2008 SUPER GT Round4

Weather:Clear | Course:dry | Air Temp. 31°C | track surface Temp. 40°C

The race started at just after 16:00 in the afternoon. On the first corner of the opening lap the No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval) made a half-spin., apparently due contact with the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Sebastien Philippe) running just behind it. No.12 suffered damage to its front end and was forced to return to the pit for repairs. This caused both machines to drop far back in the competition. Meanwhile, the No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) starting from 4th position on the grid passed the No. 17 REAL NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi) to come through the first lap in third position.
The pole starter, No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Michael Krumm), and the number two qualifier, the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman), continued to run lap after lap in that order. The gap between them gradually widened, and by lap ten No. 22 had a nearly 5-sec. lead. After that, however, No. 22 was unable keep its pace, and by lap 23, Firman had closed the gap to 1.5 sec.

No.22 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R At the end of lap 25, No. 22 and No. 1 in second position both made their pit stops at the same time. Both teams changed all four tires, refueled and made their driver changes, with .Masataka Yanagida replacing Krumm at the wheel of No.22 and Takuya Izawa taking over from Firman in the No.1 machine. The two cars returned to the track with the gap between them virtually unchanged. But, within a few laps No. 1 had closed in on the tail of No. 22. Finally, on the first corner of lap 30 Izawa in the No.1 machine pulled up alongside Yanagida in No.22 and the two machines went into the 3rd corner side-by-side. This resulted in a collision that sent No. 22 into a half-spin that allowed No. 1 to move into the lead. No. 1 was judged to be at fault in the collision, however, and assigned a drive-through penalty. When the penalty was run on lap 35, No. 22 was back in the lead.
The penalty had dropped Izawa in the No. 1 machine back to 4th position, but he quickly began to push toward the front again. On the first corner of lap 37 Izawa passed the No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure > Ryo Michigami) to move into 3rd. From there he went on to close the gap on No. 24 (Seiji Ara) until his machine suddenly began fall off the pace on lap 47. Violent lateral shaking during braking told Izawa that something was clearly wrong with his machine and he had no choice but to bring it back to the pit on lap 48. Perhaps because of the earlier collision, the nut on the right wheel had loosened. By the time it was tightened and he was able to return to the track, Izawa had dropped to 11th position.
Meanwhile, Ara in car No. 24 was closing in on the leader Yanagida in car No. 22. By lap 45 the gap was down to 0.6 sec. On the next lap it was 0.5 sec. and at the end of lap 47 it was 0.3 sec. By this point a tight tail-to-nose race had developed between the two leaders. Exiting the second corner of lap 50, No. 22 suddenly lost acceleration and No. 24 easily slipped past into the lead. After the race, Yanagida (No. 22) commented that he had pressed the pit lane switch by mistake.

No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX Having taken the lead in this way, Ara (No. 24) ran on unchallenged to the checkered at the end of lap 54. For the No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira /Seiji Ara) it was the first win of the season, and their first since this same round at Sepang last season. This gave the team its second straight Sepang victory.
Second place went to the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Michael Krumm/Masataka Yanagida). Having looked like the clear winner with just ten laps remaining, it was a disappointing podium for the No. 22 pair, but it gave the GT-R its third 1-2 finish of the season.
Third place went to the No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure). This was there second consecutive 3rd-place podium finish following the last round at Fuji Speedway. Finishing 4th was the No. 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 (Takeshi Tsuchiya/Hiroaki Ishiura). While driving the second half of the race, a malfunction in his cool suit caused Ishiura to suffer from heat exhaustion and he had to be carried off to the medical tent on a stretcher after finishing the race, but his perseverance won the team valuable points and made his team the top SC430 finisher.

The GT300 class race started off with an upset as the third-place starter, the No. 11 JIMCENTER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka), bumped the second position starter, the No.19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido) on the second curve of the opening lap. No. 19 machine suffered suspension damage that forced it to retire from the race, and No.11 was given a drive-through penalty that dropped it far back in the pack.
This gave 2nd place to the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Niita) momentarily, but it was unable to maintain a fast enough pace to hold that position. It was the No. 2 I.M JIHAN CO.LTD APPLE Shiden (Hiroki Kato) that soon moved into 2nd, with the No.4 EBBRO UEMATSU 320R (Ryohei Sakaguchi) following in 3rd. On lap nine, No. 4 was passed by the No. 7 ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7 (Hiroyuki Iiri), which had been gradually moving up from its 10th-position start.. This move put No. 7 in third position. Continuing its charge, No.7 overtook No.2 on lap 14 and moved into 2nd place.

No.46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z
While all this was happening, the pole starter, the No. 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA (Tetsuya Yamano), continued to lead the race at a fast pace, and by lap 15 it had developed a 10-sec. lead over 2nd place. Back in the pack, the No. 46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z (Kazuki Hoshino), which had jumped up to 7th position early on from its 12th position grid start, continued to push toward the front, moving into 5th position by the 17th lap.
From lap 20 the routine pit stops began. On lap 26, the leader, No. 77, and the 2nd-place runner, No. 7, both made their pit stops at the same time. The two teams changed drivers, with Kota Sasaki replacing Yamano in No.77 and Ryo Orime taking the wheel from Iiri in the No.7 machine. Due to the time required for its pit work, No. 7 returned to the race in 4th position. The No. 2 machine, which had assumed the lead when the two leaders made their pit stop, continued to lead the race until making its own pit stop on lap 34. After changing drivers, No. 2 returned to the race with Kazuko Takahashi at the wheel only to be passed immediately by No. 46 (Hoshino > Hironobu Yasuda) and No. 4 (Sakaguchi > Masaki Matsushita). With this, No. 46 was now in 2nd place and No. 4 in 3rd.
By the time all the teams had finished their pit stops, No. 77 (Sasaki) had returned to the lead. At this point, the gap between No. 77 and No. 46 (Yasuda) in 2nd was now a safe margin of more than 10 sec. that allowed Sasaki to cruise on with little stress.

No.7 ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7
These two leaders went on that way to the checkered. For the No.77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA (Tetsuya Yamano/Kota Sasaki) this was the team's first victory since round five of the 1998 season. Of course, this was also their first win since switching to the all-wheel-drive Impreza machine.
Finishing 2nd for the second race in a row was the No. 46 MOLA LEOPALACE Z (Kazuki Hoshino/Hironobu Yasuda). In the race for 3rd, No. 7 passed No.4 at one point to stand in 3rd position, but No. 4 came back and re-passed on lap 48 to claim 3rd. It looked at that point as if No. 4 was certain of a podium finish, but developed engine trouble on the last lap. Although Matsushita was able to bring the limping No. 4 machine to the finish line, he was passed just before the checkered flag by No. 7 again and had to settle for 4th. His gave the No.7 ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7 (Hiroyuki Iiri/Ryo Orime) its first podium finish since its win in the season opener.