the No. 100 drivers Philippe and Hosokawa into first position in the season's driver ranking with 79 points. Meanwhile, the No. 18 team of Ryo Michigami and Takashi Kogure dropped to a tie for 2nd position in the ranking with today's 7th-place finishers Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer of No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 with 72 points a piece. Besides these three teams, a total of five more teams are within striking range of the drivers' title for the final round of the season. They include the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO SC team of Yuji Tachikawa and Toranosuke Takagi who finished 5th today, the 6th-place finishing No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z team's Michael Krumm, today's winners the No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z team of Satoshi Motoyama and Tsugio Matsuda, the 11th place finishing No. 8 ARTA NSX team of Daisuke Itoh and Ralph Firman and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z team of Benoit Treluyer and Kazuki Hoshino who finished 4th today with a two-pit stop strategy.

GT300

Privée Zurich Shiden grabs first GT300 victory

In the GT300 class, there was a collision in the opening lap between the No. 101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S driven by Morio Niita and the No. 96 EBBRO BTEC MAZIORA 350R driven by Takuya Kurosawa. The result was a serious crash for No.101 that forced it to retire from the race. Meanwhile, No. 96 was given a drive-through penalty that changed the complexion of the race from the very outset.

From the GT300 class pole position, the No. 2 Privée Zurich Shiden was driven this time by Hiroki Katoh, who gradually widened his lead on the rest of the field in the opening stages of the race. At the end of lap 42 Katoh was able to turn the car over to his teammate Kazuho Takahashi with a lead of almost 1 min. 30 sec. When Takahashi got back on the track, that lead had been reduced to just under 30 seconds but he was able to maintain his lead after that. He continued to run in control and maintaining his margin of lead all the way to the finish. For both Takahashi and Katoh this was their first JGTC/SUPER GT victory, and also the first for the new Shinden car that just debuted this season.

Finishing in 2nd place was the No. 7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 driven by Tetsuya Yamano and Hiroyuki Iiri. After falling back earlier in the race, the second place qualifier, No. 96, came back to give chase to the leading No. 2 car but was eventually unable to close the gap.

The battle for 3rd was led in the early stages by the No. 46 Kiccho Houzan DIREZZA Z driven by Kota Sasaki. But, after falling back to last place after the routine pit stop the second driver, Taku Bamba had a collision in the latter half of his drive with the�ANo.13 ENDLESS ADVAN CCI Z (Masami Kageyama > Tomonobu Fujii). This forced another pit stop that left them far behind the field. Furthermore, the No. 61 enable ADVAN VEMAC320R (Nobuteru Taniguchi > Shogo Mitsuyama) was also caught up in this crash and came to a stop at the side of the course. Although it classified as a finish for No. 61, they ended up with no points. On the other hand, the 7th-place qualifier, No. 11 JIM CENTER FERRARI DUNLOP (Tetsuya Tanaka > Takayuki Aoki). And the 11th-place starter, No. 55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT (Hidetoshi Mitsusada > Daisuke Ikeda) , continued to work up through the field. Due to a spin-out by Ikeda in No. 55, No. 11 moved up into 3rd position at one point only to run out of gas on the 55th lap and have to make a pit stop. They refueled and headed back toward the track but the car came to a stop at the pit exit, thus allowing No. 55 to go on to its first podium finish with a 3rd-place finish.

With these results, the No. 2 team of Kazuho Takahashi and Haruki Katoh moved into 1st position in the season's driver ranking with 86 points. The No. 7 team of Testsuya Yamano and Hiroyuki Iiri stand in 2nd position with 81 points, followed by the�ANo. 61 team of Shogo Mitsuyama and Nobuteru Taniguchi with 75 points. These three teams have a chance to claim the championship on the final race of the season.

Comments

GT500 Class Winner

No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z

Satoshi Motoyama

It has happened rather late in the season but I'm relieved that we finally won a race. Thinking that this was our last chance to win, Matsuda and I promised each other that we would win when we came here. We were able to win because of the efforts of all the staff. Yesterday the Honda was faster than us but we came out today with the aim of winning the race and recording the fastest lap. It was a race that we had to keep pushing the whole way with all our concentration but I was confident we were going to win. Today we achieved our aim of going into the final round of the season with a chance to win the title. And as long as we have a chance, we are going to do our best in the last race, even if we have to make the car run faster than it is now.

Tsugio Matsuda

A lot of things went well this time. I have won here at Autopolis this year in Formula racing as well, so I felt the omens were good. I got a good start in the race, and although I was hit when the ARTA machine (No. 8) ran wide on one turn, but our machine didn't suffer any damage. After No. 8 went into the pit, I was able to run at my own pace. Motoyama-san ran 40 laps with the tires already in bad condition. He did a great job. There are things I can learn from him. In the last race of the season we are going to push hard for as many points as we can get.

GT300 Class Winner

No.2 Privée Zurich Shiden

Kazuho Takahashi

I told Kato-san to "Build at least one lap gap before coming back for the pit stop" (laughs). Since it's a new car there have been lots of problems at the beginning of the season and it is a disadvantage being slow on the straights, but we have finally come this far. Even though we are on top in the ranking now we are only 5 points ahead of the 2nd ranker. But, if we lose this chance, who knows what will happen next year. So, we are going to do our best in the next race.

Hiroki Katoh

It was only decided this morning that I would be starting as the first driver. The starting that had been a problem until now went well this time and I was able to race at my own pace. Still, I was exhausted by the time I turned the wheel over to Takahashi. I was concerned about the second half of the race but I just had to take a rest for a while. With five laps remaining I came back to the pit and it was really tense and exciting (laughs). It was a thrill to get our first win. The satisfaction is even greater because this is the first victory after breaking in and developing this new car. The last race is at the Fuji Speedway, which is not a good track for Shiden, but we don't intend to run defensively.