This weekend the Super GT series headed to Malaysia for its annual competition round at Sepang Circuit – and the 4th race of the 2009 season. This event is known for it's hot and humid conditions that take a toll on the men and machines, and this year's race was no different.
The Motul Autech GT-R started on the pole in the GT500 class – it's third consecutive pole of the 2009 season. Would Motoyama and Treluyer be able to drive their Nissan to another victory?
At the end of the day, it was a GT-R that finished on top – but not the Autech Motul car. After qualifying in second, the Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R driven by Ronnie Quintarelli and Hironobu Yasuda earned the victory in GT500. In a cool retro touch, the livery on this car looks to be inspired by the Tomica DR30 Skyline Shiloutte racer that Hasemi drove in the '80s.
Finishing behind the GT-R were three NSX's, led by the Keihin car of Toshihiro Kaneishi and Koudai Tsukakoshi. The Motul Autech GT-R ended up finishing the race way back in eighth position.
The GT300 class was won by the I.M Jihan Shiden of of Hiroki Katoh and Hiroki Yoshimoto. This is the first time a prototype car has won a GT300 race in quite some time.
Second in GT300 was the WedsSport IS350 driven by Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka. It's been a successful season for this team so far.
Likewise, it's also been a good season for the Mutiara Amemiya RX7 driven by Orido's friend NOB Taniguchi and Ryo Orime. This car finished third at Sepang.
The next Super GT race will be at Sugo next month,
-Mike Garrett
Photos Courtesy of Super GT
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I've always loved the style of Super GT and tried to follow it, but it has been hard living in the US, BUT being in the US and seeing the RX-7 uses here, I thought mazda would use the Mazda 6 or RX-8 platforms for Super GT
@mITUL pATEL
Its not a factory team run by mazda but by the Rotary Tuner RE amemiya.
Exactly how old can these team's platforms be? I recall someone using a Porsche 944 not too long ago. I was under the impression that there was a limit to how old the based car can be if it is out of production.
great pictures! Desktop of the Second to last picture, the Lexus with the green wheels, please!
hey guys the GTR that is running in the GT500 class is still not using the production GTR engine right?
I.M Jihan Shiden is a Rolex Daytona Prototype racecar. I don't think it fits in the GT300 class. It would be more at home on the Daytona Speedway or at least GT500.
Re: EJ25. It all depends on what the team wants to enter it in. If the governing body believe that with the restrictions in place it is fair they will let it stay. Otherwise it would be racing in the GT500 class.
GT series they're pushing it too far now. They're literally silhouette cars, (why old NSXs are still competitive) 90's was more real and cars looked better... In my humble opinion.
I partly agree with TE as there seem to be more vents appearing and pieces fixed on each year.The teams are obviously trying to push cutting edge aero parts etc but im wondering how long it will be before we see the likes of what audi has done with the DTM s4(cutting grooves in the doors) or even the tacky stick ons that afflicted F1 up until last year.
this is a great series, is there anyway to get live coverage?
I say push the technology and push it hard. there are more than enough other racing series that have all these restrictions on aero and such......go watch thos. we dont need more of em, the way this series is run is very rare and it would be a great loss if the rules cut all this great innovation down.....BTCC (and so many others) has exactly what your looking for if you dont like the current super GT. yep....its called SUPER GT for a reason and I love it!
ON another note...the Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R is lookin great!!!!!
Thanks for the coverage.
I love Super GT
I'm not saying that i don't like supergt swerve as it's my favourite race series i just meant i hope we don't progress towards stuff being stuck all over the cars like some after-thought.
I agree that the Super GT cars need to be left alone... with a few caveats.
As much as I like to watch modified production cars that are a little more like their production models (ALMS GT2 for example) I can also appreciate how Super GT has evolved into a series that features car which are a mere facsimile of the production version. I think that allowing full tube frame cars and cars that were originally designed as prototype racers into the series makes no sense.