GT500

Friday and Saturday were overcast, but skies were clear on Sunday. Naturally, the course was dry and conditions were not bad with the temperature at 21°C. and the track surface temperature at 26°C.

The race started at 2:00 with the formation lap. Sitting on the pole position, No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval) was feeling the pressure from No. 35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 (Peter Dumbreck) in 2nd position on the grid and got off a good start to pass through the first corner in the top spot. Following were No. 35, No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA Z (Naoki Yokomizo), and No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z (Masataka Yanagida), the same positions as on the starting grid.

On the other hand, 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. Probably due to the collision, No. 8 suffered a flat tire on the right rear in the second lap, and although it returned to the pit to replace the tire and came back to the race, the drive through penalty they received because of the collision with No. 23 Z.

Behind these two machines was No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer), standing second in the rankings, that had started from 7th position on the grid and had moved up to 5th on lap 3. Lotterer maintained a steady pace to hold on to the position.

Battling for the top spot, No. 32 managed to pull away from No. 35 who was pushing hard and by lap 15 had built up a 10-second margin. At this point, the machine standing at the top of the rankings, No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Sebastien Philippe), starting from 13th position on the grid, had moved up to 10th and in range for points. Had it maintained this position to the finish line, it would have taken the title, but some steady driving was necessary. However, when it tried to overtake No. 23 XANAVI NISMO Z (Tsugio Matsuda), the two machines made contact and it received a drive through penalty. This pushed it back to 13th and out of point range. Its hopes of capturing the title were now in the hands of its rivals.

No. 32 EPSON NSX was running solidly in the top spot and made its routine pit stop on lap 31. Ordinarily Duval would have continued driving a little more, but on lap 36 Hideki Mutoh took over the wheel. No. 35 (Naoki Hattori) in 2nd place had taken its pit stop earlier on lap 27, and when No. 32 got back on the track the gap was still roughly 10 seconds. All eyes were on the latter half of the race to see whether the veteran Hattori would be able to overtake the rookie Mutoh.

All the front runners had taken their routine pit stops by lap 33, at which point, No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka) had moved up to 4th. At this point, No. 100 (Hosokawa) was in 13th, No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure) was 8th, and No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm/Richard Lyons), which was using a new type of engine from this race, was 7th. If Wakisaka in No. 36 could hold on to this position, they would be assured of the title, and although uncharacteristic for him, he took no chances and drove steadily.

The gap between front runners No. 32 Mutoh and No. 35 Hattori moved back and forth between 10 and 13 seconds. With 15 laps remaining, No. 35 surprisingly began to fall back gradually. No. 24 Seiji Ara, running behind No. 35, closed the gap quickly. In the last 10 laps, the battle for 2nd place intensified between the No. 35 SC430 running on Dunlop tires and No. 24 Nissan running on ADVAN Yokohama tires. A fierce side-by-side battle ensued as both machines grazed each other slightly at times.

Mutoh in the No. 32 EPSON NSX ignored the group following him and drove solidly, taking no chances. In the end, these two GT rookies at the wheel of the NSX put up an impressive pole-to-finish win in this final race of the season. The battle for 2nd lasted until the last lap. No. 24 Ara overtook No. 35 Hattori on the last lap and that appeared to be it. But just before the last corner, Hattori worked his SC430 inside of Ara. A scant 0.322 second margin separated the machines as the red SC crossed the finish line to take 2nd place. This gave Dunlop tire users a 1-2 finish.

The race for the drivers' title was won by No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 driven by the team of Wakisaka and Lotterer thanks to their solid 4th-place finish, which put them just one slim point ahead of No. 100 driven by the team of Philippe and Hosokawa. This was the second title for Waskisaka since capturing the one in 2002, and the first for Lotterer. The team title also went to No. 36 TOYOTA TEAM TOM'S.

