2009 SUPER GT Round7

The victorious No. 8 ARTA NSX had recorded the 2nd fastest time in Saturday's qualifying. However, the fact that the team had to change their car's engine before this event brought a penalty under the SUPER GT regulation that dropped them 10 places on the starting grid to 12th position.

No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R The race started with a major upset, as the pole-sitting No. 32 EPSON NSX (Loic Duval) was hit by the No.6 ENEOS SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim), spun out and was only able to rejoin the race at the very back of the GT500 pack. There were other collisions as well that caused big changes in the race order. Wirdheim in car No. 6 was given a drive-through penalty that dropped his position significantly.
Car No. 8' starting driver, Ralph Firman, managed to come through this confusion unscathed and move up in position to the single digits. After that, Firman continued to move up through the pack, passing the No. 3 HASEMI TOMICA EBBRO GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) on lap 10 and the No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) on lap 13. On lap 20 he also passed the No.24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) to move into 2nd position. Then, on last turn of lap 25 Firman skillfully passed the leading No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Andre Lotterer) to finally take the lead.

No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 After that the leading teams began to make their routine pit stops. No. 36 made its pit stop on lap 31 and No.8 made its on lap 33. The pit work of No.36 was faster, and by the time all the teams had finished their pit stops, Juichi Wakisaka in car No.36 was in the lead with Takuya Izawa in car No. 8 in 2nd position. But the pace of Izawa in car No.8 was faster than that of Wakisaka in No. 36 and the gap between the two began to close steadily. On lap 38, Izawa caught Wakisaka on and passed him on the inside at the Dunlop Corner to take back the lead.
After that, Izawa (No. 8) continued to widen the gap over the machines behind him and in the final laps ran a controlled race to the finish. With this, the ARTA NSX team achieved a stunning come-from-behind victory that had begun from 12th position on the starting grid. For the ARTA team it was their first win since round 8 of the 2007 season at Autopolis. For Takuya Izawa, this was his first career win in SUPER GT competition. For the Honda NSX teams, this was their first win since round 5 at SUGO last year.

Finishing 2nd came the No.1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer), and finishing 3rd was the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer). These are the two cars that had 2nd and 3rd in the Saturday qualifying. In the early stages of the race when No.1 lost the lead, No.36 moved to the front. But due to the speed of its pit work, however, No.1 (Treluyer) was able to close the gap and move up on the tail of No.36 (Wakisaka). Then, with two laps remaining, Treluyer succeeded in passing No. 36 on the last corner and regain 2nd place.
From these results, No.1 (Motoyama) remains the leader in the drivers ranking with 68 points. Following Motoyama's teammate Treluyer (58 points) in 3rd place in the ranking come this race's winners, the No. 8 drivers Firman and Izawa with 53 points tied with the No. 36 pair of Wakisaka and Lotterer.

The GT300 class winner, the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Tomonobu Fujii), started the race from 2nd position on the grid. When the pole-sitting No. 88 triple a GALLARDO RG-3 (Yuya Sakamoto) lost position on the first corner of the opening lap, Fujii in car No. 81 took the lead for a while. But on the first corner of next lap, however, Fujii was passed by the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama) and dropped to 2nd position. He was passed again on the lap after that by the No. 87 giraffa GALLARDO RG-3 (Hiroyuki Iiri), dropping to 3rd position.

No.11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430
After that, the pace of No. 33 slowed and it battled with No. 81 for a while, with the lead changing hands several times until the time came for their routine pit stops. Joining in this battle after that came the No. 55 J-TRUST F-PRO OUTOKITTO PORSCHE (Yutaka Yamagishi), which had continued an impressive race up through the field from its 17th position on the starting grid. This marked the start of an exciting battle between the Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. After changing drivers to Hiroshi Koizumi for the second half of the race, unexpected trouble struck car No. 55 when its door fell off, dropping it out of the competition for the lead. Before that, car No. 33 (Kageyama > Mitsuhiro Kinoshita) had also dropped back, leaving No. 81 (Fujii > Takayuki Aoki) in the lead.
Behind No. 81, the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Tatsuya Kataoka > Manabu Orido) and the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka > Katsuyuki Hiranaka) were moving up. In mid-race, up until lap 38, No. 19 had led No. 11, but on lap 41, Hiranaka (No. 11) passed Orido (No. 19) to move into 2nd position.
When No. 81 made its pit stop, only the two left-side tires were changed in order to save time, and as the wear increased on the unchanged right –side tires in the latter stages of the race, its lap times began to drop. This allowed No. 11 to quickly close in from 2nd position.
The ensuing battle between the two Ferraris continued right down to the final lap, with the two cars bumping each other lightly a number of times and coming through the turns side-by-side. At the Prius Corner, Hiranaka in car No. 11 finally managed to take the lead, only to lose it again with a braking mistake just before the last turn of the race. This allowed Aoki in No. 81 to move up along side Hiranaka on the inside of the last turn as Hiranaka drifted to the outside. Still, Hiranaka (No. 11) tried to move into the lead again, but Aoki (No. 81) had better acceleration coming out of the turn and managed to beat No. 11 to the finish line be a car's length.

No.66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 Despite several close chances this season, the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari had been unable to translate them into wins. As for the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 that just missed victory this time with its disappointing 2nd, they could only concede a fair defeat in the dual on the final lap.
Finishing 3rd came the No. 66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 (Koji Yamanishi > Atsushi Yogo). After only managing to qualify 12th, the No. 66 team rose through the pack steadily from the early stages of the race and won the battle for 3rd with the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 in the latter stages of the race to win its first podium finish of the season.
The season ranking leader up until this race, the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya team (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) finished 7th today after an unfortunate brush-up with another machine. The 2nd ranked No. 2 Apple･K-one･Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) up until this race managed to finished 5th today. And, because the 3rd ranked No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka) was able to finish 4th today, the three teams of Nitta/ Takagi, Katoh and Orido/Kataoka now all stand tied for the ranking lead with 68 points each. (Because Yoshimoto didn't participate in the opening round, he ranks 4th)