Round5 Fuji : Race Press Conference

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R

It’s great because this is our first win in some time. The lead that JP (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) had built up was taken away when the Safety Car came out, but he pushed hard again to create another big lead, so I also pushed hard from the start of my stint. During my stint our biggest rival, car No. 46, retired from the race and my lead over the rest of the field grew. But, all the time I was driving I was worrying too much that we might run into any unexpected trouble, and hoping that the Safety Car wouldn’t come out again. Fortunately, nothing happened, however.

It was a tough race with a lot happening and losing the lead I had built up when the Safety Car came out. So, I’m really happy that we won. I was watching the second half of the race in the pit, but we had a good lead and I had faith in [Hironobu] Yasuda-san, so I wasn’t really nervous. For the next race at Suzuka we will be heavier with a weight handicap, but it is a long (1,000 km) race with a lot of points to win, so I want to see us get as many points as possible and close the point gap to the (standings leader) car No. 1.

No.55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3

I’m very glad to be here again at the press conference like yesterday after winning the pole position. I still haven’t gotten a complete understanding of the finer points of the new BMW we are using this season, and I am not sure if it is well suited for this track, but it seemed that it was not well suited to the Okayama track where the season opener was run, or SUGO where the last race was run, and also Suzuka where the official test were, but after winning the pole position here at Fuji in Round 2 in May we realized that our car was good for this track, so we were really determined to win the race today. So, I am very happy that we were able to win.

This time we came to Fuji as a team all knowing that we had to work hard and win this race, so I am very pleased that we did. We were fastest in the morning official practice and in the race (with the fastest lap), proving that we were fast over all sections of the track, but the No. 21 Audi had a very fast race pace, so it turned out to be a very tough race. This was our fifth win since Takagi-san and I have been driving together, but the four races we won until today had all been easier wins. This was the first one where I was being caught from behind and had to work to hold the pursuer off, so I know this is a race I will not soon forget.