The curtain raiser of the 2013 Super GT series, Okayama GT 300km Race, was held on April 6-7.

The qualifying session was run under cold and wet conditions. The Super GT series adopt the knock out system qualifying in every event this year, so the session was divided into two sections, Q1 and Q2. But the heavy rain and strong wind affected both sections and more than a few drivers spun or went off the track during the session.

Q1 for GT500 cars started at 3 p.m. and the Yokohama equipped cars showed their abilities to the fullest. The teams precisely judged the quickly changing track conditions during the session, which had interruptions a few times due to accidents, and tried different types of rain tires ? the super soft and soft compounds. As a result, Hironobu Yasuda in D'station ADVAN GT-R set 1'36”490 which was the third fastest and Seiji Ara in WedsSport ADVAN SC430 clocked 1'36”600 on the very last lap in Q1 to come in fourth in this section, which meant both Yokohama equipped cars made their ways into Q2.

After Q2 for GT300 class which was held in-between Q1 and Q2 for GT500, however, the rain and wind became even heavier to the extent that Q2 for GT500 had to be cancelled. Thus, the two Yokohama shoed cars secured the second row ? the third and fourth on the grids ? and attracted much attention as the dark horses for the race on Sunday.

Among the Yokohama equipped GT300 cars, S Road NDDP GT-R sat on the second grid, followed by La Seine Lamborghini GT3, Endless Taisan Porsche and GSR Hatsune Miku BMW in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

The forecast had said that the weather should improve on Sunday, and it actually did but not enough. The track was dry but the temperatures were much lower than expected, accompanying occasional showers and strong cold winds. When the formation lap began at 2 p.m., the air/surface temperatures were at only 11/21 degrees Celsius.

The biggest challenge for the drivers was to warm up their tires properly under such conditions. In fact, Epson HSV-010, starting from the second grid, went off the track at the first corner of the formation lap and Andre Couto at the wheel of WedsSport ADVAN SC430 also spun on the same lap, so an additional formation lap was required and the race distance was reduced to 81 laps accordingly.

Michael Krumm, the starting driver of D'station ADVAN GT-R and Couto struggled badly in the early stage but they picked up the pace gradually. On Lap 22, Krumm managed to overtake Reito Mola GT-R and Couto followed his path three laps later, showing signs of recovery.

But the tight and narrow track of Okayama International Circuit meant difficulty in overtaking, so both of them had a hard time trying to move up in the field. With the track conditions becoming even worse, the crews of two Yokohama shoed cars continued their maximum efforts and eventually D'station ADVAN GT-R finished the race in 13th and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 in 14th. The results were disappointing but valuable lessons were learned for future races by completing the race distance at least.

In the GT300 class, the leading Yokohama shoed cars bravely fought the race. Making a better start than that of his main rival, Kazuki Hoshino in S Road NDDP GT-R snatched the lead position at the Hairpin Curve on the opening lap and started to pull away from the rest of the field. However, then the situation changed, as Gainer Dixcel SLS gradually picked up the pace and came close behind him. On Lap 10, Hoshino finally had to give way to the Mercedes but continued to hold on to it for a while.

But, as S Road NDDP GT-R's pace was getting worse, La Seine Lamborghini, GSR Hatsune Miku BMW and Dijon Racing IS GT-R ? Hideki Yamauchi, Tatsuya Kataoka and Katsumasa Chiyo at the wheels respectively ? were steadily closing from behind. While Hoshino made every possible effort to stay in second, Yamauchi found a way to pass him on Lap 31 and then so did Kataoka on the next lap.

Among these four cars, GSR Hatsune Miku BMW was the first to visit the pit, on Lap 37, and Kataoka handed the car to Nobuteru Taniguchi. During the next two laps, La Seine Lamborghini GT3 and Dijon Racing IS GT-R followed the path to change to Hiroki Yoshimoto and Hiroshi Takamori. Hoshino came in the pit on Lap 41 and S Road NDDP GT-R resumed racing with Daiki Sasaki at the wheel.

When the four cars had done the mandatory pit stops, Taniguchi was leading this group that was fighting for second. There were only three cars, including the race leader, ahead of him and all of them were yet to make their stops. On the other hand, S Road NDDP GT-R lost time during the stop and then Sasaki made contact with the other car at the Hairpin on Lap 45. The contact left considerable damage on his car's suspension, so the GT-R was forced to retire from the race after coming back to the pit.

