In the year of ADVAN brand's 30th anniversary, the pinnacle of touring car races of the world, the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) visited Japan - the home country of Yokohama Rubber Co. - for the first time in the series' history. The venue of this much-awaited event was Okayama International Circuit, formally known as TI Circuit Aida, which hosted the Formula One Pacific Grand Prix in 1994 and 1995.

Japan is hosting three world championship motor sport events within just four weeks in October and November, the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix, Rally Japan and the WTCC races. The WTCC is the latecomer among these events but this Japanese round attracted much attention from motor sport fans in the country and advanced tickets sold well.

The WTCC completed its European leg and came to Asia to conclude the championship with the penultimate round in Japan and the series' finale at Macau. The cars and teams' equipment arrived at Kansai International Airport on Friday of the preceding week and they were transported to the race track.

When the race weekend came, teams arrived at the circuit on Thursday to begin race preparations. Of course, the race organizers and the administration of Mimasaka city, Okayama prefecture, welcomed them and held a party at Yunogo, a hot spring resort close to the circuit, to get acquainted with each other. The mayor of Mimasaka and a lot of drivers also attended the party on Thursday evening and enjoyed some local traditional art performances together.

As the teams do not have any previous knowledge about the track, a 30 minute special practice session was run on Friday on an exceptionally warm day in late October. The fastest driver in the session was Augusto Farfus who posted a time of 1 minute 38.371 seconds, followed by another BMW driver, Andy Priaulx, by a 0.132 second gap. The cars belonging to the FIA Super-2000 category had never run on this track before but their speed was comparable to Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions run in the Super Taikyu series - basically with N1 specifications but with 2 liter turbo engines - despite the fact that the Super-2000 cars have 2 liter normally aspirated engines and two wheel drive transmissions and are based on the commercially available production cars.

There were three sessions, two 30 minute practices and one qualifying, on Saturday. Again, the fastest driver of the day was Farfus and with a time of 1 minute 37.040 seconds, he took the pole position for Race 1 after dominating all four sessions in those two days. Among Japanese drivers, Takayuki Aoki in a BMW was the third fastest in the second practice session, which evoked the expectation that he would perform well in the races on Sunday, as he was the leading driver of the Independent class in that session.

A rain shower dampened the track on early Sunday morning. The rain had almost stopped by seven in the morning when the entrance of the track was opened but the sky was overcast throughout the day with occasional drizzle. It was fortunate for spectators that it did not turn to steady rain but this meant the conditions were quite difficult for the teams and drivers because the amount of water left on the track surfaces varied from place to place. Now, the versatility of ADVAN wet tires was to be tested.

The grandstand of Okayama International Circuit, as well as other stands and vantage points along the track, were filled with a lot of enthusiastic fans and Race 1 began at two p.m.

Just after the rolling start, a fierce battle at Turn 1, which is typical of WTCC events, fascinated the spectators. The pole sitter, Farfus, however lost a lot of ground in this battle as a result of multiple contacts with Alan Menu's Chevrolet and the Brazilian's teammate, Jorg Muller. Meanwhile, Gabriele Tarquini of SEAT, who started from the eighth grid - he was the third fastest in the qualifying session but demoted to eighth because of a penalty he earned at the previous race at Monza - was also forced to go out of course. Thus, the first race of Japanese round started with a few setbacks.

Now the race leader was Muller of BMW Team Germany. But Rickard Rydell in a SEAT Leon TDI was pursuing hard after starting from the fifth grid and steering clear of the mess at Turn 1. When the 14 lap race reached its halfway mark, Rydell caught the tail of Muller's BMW.

While the German driver desperately tried to hold on his lead, the hard pushing Swede's speed was obvious despite the fact that his Leon had more Success Ballast - 10 kg heavier - than its counterpart. After a tail-to-nose run throughout Lap 10, Rydell managed to overtake Muller on Lap 11 and kept that position until he took the checkered flag of the first ever WTCC race in Japan. With his first place finish, SEAT sealed its first manufacturers' championship crown with three races to spare.

For Race 2, teams' tire choices varied because the track surfaces seemed to be drying slowly. While some of the BMW drivers decided to take a gamble and start with slick tires, Tom Coronel of SUNRED SEAT, for example, chose slicks in front and wets in rear for his petrol-powered Leon.

During the formation lap just before the standing start for Race 2, Aoki's BMW was hit by transmission trouble and he had to park the car beside the track without starting the race, which was lamentable for the Japanese driver.

The pole sitter for Race 2 was Coronel, who finished Race 1 in eighth, followed by the championship leader, Yvan Muller driving a diesel-powered Leon. This meant that two SEATs sat on the front row but Farfus, who was the pacesetter on Friday and Saturday, was looking to fight back from the third grid after settling for a disappointing result in Race 1.

At the standing start of Race 2, Tiago Monteiro of the SEAT Sport team, who started from the second row alongside of Farfus, took the lead. But after being robbed of his position by the pursuing Coronel on Lap 5, Monteiro gradually fell back and lost ground. The Portuguese driver eventually retired from the race due to contact with Stefano D'Aste who was given a penalty for the incident and will be demoted 5 grids from his qualifying position at Macau.

Then Farfus rapidly closed the gap with the race leader, Coronel, and they displayed very close tail-to-nose battles in the final phase of the race. The crowd of spectators was pleased with the true world class battles and responded with roaring cheers. Although the Brazilian kept pushing from behind, the SEAT driver managed to hold on to his lead position with skillful tactics and finished first by only a 0.097 second gap. This was his first win in the WTCC and also the first one for a petrol engine SEAT Leon this season.

The last corner of the podium was filled by an Independent Cup contender, Sergio Hernandez. With his ninth class win this season, he clinched the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy in this penultimate round at Okayama.

"The first ever WTCC event was run under extremely difficult surface conditions. For the start of Race 2, teams seemed to be puzzled over their tire choice between wets and slicks.
"As for the performance of tires, both wets and slicks proved to be versatile enough against the change of surface conditions. This was a good achievement for our development program.
"Because it was really difficult to spot the surface changes during Race 2, a few engineers asked me which tires would be the right ones. I was even asked what I would chose if I were a team manager. And I replied I would take a gamble with slicks!
"The event was not favored with fine weather but an enthusiastic crowd of spectators came to the circuit, which I would like to say thanks for. I have attended all WTCC events this year but only a few events attracted more spectators than this one did."