2010 SUPER GT Round3

The race started at 14:00 in front of a large gallery of 53,100 spectators. In the pole-sitting No.35 MJ KRAFT SC430, Kazuya Oshima got away from the start line in good form to lead the race n the early stages.
Due to the length of this 400km race, its regulation requires two driver changes during the course of the race. This regulation also enables the teams to employ a variety of different race strategies, such as shortening the first driver stint or choosing to change tires only once, and many of the teams took advantage of these options.

No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Having performed especially well from the first practice session of race weekend, however, the No. 35 MJ KRAFY team decided to go with an orthodox race plan. That meant dividing the race distance into roughly three equal stints. Oshima brought car No. 35 back to the pit at the end of lap 31 for the first driver change to teammate Hiroaki Ishiura, while the crew changed all four tires and refueled, all in the space of 28 seconds. At this point, there were still about four machines that had not made their first pit stop, but when all the pit stops had been completed by lap 42, No. 35 had the lead again. Its margin of lead over the No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 in 2nd place was more than 10 seconds.
Like Oshima in the first stint before him, Ishiura ran on steadily in the lead at a strong pace. He eventually brought the machine back to the pit at the end of lap 63 to turn the wheel over to Oshima again. In this second pit stop all four tires were changed once again. The pit work took a somewhat long 36 seconds, but this didn't affect the race order, as the team's lead margin over 2nd-place car No. 1 had continued to grow during the second stint and its second pit stop had required a similarly long 34 seconds.
In the final stage of the race, Oshima's pace began to slacken somewhat and he was forced to run defensively as the gad narrowed. Still he managed to defend his lead all the way to the finish and the winning checkered. In this way, the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 team scored a perfect pole-to-finish victory without having given up the lead throughout the race. For the No. 35 team, this is their first victory since round six at Suzuka last year and its third in GT500 class competition.

No.6 ENEOS SC430 Finishing 2nd came the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer). As starting drive, Lotterer had strung out his first stint until lap 35 before turning the wheel over to teammate Wakisaka. The second stint ended when Wakisaka brought the machine back to the pit at the end of lap 66 and turned the steering wheel over to Lotterer once again. From there, Lotterer continued to pursue car No. 35 but was unable to catch it before the finish. However, this 2nd-place lifted the PETRONAS TOM'S team to first position in the season ranking.
Finishing 3rd was the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim). This team had gone with a race plan that ended the first stint (Ito) somewhat early at lap 22 and lengthened Wirdheim's stint by to lap 60. In both pit stops the team had changed all four tires. In the latter stages of the race Ito was passed by No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 (Ralph Firman/Yuji Ide) at one point, but when a collision with a GT300 car knocked No. 8 out of the battle for the lead, Ito was able to hold 3rd place unthreatened to the finish.
The 4th place finisher was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons), giving the SC430 camp a clean sweep of the top four places. It turned out to be a glorious “Golden Week” day here at Fuji Speedway for the Lexus teams.
In 5th place came the top HSV-010 GT team, the No. 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi). The top GT-R team in the race was the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) finishing 6th.
Due to a drive train problem just prior to the start, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) had to start the race from the pit lane two laps into the race. Near mid-race, however an engine problem developed, forcing the car to a trackside stop.

In the GT300 class race, the No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Takuto Iguchi) staring in 2nd position on the grid managed to pass the pole-starting No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Mitsuhiro Kinoshita) on the opening lap. No. 33 was also passed by the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hiroki Yoshimoto) on the next lap, giving up 2nd position.
No. 66 went on to catch and pass No. 25 on lap 16 to take the lead. After that, the lead order changed rapidly as some teams opted for shorter first stints and some forewent tire changes to shorten pit time. No. 33 made its pit stop at lap 22 and skipped a tire change in order to get second-stint driver Tomonobu Fujii back in the race as quickly as possible.

No.43 ARTA Garaiya
Meanwhile, the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Yuji Kunimoto) had been moving up steadily through the field. After starting in 4th position on the grid, Kunimoto had moved into 3rd place on lap 23 and passed No. 25 on lap 30 to move into 2nd place. Then on the next lap he succeeded in passing No. 66 to finally take the lead. At the end of lap 34, Kunimoto brought his car No. 74 in for its first pit stop. All four tires were changed and the driver's seat turned over to Takuto Iguchi for the second stint. Iguchi was behind car No. 33 when he got out on the track, but No. 33 developed electronic system trouble on lap 47 and came to a stop at trackside. This put No. 74 (Iguchi) in the lead once a again.
No. 74 returned to the pit for its second pit stop on lap 67. This time they forewent a tire change to cut the pit time to just 21 seconds. Kunimoto took the wheel again for the final stint.
Although Kunimoto (No. 74) was chased hard by the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi＞Morio Nitta＞Takagi) in the final stages of the race, he managed to hold the lead to the checkered and secure the win.
This was the first SUPER GT win for the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr G (Takuto Iguchi/Yuji Kunimoto) team. In the second year since its SUPER GT debut, the COROLLA Axio finally won its first victory here at Toyota's home course.
Finishing 2nd was the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi). It had chased car No. 74 right down to the final lap but fell just short of catching it.

No.66 triple a Vantage GT2 The 3rd-place finisher was the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2 (Hideshi Matsuda/Hiroki Yoshimoto). After running in the lead for a while in the early stages of the race, it had continued to hold 2nd position after being passed by car No. 74. However, in the pit stop taken on lap 36 at the same time as car No. 43, it surrender 2nd place due to longer pit work and returned to the race 15 seconds back in 3rd place.
The No. 25 ZENT Porsche RSR (Akihiro Tsuzuki/Takeshi Tsuchiya) that had been among the leaders in the early stages of the race also lost time in taking on more fuel and dropped back in position. It was also given a drive-through penalty due to a speed limit violation in the pit lane. This held the team back to an eventual 7th-place finish.