2009 SUPER GT Round5

No.39 DUNLOP SARD SC430 Race day began badly for the eventually victorious No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R. Passing another car while the yellow flag was out during the morning practice session brought a penalty that moved it back from 4th to 6th place on the starting grid. But it didn't take the teams starting driver, Satoshi Motoyama, long to reclaim 4th position after the start of the race.
As the race entered the 26th lap, a light rain began to fall from the western end of the course. The NISMO team gave its driver Motoyama the signal to return to the pit once he had completed the 27 laps required for one driver in a race under the SUPER GT regulation (the total driving time per driver may not exceed 2 / 3 of the race distance). Motoyama brought the No. 1 car into the pit at the end of lap 28 and turned the wheel over to teammate Benoit Treluyer as the crew changed the tires to shallow-grove rain tires.
The No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim) running in the lead at this point waited until the 34th lap to make its pit stop and sent its second stint driver, Daisuke Ito, back into the race on deep-slit rain tires. At this time the rain was falling harder that at first and it looked as if the Team LeMans tactics would prevail over that of the Nismo team.

No.18 ROCKSTAR DOME NSX However, two-thirds of the way into the race, the rain began to lighten and dry patches were being worn along the running lines. This reversed the advantage and the lap times of Treluyer in car No. 1 began to exceed those of Ito in car No. 6 by several seconds per lap. At one point Treluyer was running nearly 10 seconds faster per lap than Ito and the gap between closed rapidly.
With such a difference in speed, Ito in car No. 6 could do nothing but surrender the lead when Treluyer in car No. 1 caught and passed him on the first corner of lap 66.
Although a light rain began to fall again in the latter stages of the race, but the pace of Treluyer in car No. 1 barely slackened at all, as he raced on to the finish and victory with a 20-sec. lead over the 2nd place. This gave the No. 1 team their second victory of the season following their win in round three at Fuji Speedway and also moved them into first place in the season ranking. This victory was also sweet reconciliation for the lost opportunity in the last round at Sepang, where they had won the pole position but were forced to start from the pit due to transmission trouble that developed just before the start. Also, this win broke that Nissan jinx here at SUGO that had seen no Nissan car ever win a GT500 class race at SUGO in the entire history of Super GT and its predecessor, JGTC, since its launch on 1994.

No.6 ENEOS SC430 Finishing 2nd was the No. 39 DUNLOP SARD SC430 (Andre Couto/Kohei Hirate). Starting from 6th on the grid, their best position so far this season, the team kept its position through the early stages of the race. Then, making its pit stop and changing to rain tires on lap 35 proved to be perfect timing. Its Dunlop rain tires fit the track conditions just right after that and it was able to move up to 4th position on lap 35 and then pass the No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli/Hironobu Yasuda) to take 3rd position on lap 41. On the final turn of lap 71 it passed the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 to move into 2nd place and race on that way to its first podium finish of the season. This is the team's first podium finish since its 3rd-place finish in round eight at Autopolis in the 2007 series. For Kohei Hirate this is his first podium finish in the GT500 class.
Finishing 3rd was the No. 18 ROCKSTAR DOME NSX (Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure). Starting from 4th position on the grid (after qualifying 5th), it lost some ground in the early stages of the race but was able to recover it after the rain began. In the later stages of the race Kogure was running at a pace a few seconds faster per lap than the other machines and caught and passed the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Yuji Ide/Shinya Hosokawa) with one lap remaining. This gave the team their second podium finish of the season following the 2nd at the opening round.
The No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX started from 13th position on the grid but at one point had risen to within podium finish range. Finally, however, it was passed by No. 18 to finish a disappointed 4th.
Even more disappointing were the fates of the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 and No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli/Hironobu Yasuda). No. 6 suffered a tire-surface blow-off in the latter stages of the race that dropped it to 5th position. On the other hand, car No. 3 had won the pole position but was unable to hold a competitive pace in the rain and eventually slipped back to a 9th-place finish.

No.2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden
The winner of the GT300 class was the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Mitsuhiro Kinoshita/Masami Kageyama) that had started from 2nd position. Making its pit stop on lap 31 and changing to shallow-slit rain tires, No. 33 was unable to maintain position during the worst of the rain, falling to 5th position at one point. When the rain lessened and the track began to dry, however, it regained ground. On lap 57 it emerged the winner of a battle for 3rd with the other Porsche machine, the No. 26 UP START TAISAN PORCHE (Tsubasa Abe/Tsubasa Kurosawa), and on the first corner of lap 60 it passed the No. 2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) to claim 2nd position. On lap 64 it almost ran off the track but managed to recover with no damage. Then, on lap 67 it finally caught and passed the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki/Tomonobu Fujii).

No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 After taking the lead, No. 33 continued to widen the gap and run on to victory unchallenged. This brought the team their second win of the season, following their victory in round 2 at Suzuka. Due to the effects of the current economic downturn, this team will only been able to compete in four rounds, and this represented their second win in two entries.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto). After starting from 4th position on the grid, No. 2 dropped to 7th position at one point, but managed to recover and move up to 2nd position after the change to rain tires. When the rain let up and the track began to dry its momentum was lost. The decision was made to return to the pit and change to slick tires. That enabled it to chase the leaders again at a fast pace. Although it didn't prevail over the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE, it managed to finish an impressive 2nd.
In 3rd came the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka), which also successfully gained by changing to slick tires in the latter stages of the race. Despite having fallen to 9th position at one point, a valiant charge by Hiranaka brought the team its first podium finish of the season.