After a six week break since the Malaysian round, Sugo GT 300km race, the fourth round of the 2013 Super GT Championship series, was held at Sportsland Sugo. The race track in Miyagi, Japan,
stands out with a lot of undulation during a lap.

The weather on the qualifying day, Saturday, wasn't ideal and the local meteorological observatory even announced the special information on the unusually low temperatures around the area. The official practice sessions began in the foggy weather with drizzle. But the damp track was gradually drying, so the condition was changeable and tricky, which puzzled the teams and drivers throughout the sessions.

On top of this, the air/surface temperatures stayed at only 23/24 degrees Celsius, which was very much lower than expected before the weekend, and such conditions made the drivers' qualifying attempts even more difficult. As for the Yokohama shoed GT500 cars, D'station ADVAN GT-R was classified in ninth and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 in 12th at the end of the session, which was, once again, the confirmation that how fierce the competition in the class was.

In the GT300 class, Morio Nitta in Panasonic apr Prius GT clocked 1'21”003, which was the fastest among the Yokohama equipped cars, and secured the fourth grid in the class. Okinawa-Imp SLS ended the session in sixth, so the crew could still hope for a good result, if the situation would be in its favor on Sunday. Further down the grids, the strong pack of Yokohama shoed cars, such as S Road NDDP GT-R, Crystal Croco Lamborghini GT3 and GSR Hatsune Miku BMW, were watching for opportunities to get better results in the race, while they couldn't take the front rows.

Overnight rain wetted the pavement of Sportsland Sugo but the track conditions were getting better quickly, as the track was used for the supporting races and the warm up session. And when the race was about to start, the surface temperature reached as high as 40 degrees, while the air temperature stayed around 26.

The first of many dramas happened even before the race began. The fastest qualifier among the Yokohama shoed GT300 cars, Panasonic apr Prius GT, had a problem with its clutch release mechanism when the mechanics were warming up the car's engine before getting to the grid. The team could fix the problem but the car couldn't join the starting procedures, so it was forced to start the race from the pit lane.

MonePa Lamborghini GT3 was also starting the race from the pit lane, instead of the allocated 21st grid. The car had a troubled qualifying session due to the failure of its paddle shift system and the team decided to use a different set of tires from the set it had used in the qualifying session because the track temperature conditions significantly changed and there wasn't much to lose for them even though the rules required the pit lane start after the tire change.

The formation lap began at 2 p.m. on Sunday. In the GT500 class field, D'station ADVAN GT-R was on the ninth grid with Hironobu Yasuda at the wheel, while Andre Couto was driving WedsSport ADVAN SC430 that sat on the 12th grid on the outside of the double file formation.

Soon after the start, WedsSport ADVAN SC430 lost a position and was running in 13th, while D'station ADVAN GT-R remained in ninth. But, then, the two teams began untiring efforts which were rewarded at the end of the day...

As one of their opponent dropped out on Lap 5, the two Yokohama equipped cars gained a position each. Yasuda struggled a bit after that and had to give way to the closest rival but a drive through penalty to Petronas Tom's 430 SC took him back to eighth on Lap 14. At the same time, Couto also moved up to 11th and, keeping consistent paces, both of them were looking to gain further positions.

After a few seesaw affairs, the two Yokohama shoed cars were running in points on Lap 21 with Yasuda in ninth and Couto in tenth. The Japanese driver came in the pit to change to Michael Krumm on Lap 30 and D'station ADVAN GT-R, now the German at the wheel, resumed racing with the different type of tires. On the other hand, Couto did a longer stint and handed the car to Seiji Ara on Lap 44 when he was running in second, as almost all of opponents had made their stops.

When all cars had completed mandatory pit stops, and helped by a few accidents which were mainly the end results of fights among the leading cars, D'station ADVAN GT-R and WedsSport SC430 came back to the top ten, as the former was in eighth and the latter in tenth on Lap 50. Then, it started to rain about five laps later, so both two cars made pit stops to switch to the wet tires on Lap 61, aiming to gain a few more positions during the remaing laps of the race. The conditions became extremely difficult because the rainfall varied a lot over a relatively short time and this induced an accident between four cars that were fighting for the lead position! The incident brought up D'station ADVAN GT-R to fifth and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 to seventh.

Thanks to Yasuda's persistent drive and Krumm's effort to remain its position, D'station ADVAN GT-R finished the game of survival in fifth. While Ara lost two positions in the closing stage, WedsSport SC430 came in ninth. This meant the both Yokohama equipped GT500 cars scored the championship points for the first time this season, after three difficult races since the season opener.

As for the GT300 class, Daiki Sasaki in S Road NDDP GT-R became the leading Yokohama shoed competitor in the early stage because, as mentioned above, Panasonic apr Prius GT had to start from pit lane and join the race two laps behind the leader. Followed by Hironori Takeuchi in Okinawa-Imp SLS and others, Sasaki was fighting for fourth and the highest place among the FIA GT3 cars.

The order in the leading group seemed to be settled for a while but, on Lap 27, Okinawa-Imp SLS which was running in seventh broke the status quo, together with GSR Hatsune Miku BMW in eighth and La Seine Lamborghini GT3 in tenth, by making pit stops earlier than others. But, interestingly, it was the Lamborghini that left the pit first because Hiroki Yoshimoto didn't change to his partner, Hideki Yamauchi, and went back to the track immediately after that the team finished to replace the tires.

Every team had gotten the first stop done by Lap 47 and, when the situation settled down once again, however, the highest placed Yokohama shoed car was Endless Taisan Porsche which was running in fifth in the class. The reason of this leap was that firstly the starting driver of the car, Kyosuke Mineo, followed closely to the group that was fighting for fourth and secondly the team replaced all four tires with minimum loss of time when the car came in the pit on Lap 37.

But the rain started to fall around Lap 52 (for the GT300 class leader) and the change of weather conditions significantly affected the race. Looking for a big gain, GSR Hatsune Miku BMW visited the pit to switch to the rain tires on Lap 57 but the gamble didn't pay off because the amount of rainfall wasn't steady and the conditions didn't suit to the wet tires yet. Regardless of the make of tires, the most of cars that went for the wets lost ground and, in contrast, Endless Taisan Porsche moved up to third on Lap 60. Okinawa-Imp SLS also gained positions and was running in fourth on Lap 65.

Naoki Yokomizo who was at the wheel of the Endless backed Porsche for the second half of the race played a safe game and kept the position until the checkered flag fell. After starting from the lowly 15th grid, the reigning champion pair passed as many as 12 cars and eventually got on the podium for the first time this season.

After the second pit stop to change to Yamauchi on Lap 42, La Seine Lamborghini GT3 passed two cars in the closing stage and managed to finish the race in fifth. One of its sister cars, MonePa Lamborghini GT3 started the race from the pit lane and tried to make it up by omitting the tire change. But, unfortunately, the car was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop for tires because of driving over some debris, which destroyed the hope of the team, and it was classified in 18th at the end of the race. Panasonic apr Prius GT lost time and furthrer positions, as the switch to the wet tires didn't work, and finished the race only in 22nd and five laps behind the class winner.

　[Result : 5th in the GT500 class]
“As the forecast said it would rain on the race day, we thought the temperatures should be very low. But it actually became hot and my stint wasn't easy because we didn't expect such conditions when we had decided which tires to use in the qualifying session and at the start of the race. As for Michael's stint, there was no problem and his pace was good, as we could use the best tires for the Sunday's conditions.

“Then rain came and we switched to the wet tires. Our car was one of the fastest when we put on the wet tires and I think we would have gotten some points even if it hadn't been the game of survival. It took a long time to score the first point finish this year... We had been in good form at Suzuka last year, so we hope our never-give-up spirit would lead to a good race again.”

　[Result : 9th in the GT500 class]
“It was a tough race, as the weather was changeable. I started my stint with the same type of tires that Andre used for the first stint but then switched to the wet tires during my stint because it started to rain. My general impression after this Sugo round was that, whether the surfaces were dry or wet, we needed a little bit faster pace. Probably because I used the rain tires too much on the drying surfaces, my tires seemed to be damaged. So I couldn't drive in the pace that I should have and two opponents passed me in the closing stage, which was a shame.

“The next round is a long distance race that we will need relentless effort for hours. But, first of all, we will try to make the best preparation work possible, including that about race strategies, because it is a way to enable us to aim at a higher finishing position.”

　[Result : 3rd in the GT300 class]
“I was sure that an untiring effort would lead us to a point finish. Even though we replaced all four tires at the pit stop, it was still very quick, and it brought us to the top of the FIA GT cars' group. Until the stop, we were the last of the same group! So I have to thank my team and their effort to make the best job. Naoki and I made no mistakes but, without the team's effort, this podium finish wasn't possible.

“Naoki also did a perfect drive under the changeable weather conditions and everyone's effort in our team enabled us to pass as many as 12 cars! I am very, very happy about that.”

“The weather has been really unpredictable this weekend at Sugo but we finally had an opportunity to make a long run with the dry tires on Sunday. At the end of the day, D'station ADVAN GT-R finished in fifth and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 in ninth. One might say that they were helped by dropping out of the leading cars but anyhow it was good that they scored points in this race. And, from the engineer's point of view, we could, at least to some extent, confirm the effect of the new development which had been incorporated into the GT500 tires after the Suzuka testing.

“Of course, we know it isn't enough yet to aim at higher places and we aren't satisfied with the result of this race. But, in terms of the tire development, I would say we managed to get a step ahead in this Sugo round. The positive feedback from drivers proved it. So we are sure we made a good progress and we now hope to continue this in the future testings.
“As for the GT300 class, three JAF-GT spec cars were so fast and this means we have to set the target of tire development to the pace of those cars. We could say a portion of the performance gap was attributed to the cars themselves but we have to work hard to help our users by partly filling the gap with the tires anyway.

“From the next round, we are going to introduce the new development that we had used for our GT500 cars here into the GT300 tires as well. We do believe this will produce beneficial effects, so we can expect the fighting back of our users.”