With only three championship races to go in 2011 the Super GT season, the sixth round, Fuji GT 250km Race, was held at Fuji Speedway. After a long distance event at Suzuka, the race was run in the usual 250km format and it was the second race at Fuji this season, since the de facto opening round in April.

The fickle weather on Sunday brought a shower in the early morning and the teams had to rely on wet tires during the warm up session. However, the rain had stopped well before noon, so the track surfaces were completely dry when the time to start the race came. The 55 lap race began at 2.p.m. under a little cooler conditions than the day before, with the air and track temperatures at 29 and 39 degree Celsius respectively.

Starting from the 12th grid, ADVAN Kondo GT-R with Bjorn Wirdheim at the wheel struggled in the early stage, after losing a ground during the opening lap and slipped down to the last in the class. The situation was just as predicted by Wirdheim himself, as he had mumbled on the grids just before the start, "This may be a quite tough race for us..." But he gradually picked up his pace and overtook one opponent on Lap 6, and then, two more on Lap 14 to regain the positions he had lost.

Meanwhile, Seiji Ara, the starting driver of WedsSport ADVAN SC430, kept his grid position, 14th, at the start but managed to pass two Honda HSV-010s in one move at Turn 1 on Lap 6. Then, after moving up to 12th, he was in pursuit of a GT-R in front of him. However, his pace started to drop off after that and he was forced to give up the positions he had earned one by one.

On the other hand, the Kondo's team decided to extend the Bjorn's stint, as he had regained his pace. Because of this, ADVAN Kondo GT-R rapidly moved up the field while other cars made their scheduled stops and took the interim lead on Lap 28. Three laps later, Wirdheim came in the pit but the team crew had a problem during the pit work and a certain amount of time was lost there. When Hironobu Yasuda resumed racing, he found himself running in lowly 13th.

Nevertheless, Yasuda's consistent drive brought the car to 11th on Lap 49, only one place shy of the point finish. And at the last corner of the last lap, he actually overtook a Lexus SC430 (car no.6), which had slowed down a bit in the closing stage, but the Lexus beat Yasuda in a sprint to the finish line. After all, ADVAN Kondo GT-R finished the race in 11th, just 0.056 seconds behind the SC430.

WedsSport ADVAN SC430 visited the pit on Lap 24 and Ara changed to Tatsuya Kataoka who rejoined the race in 13th. Kataoka tried to make up the deficit but he also failed to keep his pace until the finish and the car eventually ended the race by finishing in 13th.

In the GT300 class, Nobuteru Taniguchi in the pole sitting Hatsune Miku Goodsmile BMW made a splendid start but Hideshi Matsuda in Verity Taisan Porsche closely followed him. Although these two quickly pulled away from the rest of the field in the early stage, they made contact with each other in the aftermath of a battle at Coca Cola Corner on Lap 2. Due to damage on his left rear wheel, Matsuda was force to come in the pit for repair and, as a result, dropped out from the fight for the class victory.

This gave the second and third places to Hiroki Kato in Evangelion RR Test Type-01 Apple Shiden and Yuhi Sekiguchi in JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 respectively. Behind them, Ryo Orime's SG Changi IS350 was reducing the gap with the Lamborghini lap by lap.

While the race leading Taniguchi and Kato in second were running in alone, the battle for third became hotter, as Hideki Yamauchi in Pacific NAC Ikamusume Ferrari joined with Sekiguchi and Orime. The battle ended on Lap 12, as the Ferrari driver successfully made two consecutive overtaking on his opponents and then began to build a gap with them.

Taniguchi kept a consistent pace in a 1'45" bracket, with only a few exceptional slow laps when he had to give way to GT500 cars, and his margin to Kato was growing as the Shiden driver was running in a 1'46" bracket pace. Naturally, both teams wanted to extend their ace drivers' stints as long as possible but the Shiden had to come in the pit on Lap 34, on the same lap with the Pacific Ferrari which was running in third did. The Shiden, now Kazuho Takahashi at the wheel, rejoined to the race without changing tires at the pit stop.

