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 No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX and No.
100 RAYBRIG NSX on the lead, No.22 Z finished 3rd.
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• GT 500 Class
The race started at 14:00. The cars moved into formation on the starting grid under the same
soft spring sunlight filtering through the thin layer of clouds that had hung high in the
sky since morning. At starting time the air temperature was 18 degrees C. and the track
temperature was 25 degrees. There would be almost no change in these temperatures right
down to the final lap.
At the first corner after the start, the brakes of No.66 triple a SARD SUPRA GT(Andre Couto)
locked and the car spun out. It appeared that there was a light collision with No.35 BANDAI
DIREZZA SC430(Peter Dumbreck) at that moment. No.23 XANAVI NISMO Z(Satoshi Motoyama)was
also drawn into the confusion, causing all three machines a big time loss. The damaged No.
23 and No.66 cars tried to return to the race, but the Orange Disk Flag came out and they
were forced to return to the pit. No.35 SC430 was given a 10-second penalty stop. Later,
perhaps as a result of the initial collision, No.23 Z would pull off to trackside on the
16th lap and retire from the race.
On the last corner of lap 17, No.32 EPSON NSX(Hideki Muto)spun and hit the course-side barrier
while running in 6th position. Muto returned to the pit but the damage was so extensive that
he had to retire from the race at that point. For a while before the spin, Muto had been under
pressure from No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z(Michael Krumm)and No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z(Benoit Treluyer)riding
on his tail. It was surely in the struggle to hold his position that Muto spun out.
Meanwhile, the leading No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX(Ryo Michigami) and second place No.100 RAYBRIG
NSX (Sebastien Philippe) were beginning to widen the gap on the rest of the competition.
In 4th position was No.1 ZENT CERUMO SC(Toranosuke Takagi). Takagi had lost some ground
in the confusion at the start, but he had been able to move in position up due to the No.32
car's spin-out and the time penalty placed on No .8 ARTA NSX(Ralph Firman).
Among the leaders, No.1 SC was the first to make its routine pit stop at the end of lap 31.
Yuji Tachikawa took over as driver and returned to the course. Running in 3rd position, No.
3 Yellow Hat YMS TOMICA Z made its pit stop on the 34th lap and Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira
took over from Yokomizo. It was on the 38th lap that the leading No.18 NSZ and 2nd position
No.100 NSX pulled into the pit and changed drivers, with Takashi Kogure taking over for
Michigami and Shinya Hosokawa replacing Philippe. They returned to the course in 4th and
5th positions. On lap 41, No.100 NSX changed positions with No.1 SC. On lap 42 No.1 SC
passed No.3 car, which later spun out while under pressure from No.100. It seemed like
there was some contact between the machines and it left No. 1 in third position as No. 100
moved up to 4th. At this point, the No.12 Z that had been running in the lead made its pit
stop. Kazuki Hoshino took over as driver and returned to the course in 5th position, only
to be passed immediately by No.22 Z(Sakon Yamamoto)and later by No.3 on lap 50.
With Kogure now at the wheel, No.18 NSX continued to run at a fast pace, building up a more
than 20-second gap over the 2nd place machine by lap 50. Furthermore, the 2nd place machine,
No.1 SC, received a 10-second stop penalty (for passing in a yellow flag zone). This dropped
No.1 back to 7th position. As a result, No.100 car moved into 2nd place, giving the NSX camp
a 1-2 lead. Over the remaining 15 laps the two NSX machines held their positions all the way
to the finish. The victory went to No.18 TAKATA DOME NSX(Ryo Michigami/Takashi Kogure). No.
100 RAYBRIG NSX finished 2nd and No.22 Z finished 3rd.
The final stages of the race saw a heated battle between No.12 (Hoshino), No.8 (Daisuke Ito)
and No.1 (Tachikawa). It was No.1 (Tachikawa) that pulled ahead to finish 5th as the top Toyota
finisher.
• GT 300 Class
The GT300 class race was able to start without getting wrapped up in the confusion of the
GT500 start. The pole position starter No.46 Kicchouhouzan DIREZZA Z (Kota Sasaki)held the
lead going though the first corner. In the early stages of the race it was the No.110
TOTALBENEFIT GREENTEC BOXSTER driven by Hideshi Matsuda that ran strongly from 4th position
on the grid to move up to 2nd place by lap four. On lap six Matsuda went on to pass No.46 Z
and take the lead. After that he continued to run strongly with a 2- to 5-second lead. Behind
Matsuda there was intense racing going on as a pack including No.46, No.13 ENDLESS ADVAN CCI
Z (Masami Kageyama), No.27 direxiv ADVAN 320R (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and No.11 JIM CENTER
FERARRI DUNLOP(Tetsuya Tanaka)changed positions from time to time in their battle for 2nd.
It was eventually Taniguchi in No.27 car who emerged from the pack, moving into 3rd position
on lap 38 and then passing No.27 (Taniguchi) and No.13 (Kageyama) to take the lead soon after
No.110 BOXSTER made its pit stop on lap 37. The last of the top group to make its pit stop on
lap 50 was No.27. Shogo Mitsuyama took over as driver only to have trouble getting the machine
started leaving the pit. This delay brought Mitsuyama back on the course in a position where
the 2nd place machine, No.110 BOXSTER(Ichijyo Suga), was right on his tail going into the first
corner. Although his tires weren't warmed up yet, Mitsuyama was able to block Suga in machine
No.110 skillfully enough to hold his position. And, although Suga drew up side by side with
him for a moment on the straight, he was able to hold on and return to the main stand still
in the lead..
As his tires warmed up and he was able to get full performance out of his No.27 car, Mitsuyama
began to pull away from the rest of the competition and run on that way to the finish. This
gave DIREXIV MOTORSPORT its first GT victory in only its second year of SUPER GT competition.
Emerging from an intense battle with No.13 (Fujii) and No.110 (Suga) to finish 2nd was No.11
Ferrari (Aoki). Following in third for the second straight round was No.110.
Source: Super GT
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