The fifth round of the 2008 Super GT series at SUGO was the midpoint of the nine race series. It is usually a tough race in violent heat with the surface temperature rising to nearly 50℃. However, thick cloud generated by a rainy front blocked the summer sunshine this year and the air temperature stayed in the region of 20℃ to 24℃ and the surface temperature never reached 30℃. The teams might have felt they were tricked because they were prepared for a very hot race.

The ADVAN equipped cars performed very well in the last race at Sepang, as WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R won for the second year in a row and ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 finished in fourth despite being troubled with the failure of the driver cooling system.

Because of the good results, WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R was given a 50kg weight handicap and 10kg was given to ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 and many expected that this might be a punishing burden because there is a famous steep uphill section at SUGO. But, once the qualifying session began, ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 was in good form and proceeded to the Super Lap session by registering the second fastest time in the first session in the morning.

Although the ADVAN shoed car wasn't able to cut down its own time in the previous session, the lap time at the Super Lap session was still the fastest among the Lexus camp and good enough to take up the fourth grid position following the three Honda NSXs.

WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R had to settle for thirteenth place, mainly because of its 50kg weight handicap. But the team had a good impression of the tires in the testing at Fuji just before this race, so they had reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the race.

In the GT300 class, the fastest car in the first qualifying session was WedsSport IS350 and seven ADVAN equipped cars stepped up to the Super Lap session.

The ace driver of WedsSport IS350, Manabu Orido, was quick again in the Super Lap and took the pole position of the class with the time of 1'23.938. But the most remarkable performer in this session was Tetsuya Tanaka who drove JIMCENTER ADVAN F430. The ADVAN shoed Ferrari ended the first session in eleventh place but was forwarded to tenth after the penalization of Daishin ADVAN Z.

Then Tanaka managed to set a very good time in the Super Lap to take the third grid position of the class. Once the race started, Honda NSXs occupied the top three slots, followed by a group of Lexus SC430s. ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 kept the leading position of the second group, but it lost the position during a routine pit stop.
After briefly falling to fifth in the second stint, the car finished fourth for the two races running.

On the other hand, the solid race pace of WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R allowed the car to finish in eighth, the highest position of Nissan GT-Rs, from the thirteenth grid position. The ADVAN shoed GT-R will carry a slightly reduced weight handicap in the next race, while its Lexus counterpart stays upbeat after two fourth finishes in a row, so the good performance from the two ADVAN equipped cars can be expected again in the next round.

In the GT300 class, the pole sitter WedsSport IS350 lost its position to a Garaiya (car no.43) at the start but regained it soon and comfortably led the race for a while. However, the car had a starter motor failure when it made a pit stop, which caused a considerable delay and a drop out from the upper ranks.

Meanwhile, Daishin ADVAN Z, which started the race from the tail end of the grid due to a penalty for an avoidable accident in the first qualifying session, turned on a phenomenal pursuit. With one third of the race completed, the car was already within the top ten. The starting driver, Takayuki Aoki, continued to push hard and moved up to fourth when he came into the pit to change to his partner, Tomonobu Fujii. Registering the fastest time of the class, Fujii kept on going and managed to finish in second after overtaking veteran drivers in the process.

After WedsSport IS350 retreated, Privee KENZO Asset Shiden (Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Katoh) comfortably stayed in the lead position during the middle stage of the race and Takahashi brought the car to the finish in third. However, he was given a 35 second time penalty after the finish for a contact with Masayuki Ueda on JIMCENTER ADVAN F430 and was denied a spot on the podium.

　[Result: 4th in the GT500 class]
 
"To be honest, I expected to struggle in this race because we no longer had any performance compensation. But when I drove in the first qualifying session which was the first dry session in the weekend, I was surprised at the really good time I made!"
"As there was no change to the car, I think the continuous progress of the tires, as well as the fact that I changed my driving style, resulted in the good qualifying time."
"We were able to keep a good pace in the race, too. Before this race, I was thinking about my retirement from driving but now I have changed my mind and I am willing to carry on for a while.".

"As SUGO has several fast corners, we devised an idea to improve the grip of the front tires. We also used a new rubber which evolved from the precedent ones."
"This race at SUGO in July has usually been run under very hot conditions and the surface temperature has risen over 40℃. But this time we felt rather cool and the surface temperature was well below the expected level. We brought the soft and medium compounds but most of the teams chose the soft."
"I am sorry for the race result of some teams but I am confident that our tires showed a decent performance here."