On the next lap, the Hatsune Miku BMW followed suit and Taniguchi changed to Taku Bamba, with all four tires changed to the fresh ones. When he resumed racing, he had a 13 second gap with Takahashi and now SG Changi IS350 with Alexandre Imperatori onboard was running in third about ten seconds behind the Shiden, having made the pit stop on Lap 25. As Taniguchi had a more than 25 second margin before the leading cars' pit stops, it was cut down to almost half but Bamba started to increase the gaps again with his spirited drive which was no less competitive than Taniguchi's.

On the other hand, Imperatori was now reducing the gap with Takahashi every moment, because the Shiden driver wasn't able to push very hard, as the team gave the only minimum amount of fuel at the pit stop to keep the time spent there as short as possible. Sure enough, Imperatori overtook Takahashi on Lap 46 and Sekiguchi, driving JLOC Lamborghini RG-3, also caught the tail of the Shiden but Takahashi narrowly kept his position at the finish just 0.3 second ahead of the Lamborghini.

Thus, the Taniguchi/Bamba pair secured the second victory of the season. Since the Ferrari 458 which had headed the point standings before this race finished in lowly 22nd, the Hatsune Miku BMW pair now became the new championship leader with an eight point gap to the second. By finishing the race in second, Orime also moved up to fourth in the drivers' championship. The Kato/Takahashi pair finally got on the podium for the first time this season and obviously looked to be delighted to stand on the 'higher place' after a long podium drought.

At the end of the day, the ADVAN equipped cars swept the podium and the top nine slots in the GT300 class, which was surely something to celebrate for ADVAN.

　[Result : 1st. in the GT300 class]
"I feel relieved and very happy with the result. Two feelings at the same time. The result couldn't be better for us, really. Our BMW suits very well to the track of Fuji, so I thought we had to finish the race in a good position, close to the podium, in order to reduce the point gap to the Ferrari (car no.11) as much as possible.
"The tires that ADVAN supplied us for this race worked perfectly with our car and we were very fast not only on the straightaway but on the corners as well. As a result of an incident on the second lap, the door mirror on the right-hand side was damaged and I could only use the rearview mirror and the other door mirror to watch for the GT500 cars coming from behind. Because of this, I thought I should extend my stint as far as the fuel lasts. But, after the driver change, my partner (Bamba) drove very, very well this time. In the last race, he was a big spender and ate up all margins we had, so even though we had won the race, I had been really angry at him, which was a very rare case, I think. But, this time, he did a solid drive to the finish and I am happy about it."

　[Result : 1st in the GT300 class]
"I'm really happy because it's our first win in a Japanese race track. To tell the truth, not only the right-hand door mirror but the left-hand side was of no use and it was very difficult to drive. On top of this, something was wrong with my brake in the second half of the race and, for Turn 1, I had to start to brake about 250 meters before the corner. And when there was an accident on the straightaway in the closing stage, what was worrying me was the possibility of Safety Car. Had it come out, I would have lost the gap to the other cars. But there is nothing to worry about except for it.
"Now we are in a position to be pursued. Aiming to win the championship, we will do our best to secure good results in the remaining two races.

　[Result : 2nd. in the GT300 class]
"I was driving very carefully but was still able to move up to fourth. In addition to this, we gained one more place during the pit stop. And I did believe Alex should be able to gain another place on the track. In fact, he stayed cool and made a right decision to overtake at the straight end without taking any unnecessary risk.
"There were many incidents on the track in this race but we weren't involved in any of them. And we could earn one valuable place during the pit stop. I think these two factors led to our result today. The track characteristics of Autopolis, the venue of next race, should suit to our car and our handicap weight will be halved there. So we will go for the class win in the next round."

"Based on the data from the season opening Fuji round and from the races in the past, and also on the findings from the recent testings at Autopolis and Motegi, we had selected the tires to be used here. As for the GT500 class, we have to admit that the poor qualifying results decided the race itself. Considering the fact that the race pace of ADVAN Kondo GT-R, especially that of Yasuda, was quite comparable to other cars, if the car could start the race from the better grid position, the final result should be much better.
"Regarding the GT300 class, the ADVAN equipped teams swept the podium for the first time this season. The tires performed consistently throughout the weekend and the qualifying positions of our cars were generally good. We are happy with the fact that our tires worked really well."