Round 3 of SUPER GT was held on Monday, May 4th at Fuji Speedway (4.563km/lap) in Oyama-chou, Shizuoka prefecture. Starting the 88-lap race from pole position, the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (#1 Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) took their first victory of the season.

Round 3 of SUPER GT has become an established Golden Week tradition. In slightly cloudy weather, this year’s race saw over 50,000 fans - many of them families, gather on a warm, calm day. Though SUPER GT events are regularly 300kms, this race was 400kms. With this longer distance, two pit stops were mandated for all participants, and various strategies were refined throughout.

In official qualifying, held on the previous day, Satoshi Motoyama in the #1 GT-R did just what he had done in the last round at Suzuka by taking pole position, and was designated starting driver. From the first lap Motoyama built up a lead, despite his rivals’ attempts to reverse the situation. In the middle of the confusion in the early stages, the HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (#24 Joao Paolo de Oliveira/Seiji Ara) was able to get past on lap 9. Until its pit stop on lap 20, the #24 GT-R held onto that position. However, swifter pit work got the #1 GT-R back out on track first, taking the fight to the race-leading #36 Lexus SC430. After the driver switch, Treluyer in the #1 GT-R waited for his chance to pass the SC430, never allowing the gap to widen throughout the latter half of the event.

On lap 60, the car came in for its second stop, the team’s rapid work once again getting it back out quickly, to successfully take over the race lead with a margin of approximately 6 seconds. From that point, Motoyama ran the remaining laps, maintaining a gap to the car behind with his stable lap times. Towards the end, the #36 SC430 actively tried to recapture the position, very nearly catching the GT-R. In addition, delays caused by other GT500 class machines meant the gap had narrowed to a mere 0.2 seconds by the final lap, but the car reached the goal without ever letting its rival past.

Source: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2009/_STORY/090507-02-e.html

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