Escaping from the rainy season in Japan, the Super GT series visited the Sepang circuit in the burning heat. The Malaysian round is a popular annual fixture of the series which has growing popularity in the country as well as in Japan. Indeed, more than 30 thousand spectators visited the circuit and enjoyed the high-speed close battles by the fastest tin-top cars in the world.

The Super GT events have been cut down to two days this year by abolishing official practice sessions on Friday. This Malaysian round was no exception and the practice and qualifying sessions were held on Saturday before the race on Sunday. This meant the series rookies who hadn't had any previous experiences here were given only limited time to learn the track before starting the race. To make things worse, the official practice session in Saturday morning was hit by a squall soon after it began, so every team had to go straight into the qualifying session without having enough time to check the car set up on dry tires.

The ADVAN equipped cars won both GT500 and GT300 classes in the season opening Okayama round and got off to good starts for the new season. The GT500 winner at Okayama, HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R, had constantly earned the points in every race so far and headed for Sepang as the championship leader with a 31 point in their hand.

This meant, at the same time, that the car had to carry the heaviest weight handicap in the class (31x2=62kg), which was certainly a good reason to anticipate a tough race for them. But the team was determined to get as many points as possible before the championship reaches to its halfway point and spared no effort in each session to achieve it.

Turning to the GT300 class in which ADVAN supports the majority of the field, the ADVAN shoed cars duly improve their lap times from the opening session, the official practice on Saturday. After S Road MOLA Z led the practice, 'giraffa' Gallardo RG-3 sat on the provisional pole position in the first qualifying session. In addition to these two cars, five ADVAN equipped cars, Daishin ADVAN Ferrari, I.M.Jihan Co. Ltd Apple Shiden, 'triple a' Murcie RG-1, Jimgainer ADVAN F430 and WedsSport IS350, managed to go into the Super Lap session in the late afternoon. The fact that the seven cars out of eight Super Lap contestants ran on ADVAN tires proved the impartial high performance of the products for many different cars.

In the Super Lap session, however, I.M.Jihan Co. Ltd Apple Shiden which registered the fastest time of the session was disqualified due to a technical infringement and Daishin ADVAN Ferrari couldn't start the session because of an engine problem. Despite these mishaps, the ADVAN shoed cars still occupied the top three slots, as S Road MOLA Z was brought forward to the pole position, followed by Jimgainer ADVAN F430 and WedsSport IS350.

Meanwhile, the series debutant Thunder Asia MT900R (Melvin Choo/Martin Short) also used ADVAN tires in this race. Its entry was on the one-off basis but their locally prepared Mosler took the eighth grid for the race and attracted much attention of the press.

While a squall came on Sunday morning, as it did on the previous day, the race was run on the totally dry track surface. HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R was classified as seventh in the GT500 class according to the qualifying result but it was starting the race from the de facto fifth grid, as the two opponents lost their grid positions for a penalty for engine change and for choosing a pit start due to a mechanical problem respectively. The starting driver of Kondo's car, J.P. de Oliveira, made a perfect getaway and completed the opening lap in third.

Although the car had less fuel than most of his rivals did, it wasn't easy for him to keep up with the leaders due to a 62kg weight handicap which slowly tortured the car and tires. But he made strenuous efforts to remain in the position and came back to the pit as scheduled after completing 20 laps.

Seiji Ara took over the car from the Brazilian and drove in a consistent pace from the beginning of his stint. He was running in fourth when all competitors completed their mandatory pit stops but lost the position to a Honda NSX which had less weight handicap. After that, Ara had a battle against the runner-up in the championship but he didn't give an inch. On the final lap, he was overtaken by the opponent's Lexus SC430, however, despite driving a long stint in the relentless heat, he pushed himself and managed to regain the fifth place before they crossed the finish line, being helped by the durability of ADVAN tires.

The fifth place finish gave them six points which made the team's tally to 37 points. Therefore, they still lead the championship after completing the first half of the series, which is a step forward to the hoped-for series title.