The race leading Gainer Dixcel SLS was the last in the class to change drivers, on Lap 46, and returned to the track just 5 seconds ahead of Taniguchi. Many expected the BMW driver's attack for the lead position but the gap between them was actually expanding after that. So then all Taniguchi could do was to keep the second safely.

Behind them, Yoshimoto in La Seine Lamborghini GT3 spiced up the final stage of the race by fighting hard for third with Hankook Porsche. Enduring heavy pressure from behind, he made a great effort to defend the position and, on the final lap, the Porsche driver made a mistake at Attwood Curve due to a sudden downpour in the area and hit the back end of Yoshimoto's car! But fortunately the Lamborghini driver could continue and finished the race in third.

At the end of the race, two Yokohama equipped cars secured places on the podium, GSR Hatsune Miku BMW in second and La Seine Lamborghini GT3 in third. Then, as Hankook Porsche was given a time penalty for the final lap incident, Okinawa-IMP SLS (Hironori Takeuchi/Takeshi Tsuchiya) and Leon SLS (Haruki Kurosawa/Masanobu Kato) were classified in fourth and sixth respectively. Even though the highest place on the podium was missed, Yokohama shoed cars showed strong performance in this opening round of the series.

　[Result : 2nd in the GT300 class]
“Our starting driver, Kataoka, did a great job and steadily gained positions, so the things went very smoothly for us today.
“We weren't sure if we could get ahead of La Seine Lamborghini GT3 using the pit stop but, thanks to the team's solid job, I could rejoin the race in front of the Lamborghini. To be honest, I wanted in my heart to beat the race leader as well but they were simply out of our reach that time. I never thought keeping the gap with third was enough and tried to do my best but......
“The rain came in the last minutes and I thought this might bring down a disaster. But there was a big gap behind me, with just one lap to go, so I could get through the threatening situation.”

　[Result : 3rd in the GT300 class]
“My start was O.K. and Subaru BRZ R&D Sport seemed to be struggling, so I could catch and pass it very early in the race. But it took a bit longer to overtake S Road NDDP GT-R. I didn't want to take a risk of going too aggressive and decided to watch for an opportunity to come. Then he seemed to lose the pace gradually, so I pushed a little bit to put pressure and he made a small mistake at Attwood.
“I didn't overlook the chance and made a move at the Hairpin. At that moment, I felt I have become a bit better driver! After that, I could pick up the pace until the driver change and I never doubted that Yoshimoto would bring the car back within the podium finish position because I knew he is a fast and strong driver.”

“During the winter, we worked on the tire development to resolve the issues, such as the consistency of race pace that we had faced in the last season. It was the continuous approach that we already had started to work on, since the second half of last year. On top of this, we incorporated a few improvements that we found during the winter testing into the tires for this season opener. But some of them will still take time to become effective, so we will try to make it work properly as soon as possible in this new season.

“We had a wet qualifying session here in Okayama. Both of our GT500 cars made qualifying attempts in the final minutes of Q1 when the amount of rain receded, using the soft compound rain tires, and obtained the grids on the second row, which was a very good result. However, the temperatures on the race day were much lower than expected and the drivers struggled to raise the tire temperatures to the proper level because, as for the dry tires, we had assumed that the surface temperature might reach to around 30 degrees Celsius if the weather was fine. As a result, D'station ADVAN GT-R and WedsSport SC430 lost a lot of positions before the tires started to work properly. And, even when the tires were warmed up, the grip level seemed to be lower than we expected, probably because of the difficult conditions. It was really frustrating for us because the first race of the season has gone even before we saw the true performance of our products.

“In the GT300 class, most of Yokohama equipped cars are built to the FIA GT3 specification this year and, therefore, we thought that the JAF GT spec cars would be our main rivals because they have an advantage of shorter refueling time. But, at the end of the day, the class winner was a FIA GT3 car that used the other manufacturer's tires. So we have deep regrets about this.
“The preparation work for the next Fuji round has already started for both GT500 and GT300 classes. But, looking back what happened in this weekend in Okayama, we will further investigate what worked against us and utilize it to produce winning tires as early as possible.”