ADVAN / MOTOR SPORTS [SUPER GT 2009 / Round 2]

After major renovation work on its pit complex, paddock and grand stand, Suzuka Circuit had the second round of the Super GT series as its curtain raiser.

As its official name - Keihin Suzuka 2&4 Race - expresses, the event was doubled with an All Japan Road Race Championship motorcycle event, Japan Super Bike 1000 race. So there was concern among the Super GT entrants that the surface conditions might be a little unusual because motorcycles inevitably rode on different places on the track and put their tire rubber differently.

On top of this, the eastern half of the track had been resurfaced during the renovation work while the western half remains as it was, so race engineers had to find out the best compromise between two different surfaces in setting up their cars. To make their headaches even worse, the teams were given only an one and half hour free practice to work on their cars on Saturday morning before the qualifying session, as each event was cut down to two days from this season.

ADVAN equipped cars generally had good starts to the season and won both GT500 and GT300 classes in the season opener at Okayama. However, they struggled this time from the qualifying session, probably due to the weight handicaps. Since Aston Martin Akasaka DB9R didn't enter this race, HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R was the sole ADVAN shoed car in the GT500 class.

The weight handicap system was revised for this season. From round two to six, each car must carry the weight equal to twice the championship points it has, in kilograms. For the round seven and eight, the weights will be reduced to equal to the points and all cars are allowed to run without any weight in the season opener and closer. Therefore, the weights are to be culminated, denying the teams to deliberately finish in lower ranks to reduce the weight for the next race.

HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R had to carry a 40kg weight onboard this time because it won the opening race of the season, which certainly impacted its performance. Under the circumstances, the team seemed to concentrate on the car setup work in race trim rather than try for the better starting position and settled for 12th in the qualifying session.

In the GT300 class, in which 15 cars out of 22 used ADVAN tires, Daishin ADVAN Ferrari sat on the front row, utilizing its superior straight-line speed. The second row was filled with M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC-7, after jumping up from the seventh where it was in the first qualifying, and Privee Apple Shiden which was third in the same session, followed by another ADVAN shoed car, S-Road Mola Z, in fifth.

The race on Sunday was favored by good weather and the surface temperature was rising. The ambient temperature just before the start was 22℃ with the surface temperature 35℃ but, to the teams' relief, the track didn't become too hot and temperatures started to drop gradually.

Starting from the 12th grid, Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira in HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R overtook one of his opponents at 130R and one more at the entry of chicane during the opening lap. He completed Lap 1 in ninth and kept the position for a while but moved down to 11th on Lap 7.

The Brazilian driver kept on going in that position and came to the pit when he completed 23 laps. After the routine work and driver change, Seiji Ara went out and resumed the race in 12th where he remained for more than 20 laps.

The race went on with so little action until a multi car accident happened on Lap 47 and, to clear up the halted cars, the Safety Car came out. As a few GT500 cars were involved in the accident, Ara moved up to ninth and the gap with the car in front was nullified because everyone closely lined up behind the Safety Car.

If the race had resumed, Ara could have gained some more positions before the finish. But the Safety Car eventually stayed on the track until the checkered flag fell, so he finished in ninth - but promoted to eighth in the final result as one of his opponents being penalized.

The race in the GT300 class also started rather quietly. The pole sitting Porsche ran away from followers and Daishin ADVAN Ferrari, M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC-7 and S-Road Mola Z pursued it, changing their positions from time to time.

Privee Apple Shiden, which has always been fast at Suzuka and was regarded as one of favorites this weekend, was forced to start from the pit lane due to a problem with its starter motor. However, in the hands of Hiroki Yoshimoto, the car moved up through the field in a very good pace as expected. While he actually led the race temporarily during his very long stint, the car was running in seventh when all cars including the Shiden had made mandatory pit stops.

The battle between Daishin ADVAN Ferrari and M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC-7 was decided by their pit stops. Whereas the former lost considerable time in the pit and dropped back, the latter did just driver change and refueling because the team decided to let it go through the whole race distance with only one set of tires!

By doing so, Amemiya's Mazda RX-7 managed to shorten the time spent in the pit and its second driver, Ryo Orime, pursued the leading Porsche so hard, together with Masataka Yanagida in S-Road Mola Z. Considering their good paces and the number of remaining laps, it could had been a really close fight between the top three in the final laps. However, due to the accident with five laps to go and subsequent Safety Car period, their pursuit was cut short.

M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC-7 eventually finished in second, followed by S-Road Mola Z. The fact that Amemiya's car went through the race with only one set of tires, after registering the third fastest time in the Super Lap session on the same set, especially at Suzuka which is known to be so severe on tires, proved the true performance of ADVAN racing tires.

After the second round, HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R is now in second in the championship, while M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC-7 took the top slot of the GT300 class.