Race Weather:Fine/Rain | Course:Dry/Wet | Air Temp. 31°C | Track Temp. 43°C

The race started at 14:00. The race started with an upset, as the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Fabio Carbone) was hit from behind and ran off the track in the second curve of the opening lap. Although Carbone was able to get back in the race, it was at the very rear of the GT500 class. This enabled the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda) to move into third position. The pole starter, No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure), and the 2ndplace starter, No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Toranosuke Takagi) held their positions and gradually picked up the pace. Eventually a gap of ten seconds would open up between these two machines.

On the 10th lap the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hoshino) and No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Dominik Schwager) got caught up in the solo spin-out of a back-lapper and both machines ended up dropping out of the race. Two laps later the No. 3 YellowHat YMS MobaHO! TOMICA Z (Sebastien Philippe) ran off the track. Philippe managed to get back into the race but only after losing much ground.
One third of the way into the race, just after lap 21 action began in the pit area. On the 25th lap, the No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z (Richard Firman > Satoshi Motoyama) and the No. 35 BANDAI 00 DUNLOP SC430 (Peter Dumbreck > Naoki Hattori) both made their pit stops at the same time in the midst of a close battle for 6th position. The No.23 crew managed its pit work faster and returned to the track first with a substantial lead.


No.6 Forum Eng. SC430 The top-running No. 18 and 2nd-place runner No. 38 both pulled into the pit at the same time on lap 30. Ryo Michigami took the wheel of No. 18 and Yuji Tachikawa took over the wheel of No. 38. It is common for the NSX teams to change only their rear tires, but this time they changed all four tires. In the pit work, the No. 38 team was more than five seconds faster, but the size of the margin No. 18 had built up prevented a change in position.

By the time all the cars had completed their pit stops, No. 18 was in the lead followed by No. 38 in second and No.22 in third. No.18 was suffering from irregularities in its transmission performance and Michigami was keeping his pace down to only what he needed to maintain his margin over No.38. That margin was fluctuating back and forth around 8 seconds.
Behind them the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO Z (Satoshi Motoyama) had the No. 8 ARTA NSX (Daisuke Ito) close on its tail locked in a fierce battle for 6th position. This battle between the two season ranking leaders continued until lap 43 when they collided while running side-by-side in the "S" curve and both ran off the track. Although they managed to get back into the race, neither finished in the points. The collision was subject to an official review, which led to a drive-trough penalty for No.23. After this, both cars returned to the pit to change tires and try to salvage at least some fastest-lap points, but neither succeeded.


No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z Meanwhile, the top three machines continued to run lap after lap with little change in the margins between them. Most thought the race would end that way, but there was one more drama waiting. On lap 58, with five laps left in the race, No. 38 suddenly began to slow down. Even an attempt to coast down the downhill straight failed and Tachikawa was forced to bring his crippled machine to a stop. The apparent engine trouble robbed the team of what had appeared to be a certain podium finish.
This moved No. 22 into 2nd place, while the 9th-position starter, the No. 6 Forum Eng.SC430 (Tatsuya Kataoka > Bjorn Wirdheim), moved into 3rd-place. At the wheel of No. 6 during the first half of the race, Kataoka had passed No. 8, the No. 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 (Manabu Orido/Takeshi Tsuchiya) and others. His teammate Wirdheim had also maintained a strong pace and moved up steadily in position.

There were no further changes in the order of the top runners before the checkered at the end of lap 63. The winning No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure) had managed no better than a 2nd place this season despite winning the pole position five times. Their long-awaited first victory of the season was also the 7th consecutive win in seven years for Honda at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit. Finishing 2nd was the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm/Tsugio Matsuda) and 3rd was the No. 6 Forum Eng.SC430. For both of these teams it was their first podium finish since round three.
The present leaders in the drivers' ranking, the pair from No. 8 ARTA NSX, finished 12th this time. Even their effort to win some points with a fastest lap in the closing seven laps of the race after a tire change failed to bring them any points. Although the ranking order did not change, it will be a much tougher fight for the title now with two races remaining in the series.

No.43 ARTA Garaiya
In the GT300 class race, the pole starter, No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi), was passed at the start by the 2nd-position starter, the No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE(Nobuteru Taniguchi > Dominik Farnbacher). After that, No. 43 was also passed by the 3rd-position starter, the No. 5 KUMHO Pro( MACH-GO 320R (Hironori Takeuchi/ Tetsuji Tamanaka). Of these top three, the first to make its pit stop was No. 43, but the timing of its return to the track was bad and it was unable to pick up the pace due to the GT500 machines and back-lappers ahead of it. When No. 26 made its pit stop after that, the added amount of fuel it needed compared to No. 43 prolonged the stop, but they were still able to return to the track with a lead over No. 43. Meanwhile, No. 5 took long enough for its pit work that it was passed by No.43. In contrast, the 4th-place runner, the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa > Shinsuke Shibahara), succeeded in returning to the track in front of No. 43 and No.5 due to some very quick pit work. This made No. 26 the leader followed by No. 62 and No. 43 in 2nd and 3rd. These three machines maintained their positions to the checkered.

For the victorious No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE(Nobuteru Taniguchi > Dominik Farnbacher) this was the first win for team TAISAN since round four of the 2003 season at Fuji Speedway. According to the team owner, Yasutsune Chiba, this marked their 26th win in SUPER GT/JGTC competition.


No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R
Finishing 2nd was the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Shinsuke Shibahara > Haruki Kurosawa) and in 3rd came the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi). With the additional points earned from this race by these two teams, No. 43 moved into 3rd position in the drivers' ranking and No. 62 into 4th place.

The point leader until now, the No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima/Hiroaki Ishiura), managed to pass about ten machines from its start at the very back of the grid but failed to finish in the points, due in part to a brush with another machine during the race. And, despite succeeding in winning some fastest lap points, No. 101 lost the ranking lead to the No. 2 Priv_e KENZO Asset Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh), which finished 6th in this race.