RACE REPORT // SUPER GT ROUND 1 @ SUZUKA

The race started with a light rain falling on the circuit. Takashi Kogure in the #18 Weider HSV-010, who had started on pole, entered the 130R curve on the first lap and soon found himself off track. Racing through the confusion was the #35 MJ KRAFT SC430 driven by Kazuya Oshima. Having started in 5th, Oshima managed to take the lead by the end of lap one. Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira in the #24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R, who started 10th, was also able to move up five positions and finish the first lap in 5th... [read more]

After dropping to the back of the GT500 class on lap one and working feverishly to regain ground, Kogure in the #18 HSV-010 GT recorded the fastest lap of the race (1:55.555) on lap five. By lap 10, Kogure had moved from the back of the pack all the way to 8th position. However, for Kogure and the #18 team, the race would end on the next lap.

Working his way forward, Kogure, in an attempt to fight his way forward, soon found himself lined up side-by-side with Ryo Michigami in the #32 EPSON HSV-010 and Ralph Firman in the #8 ARTA HSV-010 running full steam down the front straight and into the first corner.

With Kogure on the inside and Firman on the outside, the pair were sent reeling off the track in the tire wall, while Michigami managed to escape with only slight damage to the front end of his HSV-010 GT.

With this, two of the five Honda HSV-010 machines were out of the race in the early running.

The safety car came out to slow the cars for five laps while the debris of the crash was cleared away. The race was finally re-started on the lap 16.

As the field entered the chicane on the next lap, Andre Lotterer in the #1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 tried to pass Richard Lyons in the #38 ZENT CEROMO SC430 to take 2nd position. Hpowever, Lotterer overshot the curve which allowed de Oliveira in car #24 to move into 3rd place and Bjorn Wirdheim in the #6 ENEOS SC430 to take 4th.

A close-fought battle would continue between these three cars until Lyons brought his #38 car into the pit for a routine stop at the end of lap 23.

On the same lap, Oshima in the #35 car also made his pit stop. His teammate Hiroaki Ishiura took the wheel for the second half of the race. However, on his first lap back on the track his pace slowed so much that even the GT300 cars were passing him. This allowed Yuji Tachikawa in car #38 to take the lead.

On the first lap out after his pit stop on lap 30, Juichi Wakisaka in car #1 was also unable to hold a fast pace and was quickly passed by Tachikawa as well. In contrast, de Oliveira in car #24 held off until lap 34 before bringing his car in for its pit stop. While changing drivers to teammate Hironobu Yasuda, the #24 team made the bold tactical move of foregoing a tire change and finished their pit stop in just 26 seconds.

After all the GT500 class machines had finished their pit stops, Yasuda in car #24 was leading the field, followed by car #6 (Daisuke Ito) in 2nd and the #100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto) in 3rd. Like car #24, the RAYBRIG HSV-010 had also skipped a tire change to save time and gain position.

From then on, these three cars continued to run at roughly the same pace lap after lap. Behind them, fierce battles for position were raging, but the three leaders sailed on to the finish without coming close to each other.

For the #24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira /Hironobu Yasuda) team, this was their fourth victory in SuperGT competition. It also marked their second consecutive opening round victory, having won the first race at Okayama last year.

Finishing 2nd was the #6 ENEOS SC430 (Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim), while the #100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto) filled out the podium , finishing in 3rd.



AUTOBACS SuperGT Round 1 // GT500 Class:

1 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R J.P.Lima de Oliveira Hironobu Yasuda 1:53'23.333 52 YH
2 6 ENEOS SC430 Daisuke Ito Bjorn Wirdheim 0'09.322 52 BS
3 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 Takuya Izawa Naoki Yamamoto 0'15.397 52 BS
4 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka Andre Lotterer 0'17.954 52 BS
5 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 Andre Couto Kohei Hirate 0'19.326 52 DL
6 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima 0'20.363 52 BS
7 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi 0'46.508 52 BS
8 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi Motoyama Benoit Treluyer 1'32.333 52 MI
9 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa Richard Lyons 1Lap 51 BS
10 32 EPSON HSV-010 Ryo Michigami Yuhki Nakayama 1Lap 51 DL
12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli 42Laps 10 BS
8 ARTA HSV-010 Ralph Firman Yuji Ide 42Laps 10 BS
18 Weider HSV-010 Takashi Kogure Loic Duval 42Laps 10 BS

AUTOBACS SuperGT Round 1 // GT300 Class:

1 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7 Nobuteru Taniguchi Ryo Orime 1:53'59.916 48 YH
2 46 UP START MOLA Z Naoki Yokomizo Tsubasa Abe 0'31.894 48 YH
3 19 WedsSport IS350 Manabu Orido Tatsuya Kataoka 0'36.498 48 YH
4 5 MACHGOGOGO SHAKEN408R Tetsuji Tamanaka Haruki Kurosawa 0'37.184 48 YH
5 3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z Kazuki Hoshino Masataka Yanagida 0'50.302 48 YH
6 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama 0'50.400 48 HK
7 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Koji Yamanishi Yuhi Sekiguchi 0'53.837 48 YH
8 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT Takuto Iguchi Yuji Kunimoto 1'02.919 48 MI
9 27 NAC EISEICOM LMP Ferrari Yutaka Yamagishi Hiroshi Koizumi 1'05.724 48 YH
10 87 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Hiroyuki Iiri Yuya Sakamoto 1'24.323 48 YH
11 26 CINECITTA TAISAN PORSCHE Igor Sushko Masayuki Ueda 1Lap 47 YH
12 9 HATSUNEMIKU X GSR PORSCHE Taku Bamba Masahiro Sasaki 2Laps 46 HK
13 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki 4Laps 44 YH
14 666 BOMEX LIAN BOXSTER Junichiro Yamashita Takashi Miyamoto 10Laps 38 YH


Stay tuned for continued coverage of the 2010 AUTOBACS SuperGT Series!

Photo: Masaaki Kitagawa
Editorial: Justin W. Coffey
Info: SuperGT