In the GT300 class, the stars of a dramatic racing were the ADVAN equipped cars again. The pole sitting S Road MOLA Z was the early race leader but WedsSport IS350 came close to the Z from behind after a wait-and-see stance for a few laps. Then they were involved in a tail-to-nose battle which ended in favor of the WedsSport backed Lexus IS350 on Lap 8. On the other hand, S Road MOLA Z further lost ground and gave up the second place to 'triple a' Murcie RG-1 which now began to pursue the race leader.

But the biggest concern for the WedsSport team was I.M.Jihan Co.Ltd Apple Shiden. The Shiden was allowed to start from the back end of the grid by presenting a petition, after its qualifying time - the fastest of the class - was deleted because a technical infringement was found during the post-qualifying scrutineering. The starting driver of the car, Hiroki Katoh, made an exquisite start and overtook as many as eight cars just on the opening lap, partly helped by a mid field turmoil which he steered clear of. Katoh continued his pursuit in a devastating pace and was already in second on Lap 11. Now there was just one car in front of him, the race leading WedsSport IS350 driven by Manabu Orido.

The pursuing Shiden soon caught the Lexus but the last thing Orido wanted was giving his lead position away. Although their engines are different in displacement, the two cars have very similar configurations with V8 engines and a midship layout design. Above all, both cars were running on the ADVAN tires, so their race strategies should also be similar.

Probably as an attempt to break the deadlock, Katoh came into the pit when he completed 20 laps, just before the halfway point of the race. After changing tires and refueling, the Shiden went back to the track with its second driver, Hiroki Yoshimoto, at the wheel.

Yoshimoto pushed really hard from his out lap and this led to the changeover of the positions. Five laps later, he went through the pit straight and finally gained the lead, as WedsSport IS350 was still in the pit to change from Orido to Tatsuya Kataoka. The Shiden driver wouldn't ease off his pace until the finish and registered the fastest lap time of the class - 2'11"971 - on his way to score a much-awaited victory from the wrong end of the grids.

Kataoka finished in second ten seconds behind the winner, followed by M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC 7 in distant third. The Amemiya's car had always been a leading competitor here at Sepang but finishing in third, without changing tires during the race again, was a great result for them because the car had to carry a 74kg weight handicap. With astonishing consistency to get on the podium all four races so far, the additional 11 points pushed them up to the championship leader of the class.

As S Road MOLA Z and 'triple a' Murcie RG-1 finished in fourth and fifth respectively and 'avex apr' Corolla Axio followed, the top six slots of GT300 class were totally dominated by the ADVAN equipped cars. Among the two Corollas newly introduced this year, the apr run car using ADVAN tires got the better result in spite of a drive through penalty during the race, helped by the superior performance of the tires.

As a result, the two ADVAN user teams ended the first half of season as the championship leaders in GT500 and GT300. In the lesser class, one can expect a catch-up by the winner of season opener, WedsSport IS350, or the winner of this race, I.M.Jihan Co.Ltd Apple Shiden, in the second half.

　[Result : 5th in the GT500 class]
"We are happy to get some points, just as we expected.
"To be honest, it was a tough race because of the weight (handicap) but our strategy to let J.P. (de Oliveira) start with lower fuel level was proven to be right at the end of the day.
"This year, we are the only regular entrant using the ADVAN tires in the GT500 class. Working closely with Yokohama Rubber in the development of the car, we have eventually managed to come to this level.
"Before leaving Japan, we set our objectives at Sepang. We wanted to go into the Super Lap and to gain as many points as possible in the race. So we are very happy with this result.
"Now we are heading into the second half of the season as the championship leader and I think we have got one step closer to the title."

　[Result : Winner in the GT300 class]
"I was frustrated after the qualifying yesterday (to be disqualified for a technical infringement after setting the fastest time) but I changed my mind-set as it didn't mean the end of the world and we still had a possibility to win, even though it became way distant.
"This morning, I strongly affirmed that "I am positive that we will win," when I arrived to the circuit. Bearing that strong aspiration in mind was one of the reasons for our victory. Of course, the team gave us a good car and the tires were just perfect.
"I was already in second soon after the start but I don't think I had overtaken so many cars because a few cars in front of me had just disappeared...
"I am always lucky here and I even think that maybe the Malaysian goddess of victory likes me!"