On the afternoon of July 20, the SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 4 of the 2014 AUTOBACS SUPER GT was run at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi Prefecture). With rain falling on and off during the race, last year’s GT500 class champion team, the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO RC F with drivers Yuji Tachikawa and Kohei Hirate ran at a steady pace to lap all its rivals from 3rd place down and win the GT500 race in impressive style. In the GT300 race, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 driven by Manabu Orido and Takayuki Aoki took the win.
Due to the fact that the formation couldn’t line up and the start of rain during the formation lap, an extra formation lap was added to the already confused start. Among the teams that returned to the pit to change to rain tires during the formation laps were the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Kota Sasaki), the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara) and the No. 31 OGT Panasonic PRIUS (Koki Saga), and these were judged to be tire changes before the start. Eventually, there was not enough rain to warrant a change to rain tires and in addition these three cars were given a ten-second pit stop penalty that dropped them far back from the leaders. The pole-sitting No. 10 GAINER Rn-SPORTS SLS (Hideki Yamauchi) got a good start but was passed on the second lap when the track was wet by the No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS (Bjorn Wirdheim) of the same team. Behind them came the No. 50 WAKO'S Exe Aston Martin (Hideto Yasuoka), having charged hard from 8th position on the class starting grid. Running at a faster pace than the leading car No. 11, the Aston Martin moved right onto No. 11’s tail in the 19th lap of the race. Then, on the first turn of the 20th lap the WAKO'S Exe Aston Martin got on the in side of the turn with the GAINER DIXCEL SLS running beside it on the out side. This resulted in the rear left of the Aston Martin hitting the right front of the SLS. This collision caused damage to the right front tire and suspension of the SLS and forced it to return to the pit in a slow run. Meanwhile, having suffered no significant damage, the WAKO'S Exe Aston Martin was able to maintain pace. It ran on alone in the lead until making its routine pit stop on lap 44. This contributed to a loss that let the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Takayuki Aoki to Manabu Orido) take the lead. Having started the race from eighth position on the grid, the MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 had been able to climb to 2nd place thanks to the tenacious driving of Aoki, and by electing to go with a no-tire-change strategy, the team managed to seize the lead. This strategy worked beautifully to make up for the Lamborghini’s disadvantage in fuel economy and put the team in front.
Behind the leading MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 there were a number of tight battles going on. The WAKO'S Exe Aston Martin (Masaki Kano) and the No. 30 IWASAKI apr GT-R (Yuki Iwasaki) both fell from 2nd position, putting Orido in the MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 in a more comfortable position with a lead of more than 30 seconds. Running on his now badly worn tires, Orido ran off the track at one point, sending a scare through the fans, but he was able to recover quickly with minimum loss in time. At the end of the race he was victorious with a full 40-second lead over the No. 65 LEON SLS (Tsubasa Kurosawa to Haruki) in 2nd place. For the JLOC team and Lamborghini, this was the first SUPER GT win since the opening round of the 2006 season at Suzuka, and for Orido and Aoki it was their first win since 2009 (with another team). Finishing 2nd was the No. 65 LEON SLS that had started the race from 18th position on the class grid but hung on tenaciously to rise through the field as others fell away to take a hard-earned podium finish. Third place went to the No. 21 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Richard Lyons/Tomonobu Fujii), having survived through the tough conditions with steady driving and no big mistakes after starting from 7th position on the grid. In this race, all three teams at the top of the drivers ranking, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU Z4 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka), No. 11 GAINER DIXCEL SLS and the No. 55 ARTA CR-Z GT (Shinichi Takagi/Takashi Kobayashi), all failed to score any points. For this reason, the Studie BMW Z4 (Seiji Ara/Jorg Muller) managed to move up to 3rd place in the standings by working hard to finish 8th in the race despite a bad tire choice and a penalty. By finishing 2nd in this race, Haruki Kurosawa of the No. 65 LEON SLS team was able to move up in the standings to 5th place.
