The Super GT is renowned worldwide as the most glamorous touring car race series in the Asia region. The fourth round and the sole overseas event of the series was held at Sepang International Circuit in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur. This Malaysian round has been a popular fixture on the calendar for eight years.

Although there were a few light showers and squalls, all sessions were run on dry surfaces and there were hostile conditions for the tires as the surface temperatures ranged from 36℃ to 46℃.

Among the two ADVAN equipped teams in the GT500 class, KONDO Racing scored their first ever win here in Sepang last year. Since they switched the car from Nissan Fairlady Z to GT-R at the start of this season, the team had to make a clean start but they were upbeat in the early stages of the year, attaining two successive point finishes from the season opener. Despite struggling in the third round due to the weight handicap, Masahiko Kondo's eponymous team was looking to its second win in Sepang. Another ADVAN equipped team, TOYOTA TEAM TSUCHIYA, ran the upgraded version of last year's Lexus SC430.

The two cars were in form for the practice session on Friday and their qualifying times in the first session were good enough to proceed to the Super Lap session in the afternoon. In that decisive test, J.P. De Oliveira took WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R to the second row (the fourth grid) with a superb drive. TOYOTA TEAM TSUCHIYA's ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 was eighth.

In the GT300 class, WedsSport IS350 sat on the front row by registering the second fastest time. The lead driver of the car, Manabu Orido, commented that "we have exploited only 80% of its true potential." Their IS350 was still in the process of development in the second race after its debut and seemed to have a bright future.

Among the other ADVAN users, JIMCENTER ADVAN F430, Daishin ADVAN Z, I.M JIHAN CO.LTD APPLE Shiden, EBBRO UEMATSU 320R and ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7 secured their starting grids in the top ten.

The sky was overcast on Sunday and some people predicted rain for the race but it remained cloudy with occasional sunshine, so the track surfaces were totally dry until the finish. The temperature had passed their peak at the four p.m. start time, but the surface temperature was 39℃ (which descended only to 36℃ even when the race ended) and the conditions were still very hard for the tires.

Although there was an incident in the middle of the pack at the rolling start, Oliveira in WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R made a clean start and moved up to third at the end of Lap 1. ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430, driven by the veteran Takeshi Tsuchiya, also stayed away from trouble and completed the first lap in seventh.

Behind the close battle of the leading two cars, Oliveira steadily held third, which was a similar situation to the last year's race which he won. Considering the very hot conditions, it was almost certain that the race was going to be tough. With the experience from winning the race last year, he knew that a clever conservation in the first half of the race would be paid back in a potentially decisive moment in the second half.

The Brazilian continued in this way until a few laps past the halfway point of the race and came into the pit as scheduled to give over the car to his partner Seiji Ara. On the other hand, Tsuchiya came in just before the halfway point, at the end of Lap 24, to change over to Hiroaki Ishiura.

By Lap 33, most of the major teams had made routine stops and WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R remained in third. ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 gained two positions and was running in fifth, so Ishiura's driving in the second half of the race became a focus of attention.

After the leader change on Lap 30, a drive-through penalty was imposed on the new race leader (a Honda NSX) for an avoidable contact with his main rival, one of the factory run Nissan GT-Rs. This handed second place to KONDO Racing's GT-R and these two GT-Rs were going to contend for the top slot later on but veteran driver Ara was convinced he could win at that time.

And his prediction was right. On Lap 50, in the closing stage of the 54 lap race, Ara availed himself of a rival driver's slight mistake and moved up to the lead position. Although the factory car pursued KONDO Racing's sister car very hard, Ara managed to hold it behind until the finish. Following the first ever win for the team last year, team manager Masahiko Kondo was delighted with their second win on their own merits. And this win put them in fifth in the point ranking of the GT500 class and the leader of the privately run Nissan GT-Rs.

TOYOTA TEAM TSUCHIYA's rookie driver, Ishiura, didn't make any mistakes on his way and eventually finished in fourth, which made him the highest finishing rookie of the race.

As for the GT300 class, RE AMEMIYA Racing's pair Hiroyuki Iiri and Ryo Orime got on the podium by finishing in third. Although their qualifying result was somewhat worse than expected (tenth in the class), ORC AMEMIYA SGC-7 has always been one of the fastest car in Sepang and this year's race wasn't an exception.

　[Result: Winner in the GT500 class]
 
"Both the team and I were looking to a win in Sepang again as we did last year. The tires that YOKOHAMA provided us for this race were far better than those from last year in every aspect and the life of the tires was longer than before.

"JP (Oliveira) did a good job in the qualifying session and then, in the race, gained a few positions before I took over, so it was rather easy for me to race in the second half.

"As the car balance was good and tires delivered plenty of grip, we could keep a consistent pace until the finish.

"I could easily alter the driving line when I overtook slower GT300 cars. Similarly, I was able to take a bit tighter line in the slow first and second corner compared to car no.22, to the extent of a half width of our cars. Therefore, when he made a small mistake, I could pass him without taking too much risk.

"Eventually I could exploit his mistakes but, until then, I thought it would be difficult to overtake because the two cars were basically the same and my plan was to save the tires as much as possible and attack in the last minute anyway".

"The performance of the tires we brought was 'average' in every aspect. But it's never an easy task to achieve!

"Specifically, we revamped both construction and compound to adapt to the Sepang circuit. The most distinctive feature was that the tires were very controllable for the drivers during the race.

"I feel somewhat relieved because this was our first win in a year.

"The tires for the GT300 cars were similar to the ones used in Japan. We didn't hear any complaints from the drivers about the grip level, handling and durability of the tires".