2008 SUPER GT Round3

Weather:Clear | Course:dry | Air Temp. 23°C | track surface Temp. 35°C

The race started at 14:00. The skies cleared of the morning began to change as a humid breeze blew in and dark clouds began to form over the surrounding mountains, but it did not rain.


In the early stages of the race the No. 17 REAL NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi) lost a couple of places, dropping from 4th on the starting grid to 6th before 10th lap. Meanwhile, the pole-sitter No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure) was running strong in the lead lap after lap until the Dunlop Corner of the 22nd lap, when Kogure spun out and off the track while running alone. Although Kogure managed to get back on the track almost immediately, he lost the lead to the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa). At this point the order of the top six runners was No. 38, No. 18, the No. 35 houzan KRAFT SC430 (Peter Dumbreck), the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Yuji Ide), No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer), and the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval).
At the end of lap 26, the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman) was the first of the GT500 class to make its pit stop. They changed the two rear wheels and refueled, with Firman remaining at the wheel. After the 30th lap the other teams began to make their first pit stop. The 2nd-place runner, No. 18, made its pit stop on lap 33, while the leader, No. 38, waited until lap 38. Kogure remained at the wheel of No. 18, while No. 38 changed drivers from Tachikawa to Richard Lyons.

No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 After the 42nd lap, all of the GT500 machines except the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO GT-R had completed their pit stops. By running fuel-efficient, the strategy of the No. 23 team was to complete the race with only one pit stop. During its pit stop, the No. 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 committed a violation and was given a drive-through penalty. At this point, the order of the top six machines was No. 38 (Lyons) followed by No. 35 (Dumbreck), No. 100 (Ide), No. 18 (Kogure), No. 32 (Duval) and No. 36 (Lotterer).
That order changed when No. 32 spun out while trying to pass No. 18 on the first corner of lap 48. As a result No. 32 ended up being passed by No. 36. This moved No. 36 into 4th position.
At the end of lap 65, No. 1 made its second pit stop, changing drivers from Firman to Takuya Izawa and changing all four tires. In contrast, No. 18 and No. 100 shortened their pit time by changing only their rear tires. No. 18 changed drivers (Kogure > Ryo Michigami) on lap 69 and No. 100 changed drivers (Ide > Shinya Hosokawa) on the next lap. Later, both No. 35 and No. 36 would change all four tires, but the TOM’S team (No. 36) had faster pit work and when the leaders had returned to the track the new order was No.36 (Juichi Wakisaka), No. 35 (Tatsuya Kataoka), No. 100 (Hosokawa) and No. 18 (Michigami).

No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX The leader, No. 38, was the last to male its pit stop on lap 75. They changed drivers again from Lyons to Tachikawa and returned to the track still in the lead. Behind No. 38, however, four cars were closing the gap, led by No. 36 and with No. 18 bringing up the rear.
Still, Tachikawa in No. 38 was able to run a time on par with his rivals on the first lap out of the pit despite the fact that his tires were not yet warmed up compared to theirs. And after that he continued to defend his lead.
Meanwhile the competition between the cars in 2nd to 5th places heated up. On lap 96 Michigami in No. 18 passed No. 35 (Kataoka), and on the first corner of the next lap Hosokawa in car No. 100drew up along side No. 36 (Wakisaka) and slipped by on the inside on the Coca Cola Corner. These changes put No. 100 in 2nd followed by No. 36 in 3rd, No. 18 in 4th and No. 35 5th in a mix of NSX and SC430 machines.
With five laps remaining it looked as if there would be no more changes in the order, but on hairpin turn on lap 106 Hosokawa (No. 100) spun out while running alone and was passed by No. 36 (Wakisaka) and No. 18 (Michigami).
With this, the two SC430 machines, No. 38 and No. 36 went on to a 1-2 finish.
The victory went to No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa / Richard Lyons). It was the first win for the SC430 since round six of last year’s series, the Suzuka 1000km. This win also extends Tachikawa’s record for most SUPER GT/JGTC wins to 10. For Lyons, this was his first win as a Toyota driver. Having also scored wins with Honda and Nissan teams, Lyons became only the second driver in GT history to win GT500 races driving for all three of the major domestic makers (the first was Jeremie Dufour).