GT300

Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 captures title!
TOY STORY Racing MR-S wins race for first victory this season

In the GT300 class, No. 777 Ryozanpaku apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima), which took the pole in qualifying, was late getting his engine started and could not get to the starting dummy grid, making it a pit start for them, raising the curtain on a race full of turmoil. But with the way things would develop later, this was nothing more than a preface to an unbelievable drama.

In effect, this put No. 19 WedsSport Celica (Koji Matsuda) in the top starting position, but it was overtaken by No. 9 NOMAD ADVAN LeyJun MT (OSAMU) that had a faster top speed on the main straight. What's more, No. 26 CARCHS TOMO TAISAN GT3 (Shinichi Yamaji), starting from 10th position on the grid, drove at a remarkable pace to improve positions by moving up to 6th during the opening lap, then to 4th on lap 4, 3rd on lap 9, and 2nd on lap 10. No. 26 then went on to whittle away the gap with the leader and was in range by the time 25 laps had passed. However on lap 28, No. 9 running in the GT500 class made contact with it. No. 26 was just barely able to avoid more serious trouble, but in the interval he allowed No. 19 and the machine behind it, No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa), to pull in front. But then No. 19 and No. 62 went into the pit. With this, No. 26 was able to take back top position, and the damage to the suspension of the No. 9 machine forced it to retire.

This provided the opportunity for each of the machines to go into the pit. Front-running No. 26 made its pit stop at the end of lap 35, but the work took a little time and the wheel was handed over to Kazuyuki Nishizawa. When he returned to the course, it had fallen out of podium contention. On the other hand, No. 777 which had to make a pit start, had put up successive fastest laps and was moving up. It put off making its pit stop until lap 40 and finally took provisional possession of the top spot. In a daring ploy to save time, the tires were not changed and pit work time was shortened to 18 seconds. When it returned to the course it was still holding on to the top spot. But as may be imagined, traction was down and Minoru Tanaka spun. He wasn't able to move up the pace from then and his position fell. With this, No. 62 Shinsuke Shibahara was in the top spot, No. 101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi), who had finished their pit work on lap 25, were in 2nd, and rounding out the top three was No. 19 Shigekazu Wakisaka. These positions would not change until the last lap where a big surprise was waiting at the last corner.

In what would have been a victory in just a few more seconds, No. 62 ran out of gas and stalled. The machine stopped on the inside of the last corner. This resulted in an upset win for No. 101 and put No. 19 in 2nd. Third place was taken by No. 13 ENDLESS ADVAN CCI Z (Masami Kageyama/Tomonobu Fujii) who had started from 5th place on the grid.

No. 62's stall also had a big impact on the race for series title. Tetsuya Yamano had spun on lap 7 and for a time the No. 7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 (Tetsuya Yamano/Hiroyuki Iiri) had fallen to 22nd place, but managed to recover by changing only two tires instead of all four and had worked its way up to 7th by the last lap. With the leader out that improved to 6th. On the other hand, No. 2 Privée Zurich Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi) had only changed the front tires in a ploy for time that would come back to haunt them. They failed to maintain their position and fell out of point range.

With this, both machines were tied at 86 points. Since No. 7 had finished in the top spots more often, they captured a long-awaited series title. No. 7 also took the team title for its first double crown. It was the third year-on-year title for Tetsuya Yamano. It was his spin that caused them to fall in position, and for a time it seemed that chances for the title had indeed become slim, but the dramatic upset at the end brought tears to his eyes that he could not hold back. This was the first crown for Hiroyuki Iiri. Although they were helped by the retirement of the leader and the penalties on their rivals, the fact that they moved up in position by their own power led to them getting the title in the end.

Comments from winning drivers

GT500 Class Winner

No. 32 EPSON NSX

Loic Duval

I feel great! It wasn't an easy race. We had to go into the pit earlier than planned, and I was worried about hitting one of the other machines. At the end, we were able to establish a ten-second gap over the 2nd place machine. I think this victory is both good for the team and good for Honda.

