WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z (Ara / Lima De Oliveira)Scores First Victory
Courtesy of Super GT
The SUPER GT INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN MALAYSIA race, Round 4 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Sepang International Circuit (lap = 5.542 km) in Malaysia Pref. on June 24. Coming up from 14th place on the starting grid to grab the win in the GT500 class was the pair of Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira and Seiji Ara driving the WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z.
The race started in typical Malaysian tropical heat with an air temperature of 34?? C. As the top qualifying machines suffered mechanical trouble and tire problems, De Olivera drove magnificently to take the lead. After his teammate Seiji Ara took the wheel he continued to run safely in the lead and on to the Kondo Racing team's first Super GT victory in its second year of competition.
In the GT300 class the class pole starters apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima / Hiroaki Ishiura) won their second round of the season.
(Spectators: 34,150)
[Winner Comments]
No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z [GT500]
Seiji Ara: "I have won once at the Le Mans 24 Hours, but this victory today with Nissan, Yokohama Tires and Kondo Racing all working together has made me equally excited and happy. It is not easy to win in this fierce heat. The fact that we were able to score the second consecutive victory for a Z machine this season under such conditions is proof of just how strong the Z is. The tires were great too. Just before the goal both team manager Masahiko Kondo and I were shouting on the intercom at the same time: "We did it!" There was no response after that (laughs).
De Olivera: "Yesterday I was hoping that we could have a good race today. Today the tires were so good, and I think it made a big difference that I was able to push hard before our pit stop and open up a lead. In the second half I was just watching but I was still so tense. Ara did a good job. Still, I can't believe that we really won (laughs)."
No. 101 apr MR-S [GT300]
Kazuya Oshima: "Because we chose to use softer tires, we had a tough time in the middle stages and got passed by Garaiya and Vemac. So we decided to make an early pit stop. The pit work went very well and we were able to get the lead again. That made Ishiura-san have to run more than usual, but he ran very well."
Hiroaki Ishiura: "I didn't know that we had passed the leaders with our pit stop, so I was pushing hard for a while. After that I found out that we were able to run faster than the cars behind us, so I began to focus on being easier on the machine. The tires I was using have a wide temperature range and that turned out to be very helpful today."
The result
GT500 class
GT500 Class
1 24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z J.P.L.De Oliveira 1:49'13.210 54 YH
Seiji Ara
2 100 RAYBRIG NSX Dominik Schwager 0'11.251 54 BS 30
Shinya Hosokawa
3 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z Benoit Treluyer 0'18.433 54 BS
Kazuki Hoshino
4 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 Yuji Tachikawa 0'27.381 54 BS 25
Toranosuke Takagi
5 25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430 Takeshi Tsuchiya 0'27.894 54 YH 2
Manabu Orido
6 8 ARTA NSX Daisuke Ito 0'32.725 54 BS 45
Ralph Firman
7 3 YellowHat YMS MobaHO ! TOMICA Z Sebastien Philippe 0'33.215 54 BS 10
Masataka Yanagida
8 1 houzan TOM'S SC430 Juichi Wakisaka 0'39.967 54 BS 5
Andre Lotterer
9 6 Forum Eng. SC430 Tatsuya Kataoka 0'45.613 54 BS 20
Bjorn Wirdheim
10 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z Michael Krumm 1'20.120 54 BS 50
Tsugio Matsuda
11 35 BANDAI DUNLOP SC430 Naoki Hattori 1'38.438 54 DL 1
Ronnie Quintarelli
12 17 REAL NSX Katsutomo Kaneishi 1Lap 53 BS
Toshihiro Kaneishi
13 39 DENSO SARD SC430 Andre Couto 1Lap 53 BS
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
14 23 XANAVI NISMO Z Satoshi Motoyama 1Lap 53 BS 60
Richard Lyons
15 32 EPSON NSX Loic DUVAL 1Lap 53 DL 15
Fabio CARBONE
Classified
18 TAKATA DOME NSX Ryo Michigami DNS 0 BS 10
Takashi Kogure
GT300 Class
1 101 apr MR-S Kazuya Oshima 1:49'53.783 50 MI 60
Hiroaki Ishiura
2 4 EBBRO 350R Tetsuya Tanaka 0'15.787 50 YH
Shinsuke Yamazaki
3 46 houzan DUNLOP Z Kota Sasaki 0'17.837 50 DL
Naoki Yokomizo
4 47 houzan DUNLOP Z Shigekazu Wakisaka 0'18.479 50 DL 1
Shogo Mitsuyama
5 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA Tetsuya Yamano 0'29.687 50 DL
Takayuki Aoki
6 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z Masami Kageyama 0'46.588 50 YH 35
Tomonobu Fujii
7 87 MARUHON MURCIE RG-1 Yasutaka Hinoi 0'50.296 50 YH
Atsushi Yogo
8 7 RE AMEMIYA RX-7 Hiroyuki Iiri 0'51.492 50 YH
Ryo Orime
9 19 WedsSport Celica Akira Iida 0'53.190 50 YH 2
Yuhi Sekiguchi
10 33 HANKOOK NSC PORSCHE Mitsuhiro Kinoshita 0'54.158 50 HK 5
Yuya Sakamoto
11 2 I.M JIHAN CO.LTD APPLE Shiden Kazuho Takahashi 1'01.656 50 YH 50
Hiroki Katoh
12 88 AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 Hideshi Matsuda 1'20.480 50 YH 30
Koji Yamanishi
13 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE Kazuyuki Nishizawa 1Lap 49 YH
Nobuteru Taniguchi
14 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R Shinsuke Shibahara 1Lap 49 YH
Haruki Kurosawa
15 31 apr MR-S Kyosuke Mineo 1Lap 49 MI
Yuya Sakamoto
16 333 ADVAN UEMATSU 320R Tadao Uematsu 1Lap 49 YH
Takashi Inoue
17 666 Rakuten BOMEX 320R Shogo Suho 2Laps 48 YH 2
Junichiro Yamashita
18 11 TOTAL BENEFIT JIM CENTER F360 Masayuki Ueda 2Laps 48 YH 2
Ichijo Suga
19 5 KUMHO Proμ MACH-GO 320R Tetsuji Tamanaka 2Laps 48 KH 2
Hironori Takeuchi
Classified
110 GREEN-TEC KUMHO BOXSTER-GT Takuya Kurosawa 14Laps 36 KH
Hidetoshi Mitsusada
43 ARTA Garaiya Morio Nitta 42Laps 8 MI 30
Shinichi Takagi
Tire = BS:Bridgestone / DL:Dunlop / HK:Hankook / KH:Kumho / MI:Michelin / YH:Yokohama
WH = Handicap Weight (kg) / +1:Promotion of Performance (Level 1) / +2:Promotion of Performance (Level 2)
Start: 16:06'47 / Finish: 17:56'00
GT500 Best Lap Top3 :
1'57.062 : No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Toranosuke Takagi)
1'57.320 : No.1 Houzan TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka)
1'57.364 : No.6 Forum Eng. SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim)
GT300 Best Lap Top3 :
2'07.682 : No.77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA (Takayuki Aoki)
2'07.904 : No.5 KUMHO Proμ MACH-GO 320R (Hironori Takeuchi)
2'08.030 : No.19 WedsSport Celica (Yuhi Sekiguchi)
No.100 - Drive through penalty for jump start.
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