2009 SUPER GT Round8

No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Ralph Firman was the starting driver for the pole-sitting ARTA NSX (No. 8). At the first corner after the start, Andre Lotterer in the PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 got past Firman in the ARTA NSX to take the lead. These two lead machines were running on different types of tires, however, and this caused No. 36 on the softer tires to make an early pit stop at the end of lap 22. Here the wheel was turned over to Juichi Wakisaka, the car refueled and all four tires change in a total pit time of 29.7 sec. Meanwhile, running on medium-firm tires in car No. 8, Firman held off until lap 31 before making returning to the pit. Here, the ARTA team also chose to change all four tires. With Takuya Izawa now at the wheel, No. 8 succeeded in returning to the track in front of No. 36.
On lap 35 of the race a car caught fire at trackside on the fifth corner, bringing out the safety car. The fire was quickly extinguished but it took time to clean up the spilled oil on the track, keeping the race behind the safety car for four laps. This immediately narrowed the gaps between the competitors. When the race recommenced at the end of lap 39, Izawa in car No.8 accelerated brilliantly and managed to open up a margin of lead over Wakisaka in No. 36. After that, Izawa (No. 8) maintained a fast pace. In the latter stages of the race, car No. 36 (Wakisaka) began to lose tire grip and the gap between the two leaders widened to more than nine seconds. At the finish, No. 8 took the checkered first with No. 36 trailing by 8.8 sec.
This was the second win of the season for the No. 8 ARTA NSX, following its victory at Fuji in round seven. And in this way they provided a last glory run for the Honda NSX machine, which retires from SUPER GT competition with this season.

No.17 KEIHIN NSX Finishing 2nd was the No. 36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer). Although they missed the win today, the points for this finish and the fact that the ranking leader going into today’s race, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer), ended in a no-pointer, lifted Wakisaka and Lotterer to the top of the season ranking and the 2009 Driver’s title. This result also gave PETRONAS TOM'S the Team’s title. This is the second title for Wakisaka and Lotterer, who were also the Driver Champions in 2006. For LEXUS TEAM PETRONAS TOM'S, this is their second consecutive team title.
Finishing 3rd in today’s race was the No.17 KEIHIN NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi). Despite having started the race from 9th position on the grid, a strategy of changing only the two rear tires shortened their pit time enough to move them up through the field. In the latter stages of the race Koudai Tsukakoshi turned in a brilliant performance, managing to pass the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) and the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito). This gave the team their second podium finish of the season, following a 2nd in round four at Sepang.

Meanwhile, the ranking leader coming into this round, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R, was desperately trying to gain ground with Benoit Treluyer driving hard, until disaster struck on lap 17 just before the scheduled pit stop, when one of the tires gave out. A flying piece of the punctured tire also damaged the rear fender, thus requiring a long pit stop for repairs and dropping the team out of contention for ranking points. As a result, 2nd place in the season ranking went to the No. 8 ARTA NSX team of Ralph Firman and Takuya Izawa and 3rd place to Satoshi Motoyama of the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R team, with teammate Benoit Treluyer ranking 4th.

In the GT300 class race, the pole-sitter No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Tomonobu Fujii) began to run away in the lead in the early going. Behind it, the teams involved in the title race battled fiercely for position, as Fujii (No. 81) continued to build his lead.

No.7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7
No. 81 made its pit stop a nearly the mid-point in the race on lap 26. With the Ferrari’s relatively large gas consumption, the pit stop took 33.6 sec. However, the lead built up by Fujii was enough to keep them effectively in the lead when Takayuki Aoki returned to the track as the second-stint driver.
On the next lap the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi) made its pit stop. Rather than trying to shorten pit time, the team elected to change all four tires, but the engine failed to start immediately after the change and it eventually took more than 50 seconds to complete the pit stop.
This delay took much of the pressure off of Aoki running in the lead in car No. 81. Even after the 4-lap safety car run a number of back-markers between No. 81 and 2nd place No. 7 eliminated any immediate danger of losing the lead.
The checkered came out when the GT500 class leaders finished their 53rd lap. This gave the No. 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Ferrari (Takayuki Aoki/Tomonobu Fujii) their second win of the season, following the win at Fuji in round seven.

No.19 Weds Sport IS350 Finishing 2nd came the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Ryo Orime). After dropping to 4th position following the team’s long pit stop, second-stint driver Orime pushed hard to pass the No. 2 APPLE•K-one•Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) on lap 32 and the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka) on lap 33, and then begin closing in on No. 81 (Aoki). Orime had closed the gap with the leading No. 81 to less than a second when the race ended. Although he missed taking the top spot on the winners podium, it had been a spectacular race. No. 7 had suffered machine trouble after the morning free practice and been forced to change its engine. But the mechanics had been able to complete the replacement in about three hours to enable this amazing performance.
Finishing 3rd was the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Manabu Orido/ Tatsuya Kataoka). In the early stages of the race it had trailed the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 but a no-tire-change pit strategy saved valuable time. Although second-stint driver Kataoka would suffer from lack of grip in the closing stages of the race, he was able to hold off the charge of the No. 11 JIMGAINER ADVAN F430 (Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka).
These results gave the Driver Championship title to the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 drivers Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka) along with the Team Championship title.
Among the other title contenders, the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) was run off the track in a racing accident with No. 11. The time lost in working its ay out of the gravel after that dropped it out of the competition to end with a no-pointer. The No. 2 APPLE･K-one･Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto) suffered exhaust trouble that forced it back to the pit and eventually out of the race (although the record was a completed race). The No. 46 S Road MOLA Z (Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka Yanagida) suffered from a choice of tires that didn’t fit the final track conditions and could only manage to finish 7th. In this way both teams failed to race up to potential in the final contest of the season.