Hideki Mutoh

I'm simply very happy. I thought I would just maintain the margin Loic had built up, but I was able to increase the gap with the 2nd place machine more than I had imagined. Since there had been some tire trouble in the morning warm-up session, I was praying that there wouldn't be any trouble as I was driving at the end. The tires were perfect, and I think that led to the result of Dunlop tires finishing 1st and 2nd.

GT300 Class Winner

No. 101 TOY STORY Racing MR-S

Morio Nitta

At the last corner, Shinichi told us over the radio that the No. 62 machine had stopped, and the only thing the team members were able to say was 'You're kidding?' They really gave their all this year, so it must have been a humiliating result for them. Still, thanks to everyone we were able to win this last race. I'm so thankful to everyone.

Shinichi Takagi

I was so surprised to see the No. 62 machine stopped (smiling). I hadn't heard anything over the radio from the team; once I'd gotten onto the straight, I was the one who told them. I think that since we got the new-spec engine from the previous race at Autopolis, the machine is much improved, and thanks to the cooperation we've had from Michelin in making good tires for us, we were able to get this win.

Comments from title winners

GT500 Class Champion

No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 / TOYOTA TEAM TOM'S

Juichi Wakisaka

The team, Toyota, TRD, Bridgestone, all of us have been preparing for this race, the team put together a great machine. "Super" Andre worked his way out of the crowd in the early stages of the race. (I was driving the last half) and all I did was drive and look at the positions every lap, check the track surface, avoid making contact with any other machines, and check the pace of the No. 22 machine behind me. The team and Andre did very well. And I'd like to thank all of the fans who gave us their support.

Andre Lotterer

I feel great! I want to thank the team for all the efforts they've made. I'm happy to have joined this team. Winning the season opener at Suzuka gave me confidence, so I thought we could capture the title, and that's what I've been doing. I thought the first three laps would decide today's race, so I figured I would run at a hundred percent.

Masanori Sekiya Team Manager

I have no other words than to say I'm happy. Thinking about next year, it was good to win this title. The issue this year was to get these two spoiled drivers (laughs) to feel good about their driving. Winning the season opener put us on a good roll. Both of them have matured, they say what's on their mind, and also understand the team. Andre did a good job for us in this race and put TOM'S in the groove. I guess in the end, 'Justice wins.' (laughs)

GT300 Class Champion

No. 7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 / RE AMEMIYA RACING

Tetsuya Yamano

I saw heaven and hell out there. (grimaces) I made a simple mistake and lost position, but I did whatever was necessary to make up for it. I thought we had ended up losing the title. But then I saw the No. 2 machine in front of me, so I pushed even harder. I think it was good that we got through this year without any races where we didn't get any points. I want to thank everyone who cheered us on. It's great that I was able to present the team with a title in my GT racing debut. (For me personally) This was my third win in a row in JGTC/SUPER GT, and I'd like to express my thanks to both M-TEC and Reckless. I have no words other than to say I'm very happy.

Hiroyuki Irii

(Yamano) got off a good start and I thought we'd be able to pull it off. When Yamano was driving, I figured our rivals' pace would fall off in the latter half and that's when we'd make our move. Just at that point, he spun, what a nightmare. (grimace) I thought we were finished, but that we shouldn't give up and pushed on to the end. It wasn't easy to pass the machine in front of me and maybe I pushed a little too hard, but our engineer Kohno got on the radio and told me to calm down - that really helped me. To be sure we were lucky, but we gave it all we had to the very end, and that's why we were able to capture the title. I want to thank Mr. Amemiya and the sponsors. That's all I can say now.

Isami Amemiya Team Manager

I'm filled with emotion, that's all. In the ten years I've been involved in GT racing, I've never thought about winning the title. I'm so thankful to everyone, the drivers and the mechanics. When I saw Yamano spin out, I thought it was over. At the end, nobody had any idea what was going on.... Later on the podium with so many spectators around who were happy for us, it made me truly thankful.