RaceRevo

Plenty of drama took place during Super GT Round 4 at the Sepang International Circuit, which ultimately won by the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R. This marks the 3rd straight year running that Nissan GT-R dominates the Malaysian Super GT weekend and won at the 5.543km circuit.

GT-R also achieved a one-two finish when the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R crossed the finishing line in 2nd position, ahead of the WEIDER HSV-010. Continue reading our photo report on this year’s Super GT in Malaysia.

Starting from pole, the CALSONIC GT-R with Tsugio Matsuda in the cockpit accelerated well off the rolling start and maintains no.1 spot exiting Turn 1 and Turn 2, followed by the ARTA HSV-010 and the MOTUL GT-R. Loic Duval of WEIDER HSV-010 spunned at Turn 1 after being hit while tussling for position and dropped to 10th place.

The EPSON HSV-010 rolled out of the race right after the green light went off, with what looks like a mechanical failure.

At the end of lap 5, the MOTUL GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama) tried to overtake the ARTA HSV-010 driven by Ralph Firman, but was pushed wide into the grass. This paved the way for the ENEOS SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim) and the RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa) to attack and overtook the red GT-R heading into Turn 1.

Meanwhile, the ZENT CERUMO SC430 had to pit early to serve a drive through penalty, diminishing any chance to fight for the podium.

Duval’s WEIDER HSV-010 was steadily fast and beginning to catch the front runners, making up for earlier misfortune. They were 9th on lap 9, and on the next lap he showed some tremendous drive and overtaking manoeuvres to jump 3 places to 6th.

The ENEOS SC430, who received one of the highest weight penalty at 64kg, began to struggle and the RAYBRIG HSV-010 overtook them on lap 14. And on lap 20, they lost yet another position, this time to the WEIDER HSV-010.

While most teams pitted around lap 25 and 26, Izawa stay out a few laps longer for RAYBRIG HSV-010. And their strategies proved decisive as they assume the lead after the pit stop, ahead of the CALSONIC GT-R. But their lead only lasted for one lap after the CALSONIC GT-R took advantage of the HSV-010′s cold tyres to make a move at Turn 9 and retakes the lead.

It’s all about the CALSONIC GT-R, the RAYBRIG HSV-010 and the MOTUL GT-R from lap 20 onwards – this 3 cars looks more and more likely to win this race, as they leave the rest of the field in their wake. But things took a different turn on lap 37.

The RAYBRIG HSV-010, with driver Naoki Yamamoto, trying very hard to overtake the CALSONIC GT-R, which by now had Ronnie Quintarelli taken over the driver’s duty. Approaching Turn 2, Yamamoto missed his braking point, clipped the curb and slammed into the backend of the GT-R. Both cars didn’t suffer any significant damage but the RAYBRIG HSV-010 has taken over the race lead while the CALSONIC GT-R spun, but managed to continue albeit dropping to 3rd spot behind the MOTUL GT-R.

3 laps later, it was Yamamoto’s turn to get hit, when Benoit Treluyer in the MOTUL GT-R reared the HSV-010 heading into the last turn. The race lead is now held by the MOTUL GT-R, followed by the RAYBRIG HSV-010 and the CALSONIC GT-R.

But both incidents didn’t go unnoticed by the stewards – both Yamamoto and Treyuler were handed a drive through penalty for their part, and this played nicely into the the hands of Quintarelli’s CALSONIC GT-R.

15 laps to go, and Quintarelli extends the CALSONIC GT-R’s lead to 15 seconds from the ARTA HSV-010 and the WEIDER HSV-010. But on lap 45, ARTA HSV-010′s Yuji Ide made a mistake – running wide onto the grass and lost 2 places to both WEIDER HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure) and KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi).

Ide had to make an extra pitstop as a results of the excursion, dropping them down the pecking order and out of contention.

With 5 laps to go, Tsukakoshi made a pass on Kogure to take 2nd place but a GT300 backmarkers then spunned and knocked the KEIHIN HSV-010 out of the race.

Meanwhile the recovering Treyuler in the MOTUL GT-R gave chase to Kogure’s WEIDER HSV-010 in the final few laps. Treyuler aggressively attacked Kogure and finally overtook the HSV-010 for 2nd spot. The standing remains till the end of the race, as the CALSONIC GT-R’s lead were too much for Treyuler and Kogure.

In the GT300 class, M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC RX-7 won convincingly with no challenge from its competitors. ARTA GARAIYA finished in 2nd place – 28 seconds behind the M7, while the COROLLA AXIO APR GT takes 3rd spot, ahead of pole sitter JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430.

GT500 Race Results :

1 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli 1:50’54.084
2 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer +0’13.333
3 Weider HSV-010 Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval +0’16.673
4 ENEOS SC430 Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim +0’28.242
5 RAYBRIG HSV-010 Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto +0’30.809
6 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons +0’54.074
7 MJ KRAFT SC430 Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya Oshima +0’55.339
8 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer +1’07.541
9 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R J.P.Lima de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda +1’20.339
10 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 Andre Couto/Kohei Hirate +1’24.343
11 ARTA HSV-010 Ralph Firman/Yuji Ide +1Lap
12 KEIHIN HSV-010 Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi +3Laps

Not Classified :

13 EPSON HSV-010 Ryo Michigami/Yuhki Nakayama

GT300 Race Results :

1 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 Nobuteru Taniguchi/Ryo Orime 1:52’09.593
2 ARTA Garaiya Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi +0’27.625
3 COROLLA Axio apr GT Takuto Iguchi/Yuji Kunimoto +0’51.346
4 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430 Tetsuya Tanaka/Katsuyuki Hiranaka +1Lap
5 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z Kazuki Hoshino/Masataka Yanagida +1Lap
6 UP START MOLA Z Naoki Yokomizo/Tsubasa Abe +1Lap
7 RIRE Lamborghini RG-3 Atsushi Yogo/Shinya Hosokawa +1Lap
8 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 apr COROLLA Koki Saga/Kosuke Matsuura +1Lap
9 WedsSport IS350 Manabu Orido/Tatsuya Kataoka +1Lap
10 NAC EISEICOM LMP Ferrari Yutaka Yamagishi/Hiroshi Koizumi +1Lap
11 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Hiroyuki Iiri/Yuya Sakamoto +1Lap
12 triple a Vantage GT2 Hideshi Matsuda/Hiroki Yoshimoto +1Lap
13 MACH GOGOGO SHAKEN408R Tetsuji Tamanaka/Haruki Kurosawa +2Laps
14 ISHIMATSU Kosei RUNNUP PORSCHE Atsushi Tanaka/Masahiro Matsunaga +3Laps
15 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 Koji Yamanishi/Yuhi Sekiguchi +4Laps
16 HANKOOK PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita/Masami Kageyama +12Laps

Not Classified :

17 I.M JIHAN CO.LTD•APPLE•Shiden Hiroki Katoh/Hiroshi Hamaguchi
18 ThunderAsia MT900M Melvin Choo/Tim Sugden
19 BOMEX LIAN BOXSTER Junichiro Yamashita/Takamori.com

Super GT will fly back to Japan for Round 5. It will be held at the Sugo Circuit on 25th July 2010.

Photo / Editorial : Nazim Idris

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