The venue of Round 4, Sportsland Sugo, is located in the intermountain area in Tohoku, Japan, and is renowned for its beautiful landscape. But the race was extremely tough for drivers, cars and tires because the weather was very hot and the air temperature rose beyond 30 Celsius degrees with the surface temperature above 50 throughout the weekend.

In the qualifying session on Saturday, two Yokohama equipped GT500 cars, D'Station ADVAN GT-R and WedsSport ADVAN SC430, couldn't get their way into the Super Lap session.

On the other hand, as many as eight cars out of ten Super Lap competitors in the GT300 class were relying on the Yokohama tires. After very close and unpredictable battles in the session, Manepa Lamborghini GT3 secured the second grid and apr Hasepro Prius GT which was the fastest JAF-GT car followed in third. The championship leading car, Endless Taisan 911, finished the session in fourth despite having carried a 66kg handicap weight for this event.

Sunday morning sky in Sugo was clear and it was very hot as it had been the day before, but there was a sudden shower just after noon, about 90 minutes before the start. This wetted the track surfaces but the shower lasted only ten minutes and the tarmac was quickly drying as the surface and air temperatures were high. Although there were still some wet patches on the track when the eight minute reconnaissance session was run, they were gone during the starting procedures, so the formation lap got underway on two p.m. on the totally dry track surfaces.

The air/surface temperatures were 32/42 Celsius degrees, when the 81 lap race began. The GT500 class saw an eventful opening lap, as the top three cars rushed into the first corner and two out of them went off the track and crashed. Since the two leading cars disappeared immediately after the start, D'Station ADVAN GT-R with Bjorn Wirdheim at the wheel and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 driven by Andre Coute moved up to 11th and 12th respectively.

Wirdheim in D'Station ADVAN GT-R drove well from the early stage and his pace was comparable with those of the race leaders. And Coute's WedsSport ADVAN SC430 followed him in similar lap times, so it could be said that the ADVAN tires' performance was good and consistent with both medium and medium-hard compounds which they used.

On top of this, the tires' wear rate was well within the prediction and Coute, running in 11th, was supposed to make a pit stop as scheduled. Shortly before that, however, he was hit by a problem with the car's steering system on Lap 34 - "Suddenly, the steering became too heavy," he said - and was forced to come in the pit earlier after losing a position. While the team managed to repair it, WedsSport ADVAN SC430 had already lost a several laps when Seiji Ara rejoined the race.

Meanwhile, D'Station ADVAN GT-R was running on schedule and Wirdheim changed to Hironobu Yasuda on Lap 36. Because his stint would be 45 laps long, the team put the medium-hard compound tires on the car. After rejoining the race, Yasuda also drove consistently and stayed within the points. But, from around Lap 60, he began to feel a strange vibration from the car, while he was running in ninth. The vibration of uncertain cause became so harsh to the extent that he had difficulty keeping the car going straight and Yasuda was forced to ease his pace. Because of this, a 25 second advantage he had against Keihin HSV-101 which was running in tenth quickly shrunk and Yasuda had to give way to the Honda on Lap 70.

But his desperate effort led to finishing in tenth and D'Station ADVAN GT-R scored the first championship point of the season, after three disappointing and pointless races. On the other hand, WedsSport ADVAN SC430 displayed a good pace in the hands of Ara during the second half of the race but the delay of six laps were too large to make up and ended in twelfth, the last place among the finishers.

The very early accident in the GT500 class also affected the GT300 class race. As the yellow flag was shown at Turn 1, the competitors of the lesser class had to hold back racing just after the start. As a result, the field of the GT300 became a long string of cars, bumper-to-bumper in the order of qualifying result. And the situation didn't change very much, even after the yellow flag at the first corner was removed.

Among the leaders, Morio Nitta in apr Hasepro Prius GT was eager to get ahead of Manepa Lamborghini GT3 with Takayuki Aoki at the wheel and repeatedly tried to make a move. But Aoki's defense was so hard to break and the apr team decided to make a pit stop earlier to find a breakthrough. On Lap 28, Nitta came in to change to Hiroyuki Saga who has always been very good at Sugo and the team replaced only two wheels on the left-hand side to minimize the pit stop time. Thanks to this decision, Saga was leading the class when all cars completed the mandatory stops. Similarly, Green Tec & Leon SLS, running sixth on Lap 31, also moved up to second after driver change from Hironori Takeuchi, the veteran who had his 100th GT race this weekend, to Haruki Kurosawa, as the team changed only two rear wheels at the stop.

