The seventh round of the Super GT series, the Super GT Motegi 300km Race, was held at Twinring Motegi. Contrary to the forecast, the event was favored with good weather and a total of approx. 53,000 people (throughout the weekend) fully enjoyed the high speed battles displayed on the track.

The fierce competition started early in the qualifying sessions. In this event, the so-called Knockout System was adopted for the second qualifying session. The session was divided into three sub-sessions. The duration of Session 1 was 15 minutes and the remaining two sessions were run for 10 minutes each. The slowest cars in Session 1 weren't allowed to proceed to Session 2 and the same applied to Session 2 and 3. So the grids of the top rankers were only decided in the final session. This is well-known to motor sport fans because a similar system has been used in Formula One Grand Prix races but, as two drivers share a car in the Super GT, the rule allowed one of the drivers to drive in two sessions (the other driver had to drive in the remaining session), which meant that both drivers needed to contribute to qualify their car.

The two ADVAN equipped cars in the GT500 class, WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R and ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430, failed to proceed to Session 2 due to a heavy weight handicap and a less than optimum performance turned in by the younger drivers. Meanwhile, ADVAN shoed cars in the GT300 class performed very well and Yunker Power Taisan Porsche (car no.26), Privee KENZO Asset Shiden (car no.2) and WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC 408R occupying the top three slots.

WedsSport IS350 (car no.19) was also in top form and, after dominating the free practice sessions on Friday, registered the fastest time in the first qualifying session Saturday morning. But their times were deleted from the official result because an infringement of technical regulations was found on the car after the session. Although Manabu Orido made the fastest time again in Session 1 of the second qualifying session, the car's starting grid was already decided by the rules and the team had to start the race from the back of the grid.

The race started at 2 p.m. on Sunday. ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 and WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R departed with Takeshi Tsuchiya and Joao Paolo de Oliveira at the wheel of each car. Tsuchiya drove carefully and kept his position during the opening lap (although he moved up to thirteenth as one of his rivals had to start from the pit), while Oliveira pushed hard and completed Lap 1 in eleventh, partly thanks to an incident in the mid-field group.

While being helped by the consistent performance of ADVAN tires for long stints, the two cars steadily lapped and moved up to the point scoring positions when all the other cars made their routine stops.

After that, the second drivers of the two ADVAN equipped cars continued their steady drives and Hiroaki Ishiura in ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 brought his car to the finish in tenth. WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R driven by Seiji Ara was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop in the closing stage but managed to finish in fourteenth thanks to a tremendous effort after resuming the race.

In the GT300 class, the ADVAN shoed cars made spectacular showings from the early stages of the race. Although the WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC 408R (starting from the third grid) spun out on Lap 5 and lost a lot of ground, the two cars sat on the front row, Yunker Power Taisan Porsche and Privee KENZO Asset Shiden, competed in a thrilling duel, gradually pulling away from the other competitors. The battle between the two, however, ended on Lap 30 when Yunker Power Taisan Porsche made a routine stop much earlier than its main rival.

Privee KENZO Asset Shiden continued to go on until its scheduled stop on Lap 41. Thanks to the hard push made by its starting driver, Hiroki Kato, Kazuho Takahashi, who drove in the second stint, was able to resume the race still in the lead position. Takahashi looked likely to stay there until the finish but then WedsSport IS350 closed in on the Shiden with an amazing pace.

Although starting from the opposite end of the grid due to a technical mishap, WedsSport IS350 had been the fastest car in the field since the beginning of the free practice on Friday and its outstanding speed was obvious. The starting driver of the car, Manabu Orido, actually moved up to the third position when he came in to change drivers with Tsubasa Abe and the latter went back to the track in fifth after a routine pit work. Then Abe overtook his rivals one after another in the next ten laps and caught up to the race leader, Takahashi's Privee KENZO Asset Shiden.

Now Abe, in the WedsSport IS350, clearly had momentum. At the 90-degree corner on Lap 52, he finally passed Shiden and took the top slot of the class. After that, the youngster didn't make any mistakes throughout the rest of the race and scored his first ever win in the Super GT series. This was also the maiden win for Lexus IS350, which made its debut this season, and team manager Masataka Bando, who followed his father's footsteps.

　[Result : the winner of the GT300 class]
 
"This was the fifth race since we started to use this IS350 car. As the package of the car was quite good, we expected to be able to win earlier in the season but it hasn't happen until today due to various problems.
"In this weekend, we were very fast from Friday again but we had to start from the back of the grid. So I changed my way of thinking and tried to just enjoy it regardless of the result. This probably helped me stay cool throughout the race.
"I overtook many cars from the back of the grid and the battles were fair and clean all the way. In the second half of the race, Tsubasa (Abe) did a great job. I was surprised at his aggressive driving.
"It has been frustrating for me that people say 'IS350 is the fastest car until Sunday morning.' And I always want to be the fastest ADVAN driver, because I think I was brought up by ADVAN's help as a racing driver. So I am very happy with this win.
"Without everybody's help, we couldn't achieve this win. Thank you so much."

"For this race, we introduced the tires that were based on the development tires well-received in the testing at the end of July and with some fine-tuning, using a new type of rubber. In terms of construction, those tires were tuned to suit the characteristics of this track as well. As Motegi is one of the typical 'Stop and Go' circuits, it is important to enhance the traction in a longitudinal direction.
"Our two cars in the GT500 class weren't fast enough in the qualifying session but drivers didn't complain about tires at all. The durability in the long stints was already verified in the testing and it was confirmed in the race, as the two cars steadily ran in reasonable positions, which was proof of the performance of the tires.
"As for the GT300 class, the overall performance of the tires was satisfactory, as well as the result itself. We will work to develop the tires further for the remaining two races, aiming at the championship title."