A month had passed since the season opener, the 2012 Super GT series headed into the second round at Fuji Speedway. This was a 500km long distance race on the famous high speed race track at the foot of Mt.Fuji. Most of the teams set up their cars to have less aerodynamic downforce for this particular circuit, aiming at higher top speed on the long straightaway, and, therefore, good tires become the key to deal with the final sector which includes several slow corners where the cars can't rely on the aerodynamic downforce.

During the second half of the Golden Week holidays, the weather at the circuit was unsettled and all sessions before the race were run on the wet surfaces. The forecast said that there would be no rain on the race day - 4th May, Friday - but the track was still wet when the warm up session on Friday morning began. Since the surface dried after the session, all teams had no choice but to put slick tires when they sent their cars off to the starting grids, even though most of them hadn't tried them yet in the race week.

But the unexpected raindrops came back just ten minutes before the start! Because no one thought the rain would get heavier, all cars of both classes chose to start the race with the slicks and the clerk of the course decided to play it safe and switched to the Safety Car start procedures.

Led by the Safety Car, the race got underway at 2 p.m. without a formation lap. But, during the opening lap, some of the drivers found that the track surfaces of the final sector was wetter than they had thought and Petronas Tom's SC430 was the first to come in the pit to change to the intermediate tires. On the next lap, 13 cars, including WedsSport ADVAN SC430 and D'Station ADVAN GT-R, visited their pits to do the same. The WedsSport car resumed racing with the full wet tires, whereas the Kondo's team put the intermediate on their GT-R.

But the rain eased off soon, so D'Station ADVAN GT-R come back to the pit to switch to the slicks on Lap 9 as the first car in the class to do so. Two laps later, WedsSport ADVAN SC430 followed suit, aiming to move up in the field.

Once their tires warmed up properly, both ADVAN shoed cars with Seiji Ara and Hironobu Yasuda at the wheels, started to lap in a lower 1'36" bracket time which was comparable with the leading cars. However, as the cars leading the field also changed to the slicks one after another, they remained out of points for quite a while. On Lap 28, D'Station ADVAN GT-R finally got into the top ten but it made another pit stop to change the driver to Bjorn Wirdheim on Lap 30 and fell down the order again.

The team gave Wirdheim the harder tires - medium compound - that should have allowed him a longer stint to gain some position. Answering to the expectations, the Swede drove in a good pace and actually moved up to ninth but, on the verge of his scheduled pit stop, he suddenly had a breakage failure on his left hand side rear tire at the end of straightaway on Lap 71. It was probably due to riding over debris on the track that flew off from the crashed GT300 Porsche several laps earlier on the same place.

Wirdheim managed to bring the car back to the pit but the repair work took a long time because the car's body work on its left rear corner was badly beaten by the broken part of the tire. Although D'Station ADVAN GT-R got back to the track after the repair, it cost the team too many laps to fight back to the point finish and the car had to settle for finishing in 14th, the last of the class. Meanwhile, Ara changed to Andre Couto on Lap 40 and the Macau resident made his best to move up the field but finishing in 13th, three laps down from the leader, was the utmost he could do.

Regarding the GT300 class, most of the cars came in to the pits at the end of Lap 2 after the Safety Car start. But Manabu Orido in Manepa Lamborghini GT3 made the decision a lap earlier than his opponents and it paid off. As a result, he found himself leading the class with a comfortable nine second margin at a time.

As the rain slowed, however, Jorg Bergmeister in Art Taste Porsche was the first to switch back to the slicks on Lap 9 while he was running in second. As other cars followed his suit, he made the most of his early bird advantage and took over the lead position when Hiroki Kato driving Evangelion RT Test Type-01 Apple Shiden came in the pit on Lap 16, giving him a considerable gap with the rest of the field.

The gap grew as much as 30 seconds when Art Taste Porsche came in for driver change to Tim Bergmeister, the elder brother of Jorg, on Lap 35. The German resumed racing in sixth but his opponents' pit stops brought him up to second on Lap 51. GSR Hatsune Miku BMW, Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel, in front of him was going to come in the pit sooner or later, which meant the Porsche should have regained the lead position then. However, on Lap 58, things went in an unexpected way. Bergmeister suddenly lost control of the car on the pit straight and crashed into the guard rails. After the impact, his car came across the track and a lot of debris was spread on the spot, which required the intervention of the Safety Car for four laps.

