Honda wins as Lexus rounds out podium Ryo Michigami and
Takashi Kogure in their Takata Dome NSX have won the Sugo GT 300,
Round 5 of the 2008 AUTOBACS Super GT Championship. Starting from
pole position, Kogure got a good start and opened up an early lead
over the competition. But soon the ARTA NSX moved up from its 3rd
position start to put the pressure on and turn the race into a
fierce battle between the two Hondas. The battle between the two
continued in the second half of the race after Ryo Michigami took
the wheel of the Takata Dome NSX until late in the race when the
Arta NSX ran off the track. In the end, the Takata machine won the
race easily after effectively maintaining its lead throughout. It
was the first win of the season for Michigami and Kogure team and
also for the Honda NSX. This victory also moves them into first
place in the season point ranking with a good shot for the series
title. Second and third went to the Lexus S430s of
P.Dumbreck/T.Kataoka with Y.Tachikawa/R.Lyons third. After the race
Michigami told reporters of his relief at taking the win “I’m very
relieved” he said. “Izawa put a lot of pressure on me… and we
were carrying a load of handicap weights, so it was hard to shake
him. When he crashed we were boxed behind two GT300 machines at the
last curve. He was pressuring me from behind and I was thinking
about passing the GT300 machines on the outside. But there was a
lot of tire shredings over there, so I held firm on the inside.
Then I saw the orange car (No. 1) start to make its move on the
outside and I wondered if he could do it. That’s when he suddenly
disappeared.” In GT300 the victory went to the Arta Garaiya driven
by Morio Niita and Shinichi Takagi. For this team it was their
second win of the season following a victory at round two.
SPORTSLAND SUGO | Length : 3.704256km x 81Laps = 300.04474Km
Weather: Cloudy | Course : Dry RACE RESULTS TOP 3 Po.No.Machine
Driver LAPS Time/Delay [GT500 CLASS] 1 18 TAKATA DOME NSX
R.Michigami/T.Kogure 81 1:50′12.743 2 35 houzan KRAFT SC430
P.Dumbreck/T.Kataoka 81 00′19.751 3 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430
Y.Tachikawa/R.Lyons 81 00′30.585 [GT300 CLASS] 1 43 ARTA Garaiya
M.Nitta/S.Takagi 75 1:50′29.833 2 81 DAISHIN ADVAN Z T.Aoki/T.Fujii
75 00′06.485 3 31 DOUBLEHEAD avex apr MR-S K.Mineo/Y.Sakamoto 75
00′45.100