On Lap 37, Manepa Lamborghini GT3 came back to the pit to change from Aoki to Manabu Orido and Endless Taisan 911 did the same on the next lap, changing from Naoki Yokomizo to Kyosuke Mineo, but both two cars lost around 50 seconds during the pit stops because their refueling work wasn't perfect. As a result, they couldn't get ahead of the Prius and SLS when they resumed racing and now S Road NDDP GT-R was running in third because the GT-R team also replaced only two left-hand side wheels when Katsumasa Chiyo handed the car to Yuhi Sekiguchi at their very late pit stop on Lap 43.

The race leading Prius with Saga at the wheel was building a gap for a while but his pace started to drop off, as the right-hand side tires that the team hadn't replaced at the pit stop were wearing out earlier than they expected. The fact that the Prius was about 100kg heavier than the other car due to carrying its unique hybrid system might adversely affect the tire's wear rate. In contrast with Saga in the Prius, Sekiguchi in S Road NDDP GT-R was picking up his pace. The GT-R driver managed to pass Kurosawa's SLS AMG on Lap 50 and then finally caught and overtook Saga seven laps later to become the race leader.

While Sekiguchi continued to pull away, Saga eventually lost some more positions and Orido in Manepa Lamborghini GT3 moved up to third on Lap 67. With Green Tec & Leon SLS finishing in second, the podium was dominated Yokohama equipped teams for the second time this season but, for all of the top three finishers, this was the first podium of the season.

S Road NDDP GT-R claimed the car's maiden victory in the GT300 class with a huge 31 second margin. And this was Chiyo's first ever win in the Super GT series and Seikiguchi's first in five years since his last win at Sugo in 2007. Endless Taisan 911 finished the race in fifth by winning the closing stage battle and, thanks to Mineo's last minute effort, they could stay in the top of the championship point standings. The driving pair of GSR Hatsune Miku BMW, Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka, was forced to endure a difficult race under very heavy performance restraint for them. But, by employing the same tactics with the race winner, i.e. replacing only two wheels at the pit stop, the team managed to finish the race in seventh and demonstrated the ability of the reigning champion team.

　[Result : Winner in the GT300 class]
"Until today, our best result was fourth in Sepang. I thought we had performed well in all three races to date but it just hadn't led to a podium finish. So I'm very happy to win the race today. Normally, if you replace only two tires on one side during a race, a neutral handling car will turn to an understeering car. But, today, our car stayed in neutral, thanks to our engineer's accurate prediction and the car set up according to it. As a result, we could fully exploit the true performance of our tires until the finish.

"We have always been aiming to win a race but we had had a bitter feeling by missing a good result. We will keep the same approach and try to win every race from now on. I think it is still possible for us to win the championship!"

　[Result : Winner in the GT300 class]
"This win made me really happy. In terms of the fast time in a single lap, we weren't very good since the practice sessions and, in fact, we started the race from the sixth grid which wasn't very close to the race win. But we knew our race pace should be good, so I looked after the tires and did a very long first stint. I am happy that I still had the speed to keep up with the early leaders and gained some position. And Sekiguchi also made some more position gains and took the lead at last.

"We will keep going and try to race aggressively for the rest of season."

"We had predicted a very hot race at Sugo, as had been in Sepang. So the working range of our tires was suitable for the conditions, even when the surface temperature had reached to 56 Celsius degrees on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, both of our GT500 cars weren't allowed to go on to the Super Lap session. We had hoped for their fight back in the race but both cars had unexpected mechanical problems, which compromised their races quite a bit.

"It was a shame that D'Station ADVAN GT-R suffered with a problem in the later stage of the race. Wirdheim's pace was good from the early stage and the car made a pit stop just as planned, which put the car in points, and then Yasuda who drove for the second stint was also doing a good job when he was hit by the problem. Nevertheless, we would like to thank him for his effort which resulted in finishing in tenth and the team scored the first point of the season.

"WedsSport ADVAN SC430 was unlucky today, too, as the car lost a lot of ground due to a mechanical problem. But the pace was consistent and we can expect much better races, if they would find a better set up for the upgraded chassis.

"In the GT300 class, S Road NDDP GT-R came from behind and claimed the car's maiden victory and the first podium finish. The crew didn't allow Hankook Porsche to pull away and the team's strategy, such as replacing only two wheels at the pit stop, worked brilliantly. Green Tec & Leon SLS and Manepa Lamborghini GT3 also got on the podium for the first time this season. This completed an all Yokohama podium for the second time this season, which was very good result for us.

"The race at Sugo was run under very hot conditions and our GT500 cars had quite difficult race. But we feel the tire performance was consistent in both of the GT500 and GT300 classes. The next round will be the 1000km race at Suzuka. As usual, we will need to prepare for the heat of midsummer but we also have to think about the recent resurfacing of the track. The circuit now has fresh and smooth surfaces for its whole length and the next round will be the first 1000km race on the new surfaces. Therefore, our first and foremost target will be to supply the durable and reliable tires for the long distance race and we won't insist the single lap speed in qualifying too much."