This incident gave the lead position to Hiroki Yoshimoto in 'triple a' Vantage GT3. He was driving in a devastating pace around 1'42" bracket and pulling away but he had a reason to do so. While GSR Hatsune Miku BMW, running in fifth at the time, had already done the mandatory two driver changes and Nobuteru Taniguchi was at the wheel again, the 'triple a' car needed one more pit stop. Yoshimoto built a 37 second margin by Lap 82 when he came back to the pit but it wasn't enough to stay in the position and the car dropped down to fourth.

Many thought this pit stop would finally give the Hatsune Miku car the lead position but it didn't because the BMW has lost a couple of positions on Lap 79 when it was rear-ended at Prius Corner by a GT500 car. Nevertheless, Taniguchi didn't give up and gradually closed the gaps with the car that passed him in the aftermath of the incident. The rain that started to fall again around Lap 85 also helped Taniguchi and he managed to overtake Kato in the Evangelion Shiden on Lap 92 and then ARTA Garaiya at 300R Corner four laps later to regain the top slot.

On Lap 98, Evangelion RT Test Type-01 Apple Shiden passed the Garaiya and 'triple a' Vantage GT3 did the same three laps later. The Shiden and the Aston Martin eventually finished the race in second and third, following to GSR Hatsune Miku BMW. Thus, the Taniguchi/Kataoka pair claimed their first win and the GT300 class podium was dominated by the ADVAN equipped teams.

　[Result : Winner in the GT300 class]
"After everybody started with slick tires, the unexpected rain came. It was the beginning of the jumbled race! (Laugh) But our strategy worked really well and we were effectively leading the race when I was out on the track again after Kataoka's stint.
"But I was hit from behind by a GT500 car about 20 laps to go and lost two positions. I was driving carefully to save my tires just in case someone was closing to me. But after that incident, I had to drive as hard as possible without regard to such things... The rain certainly helped me while I was pushing very, very hard.
"Our BMW isn't among the top five in terms of genuine performance this year. Frankly speaking, we barely able to win this race, thanks to a good strategy and some luck. I have to admit we will have tough races throughout the season but we will try to earn as many points as possible in cooperation with our team staffs and Yokohama Tire."

　[Result : Winner in the GT300 class]
"I thought we would struggle at Fuji but there might be a chance if it became a 'stormy' race. But this was way beyond my expectations.
"My mission was to make my stint as long as possible by saving fuel and I was just driving steady, not knowing my actual position. Then I found we were the race leader in effect when I changed to Taniguchi-san. But, after that, something happened to our car and lost a few position and he started to drive incredibly fast. It's just like a roller coaster ride of feeling!
"We managed to win this race only in the second event with this team. And I think winning in such a difficult and unpredictable conditions was the proof of the team's strength. I will try to do my best along with everybody in this team."

"This Fuji round was a long distance 500km race but we thought the grid position would also be important. So we made some fine tuning on our dry tires to have a good balance between the performance in the qualifying and the durability that would be enough for one stint in the race. As for the wet tires, we brought in the upgraded version of the tires that performed well at Fuji at this time of the year. But, unfortunately, in the first qualifying session, the wet surfaces were drying quicker than predicted and we should have used the intermediate, instead of the full wet tires that both WedsSport ADVAN SC430 and D'Station ADVAN GT-R used.

"We predicted that the race would be run on the dry surface and such tricky conditions were beyond our imagination. In the early stage of the race, the WedsSport team switched to the full wet tires but the rain stopped earlier than we expected. On the other hand, the D'Station car used the intermediate but it lost a few position due to contact with the other car during that period, which was a shame.

"As for the GT300 class, all ADVAN equipped cars used the full wet in the Super Lap qualifying session. However, the surfaces became less wet in the final minutes of the session and Gainer Dixcel R8 LMS snatched the pole position away from us, using their intermediate tires. Nevertheless, the race ended with the podium domination with our users, GSR Hatsune Miku BMW, Evangelion RT Test Type-01 Apple Shiden and 'triple a' Vantage GT3, even though the conditions were very difficult. The rain that came back in the closing stage gave us a little help in the GT300 class, I would say. We will work hard and be well-prepared for the race at Sepang to repeat the domination in the GT300 class and to secure a good result in the GT500 class as well."