In the GT300 class, the team strategies were divided between those that would make two pit stops during the race and those that could take advantage of better fuel economy to make one pit stop suffice.
Among the top qualifiers, the No. 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA, the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE and the No. 110 KUMHO BOXSTER-G were some of the teams running on a 2-pit-stop strategy. These teams ran hard from the early stages of the race, and among them, car No. 33 (Masami Kageyama) took the lead by lap three, until it was passed by car No. 77 (Kota Sasaki) on lap 12. There was a machine contact some 5 laps later between No. 33 and No. 110 while battling for third that forced them both to return to pits early and lose position. Benefiting from this mishap, Sasaki in car No.77 was able to pull away at a strong pace. After the 30th lap, Sasaki had a 20-second lead over the next machine.

No.46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z
Meanwhile, the pole-sitter, the No. 95 Lightning McQueen apr MR-S (Kohei Hirate), was running on a one-pit-stop strategy. Running conservatively to save fuel, Hirate dropped to 4t position at one point. However, when Sasaki in car No. 77 made his pit stop on lap 39, Hirate (No. 95) regained the lead. On lap 50, Hirate made his pit stop and turned the wheel over to teammate Keisuke Kunimoto. This dropped them back in the pack until the other teams made their second pit stop, allowing Kunimoto to regain the lead once again. Furthermore, a violation for passing another machine during a yellow flag brought a 10-sec. Stop and Go penalty on car No. 77 that made it lose significant ground and any chances of a finish among the leaders.
This allowed the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden to move up. In the early stages of the race, Hiroki Katoh had driven car No. 2 at a fast pace after starting 16th on the grid. Continuing to pass the opponents in front of him at a clip of about one car every two laps, Katoh had moved into 4th position by lap 27. And, by waiting as long as possible before making his pit stop, he was tentatively in the lead by lap 50. He finally pulled into the pit on lap 56, and when they returned to the track with teammate Kazuho Takahashi now at the wheel, they were in 3rd position.
Also running on a one-pit-stop strategy, the No. 46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z (Kazuki Hoshino) had been moving up steadily as well. After the making their pit stop and giving the wheel to Hironobu Yasuda, car No. 46 was in 5th position. And, after car No. 77 dropped back and Yasuda, who had already passed No. 2 (Takahashi) into 3rd position, now found himself in2nd place, with No. 2 in 3rd. Behind No. 2, another car running on a one-pit-stop strategy, the No. 31 DOUBLEHEAD avex apr MR-S (Yuya Sakamoto > Kyosuke Mineo), was closing in.

No.2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden
In the lead in car No. 95, Kunimoto was maintaining a steady pace that enabled him to keep a safe margin between himself and 2nd-place Yasuda in car 2 No. 46 going into the final stages of the race. Behind them a battle for 3rd was unfolding between Takahashi in car No.2 and Mineo in car No. 31. This dogfight came down to the last corner of the last lap, when Mineo’s machine (No. 31) slid just enough to allow Takahashi (No. 2) to hang on to his lead and claim 3rd by a mere 0.124 sec. at the finish. While this was happening, No. 95 Lightning McQueen apr MR-S (Kohei Hirate/Keisuke Kunimoto) had already taken the checkered as the race winner. For this young pair of drivers it was their first GT victory, coming off their first Super Lap qualifying and first pole position the day before. For Kunimoto, who is just 19 years and four months old, this win gave him the record for the youngest driver ever to win a GT race, beating the old record of 19 years and seven months held by Yuhi Sekiguchi (at round 5, 2007). Second place went to car No. 46 (Kazuki Hoshino/Hironobu Yasuda) and 3rd place to the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh).