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Race Report

Perfect win for the Weider HSV-010!
ZENT CERUMO SC430 triumphs in fierce battle for 2nd place

On April 4, the OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE, Round 2 of the 2010 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Okayama International Circuit in Okayama Pref. The winner in the GT500 class was the No.18 Weider HSV-010 driven by Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval. The winner of the GT300 class was the No.46 Up Start MOLA Z driven by Naoki Yokomizo and Tsubasa Abe.

GT500 Class

  

The race began at 14:00 on a balmy spring day under clear skies. The strong winds of the day before had also abetted, making for perfect race conditions.

Loic Duval was at the wheel of pole-winning No. 18 Weider HSV-010. He got a good start and began to pull away from the pack with no difficulty. By the second lap, he already had more than a 1-second lead over the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) running in 2nd place. As No. 18 began to lap the back of the GT300 field, that gap lessened somewhat, but not enough for No. 38 to get within striking distance before No. 18 made its pit stop. All four tires were changed and the pit stop took 38 seconds. It was more than the competitors but not too long to prevent the second stint driver, Takashi Kogure, to return to the race still in the lead.
Even through the second half of his stint, Kogure continued to punch out lap times in the 1 min. 27 sec. range. His margin over 2nd place grew to more than 10 seconds. As the 2nd- and 3rd-place machines became involved in an increasingly intense battle of their own, Kogure was able to maintain a safe margin of lead.

Kogure's pace didn't slow over the final stages of the race, and at the finish he had an 11-second lead over 2nd place. The No. 18 Weider HSV-010 has now won its first victory of the season.

Despite having won pole position in the opening round of the season, the No. 18 Weider HSV-010 team was unable to win the debut race of the new Honda HSV-010 GT. But this time, the team brought Honda a perfect win without ever giving up the lead from pole to finish.

For car No. 18 and Takashi Kogure this is the first win since round 5 of the 2008 season at SUGO. For Loic Duval, it is his first win since round 9 of the 2007 season at Fuji Speedway.

No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 The battle for 2nd place developed when the pit stop for car No. 38 (changing drivers from Tachikawa to Richard Lyons) took 37 seconds and allowed the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 to move ahead into 2nd place. Driving car No. 1, Andre Lotterer had worked his way up from 8th position on the grid to 4th place. By limiting the tire change to the two rear tires, the team was able to gain another 30 seconds in its pit stop. But, with three laps remaining in the race, Wakisaka in car No. 1 got caught behind a GT300 class machine he was lapping, and Lyons in car No. 38 took advantage of that moment to pass him. From there, Lyons held on to finish the race 2nd.

 

No.1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Before the finish, Wakisaka in No. 1 was also chased by the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli/Tsugio Matsuda) but was able to hold his position and finish 3rd. This made the No. 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 the third team on the podium.
Having just missed a podium finish, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R became the top GT-R finisher, in 4th. The No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi (Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) had to retire from the race after a collision with another car on lap 16. Unable to keep a fast pace, the No. 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda) could finish no better than 12th.





Up Start MOLA Z comes through to win with flawless race plan
Machine trouble stifles M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7

GT300 Class

  



In the early stages of the GT300 class race, the pole-starting No. 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 (Koji Yamanishi) took the lead and gradually pulled away from the field. But, during its pit stop after lap 38, the refueling took an unusually long time, resulting in a total 57 seconds. In the second half, Yuhi Sekiguchi drove hard to try to regain the lost ground, even risking brush-ups with other cars in the process. Still, he was still only able to regain 4th position by the end of the race.
Taking the lead in No. 86's absence was the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7. Driving the first stint, Nobuteru Taniguchi had passed one car after another. The team then gained additional time at the pit stop by going with their usual no-tire-change race plan. In the second half, Ryo Orima continued to run strongly at a steady pace. Soon after he took the lead, however, a problem developed in the machine's steering system and he ended up running off the track on lap 55. Unfortunately, the team was forced to retire from the race at that point.
This put the No. 46 Up Start MOLA Z in the lead. Although Naoki Yokomizo had been passed by car No. 7 in the first half, he had been able to maintain a fast and steady pace. The team took an orthodox race plan of changing all four tires at the routine pit stop, after which Tsubasa Abe took the wheel for the second half of the race. Abe also ran strongly and maintained the team's position. After car No. 7 retired from the race, there was no other car to threaten Abe (No. 46), as he ran on to the class win. This was the first win of the season for the No. 46 Up Start MOLA Z (Naoki Yokomizo/Tsubasa Abe), and it is the team's first victory since last year's round six at Suzuka.

No.2 Apple･K-ONE･Shiden
Finishing 2nd came the No. 2 Apple･K-ONE･Shiden (Hiroki Katoh/Hiroshi Hamaguchi). From his qualifying position of 8th on the starting grid, Katoh had steadily moved up through the field. As their rivals made their pit stops, No. 2 moved up into 2nd position. When Hamaguchi returned to the track as the second-stint driver after No. 2's own pit stop, he was in 3rd position. And when car No. 7 was forced to drop out of the race, No. 2 was once again in 2nd position. Because the No. 2 Shiden had retired from the last race after the first lap in the season opener, this was in fact Hamaguchi's debut GT race. Still he showed his ability to drive with a cool unexpected from a rookie.


No.3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z Finishing 3rd was the No. 3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z (Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka Yanagida). In Saturday's Knock-out qualifying, No. 3 had been unable to reach the third session and was forced to start today's race in 12th position on the GT300 grid. During the first half of the race, Hoshino had been able to climb to 8th position before making a somewhat early pit stop on lap 37. Taking the wheel for the second half, Yanagida also ran strongly, delighting the spectators with his technique when he passed the No. 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE on lap 63. This put the two Fairlady Z teams on the winners' podium.



GT500 Class Winner

No.18 Weider HSV-010

Takashi Kogure
[In the last round] at Suzuka, two of the Honda machines crashed into each other, which darkened the mood in the Honda camp. But today, I'm sure everyone is please with this result. That makes me happy. We always tend to lose time in the pit work, but Loic made up for that by giving us the margin of lead we needed. So I was able to drive the second stint with assurance. I am glad that we two drivers were able to do our jobs and win this race.
Hironobu Yasuda
I feel great. There was a lot of pressure and that made for a tough race, but it is good that we were able to win it and prove what a strong team we are. We had a different strategy from car No. 38 and we chose different tires. The going was tough for about the first ten laps, but after that I was able to run steadily and with assurance. I was nervous, though, when I had to watch the whole second half from the pit (laughs).
GT300 Class Winner

No.46 Up Start MOLA Z

Naoki Yokomizo
I still can't believe that I am here [being interviewed at the post-race press conference]. Since we were carrying 30 kilos of handicap weights, I thought it would be a very tough race for us. But, the tires that Yokohama Rubber prepared and the machine that the team prepared for us turned out to be a very good package. Abe has been my junior since we were back racing karts, so I was nervous watching him after he took the lead. But, he has made rapid progress this year and I can now feel more confident of his abilities. It wasn't decided that we would be able to compete this year until just two weeks before the opening round, because our main sponsor wasn't committed yet. And there are a lot of uncertainties about the second half of this season, too. So, I believe that this win will have some value for the team management.
Tsubasa Abe
I'm very relieved. I saw the No. 7 machine crash right in front of me and (after I took the lead as a result) I didn't know what could happen in the remainder of the race. So I made myself concentrate and take it carefully. Also, there were a lot of fallen objects on the course today that I had to be careful about. There were also some tight battles going on between the GT500 machines that kept me paying attention throughout the race.

 

Race Results

GT500 Class
Position Car No. Machine Driver Time&Diff. Laps Tire WH
1 18 Weider HSV-010 Takashi Kogure
Loic Duval
 2:02'26.084 82 BS
2 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa
Richard Lyons
 0'11.800 82 BS 4
3 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka
Andre Lotterer
 0'14.209 82 BS 16
4 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
 0'14.712 82 BS
5 6 ENEOS SC430 Daisuke Ito
Bjorn Wirdheim
 0'45.741 82 BS 30
6 8 ARTA HSV-010 Ralph Firman
Yuji Ide
 0'48.666 82 BS
7 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 Toshihiro Kaneishi
Koudai Tsukakoshi
 0'57.285 82 BS 8
8 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 Takuya Izawa
Naoki Yamamoto
 1'11.673 82 BS 22
9 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 Hiroaki Ishiura
Kazuya Oshima
 1Lap 81 BS 10
10 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 Andre Couto
Kohei Hirate
 1Lap 81 DL 12
11 32 EPSON HSV-010 Ryo Michigami
Yuhki Nakayama
 1Lap 81 DL 2
12 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R J.P.Lima de Oliveira
Hironobu Yasuda
 1Lap 81 YH 40
Classified (GT500: 57 Laps)

23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi Motoyama
Benoit Treluyer
 67Laps 15 MI 6

 

GT300 Class
Position Car No. Machine Driver Time&Diff. Laps Tire WH
1 46 UP START MOLA Z Naoki Yokomizo
Tsubasa Abe
 2:03'22.023 76 YH 30
2 2 Apple•K-ONE•Shiden Hiroki Katoh
Hiroshi Hamaguchi
 0'26.160 76 YH
3 3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z Kazuki Hoshino
Masataka Yanagida
 0'32.261 76 YH 12
4 86 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Koji Yamanishi
Yuhi Sekiguchi
 0'37.676 76 YH 8
5 31 apr COROLLA Axio Koki Saga
Kosuke Matsuura
 0'37.929 76 YH
6 43 ARTA Garaiya Morio Nitta
Shinichi Takagi
 1Lap 75 MI
7 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430 Tetsuya Tanaka
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
 1Lap 75 DL
8 33 HANKOOK PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
Masami Kageyama
 1Lap 75 HK 10
9 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT Takuto Iguchi
Yuji Kunimoto
 1Lap 75 MI 6
10 9 HATSUNEMIKU X GSR PORSCHE Taku Bamba
Masahiro Sasaki
 1Lap 75 HK
11 27 NAC EISEICOM LMP Ferrari Yutaka Yamagishi
Hiroshi Koizumi
 2Laps 74 YH 4
12 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 Tetsuya Yamano
Kota Sasaki
 2Laps 74 YH
13 26 CINE CITTA' TAISAN PORSCHE Igor Sushko
Masayuki Ueda
 2Laps 74 YH
14 19 WedsSport IS350 Manabu Orido
Tatsuya Kataoka
 3Laps 73 YH 22
15 66 triple a Vantage GT2 Hideshi Matsuda
Hiroki Yoshimoto
 6Laps 70 YH
16 88 RIRE Lamborghini RG-3 Atsushi Yogo
Shinya Hosokawa
 8Laps 68 YH
17 87 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Hiroyuki Iiri
Yuya Sakamoto
 16Laps 60 YH 2
18 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7 Nobuteru Taniguchi
Ryo Orime
 22Laps 54 YH 40
Classified (GT300: 53 Laps)

5 MACHGOGOGO SHAKEN408R Tetsuji Tamanaka
Haruki Kurosawa
 60Laps 16 YH 16

365 365 ThunderAsia MT900M Melvin Choo
Tim Sugden
YH
 

Tire = BS:Bridgestone / DL:Dunlop / HK:Hankook / MI:Michelin / YH:Yokohama

WH = Handicap Weight (kg)

Start: 14:02'45 / Finish: 16:05'11

Best Lap
GT500 - 1'26.647 : No.18 Weider HSV-010 (Loic Duval)
GT300 - 1'34.204 : No.2 Apple•K-ONE•Shiden (Hiroki Katoh)
 

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