After a three week interval since the end of the hotly fought championship, a special round of the Super GT series, JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup, was held at Fuji Speedway in Oyama-cho, Shizuoka, from November 12th to 14th. This was the first ever experiment to run both Super GT and Formula Nippon races in one event.

Because the seventh round of the series at Fuji had to be cancelled due to the aftermath of a typhoon, this was the first GT race at the famous race track in six months. The event actually attracted more than 65,000 spectators through the weekend, which was another proof of the firm popularity that motor sport has in this country.

While the regular rounds of Super GT series had been run as 300 km semi-endurance races in which two drivers shares each car, except for two examples, the 400km race at Fuji in May and the 700km race at Suzuka in August, this special round adopted a completely different race format.

This was a three day event and official practice and qualifying session were held on Friday, before having one race each on Saturday and Sunday. The race format, common for the two days, was a 100km sprint race without driver change during it.

Thus, two drivers for a car made their time attack laps in the qualifying session for the respective race he would drive. As for the J.P. de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda pair of HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R, the young gun Yasuda was to drive on Saturday and then the team's ace driver, Oliveira, on Sunday. As you may know, the pair won the season opener at Suzuka by taking up a bold strategy that forwent tire change during the race, making the most of the ADVAN racing tires' superb durability.

In the qualifying sessions, both of two drivers were allowed to use fresh tires and there was no need to save the tires for the race which was shorter than the regular round. This was a rare opportunity for Yasuda to do a qualifying lap with fresh tires but he steadily improved his lap times, showing the car and himself were in good form.

There were two 20 minute qualifying sessions, one to decide the grids for Race 1 (Saturday) from 2:35 p.m. on Friday and another for Race 2 (Sunday) from 3:35 p.m.

The sky was clear but, thanks to the gentle sunshine, the surface temperature didn't go up too much. When the first qualifying session began, it was only 25℃ and went down to 20℃ when the second session ended.

The driver of HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R for Race 1 on Saturday, Yasuda, registered 1'34"177 in his first serious qualifying attempt and he was the fourth fastest at that time. Then he improved his time to 1'33"857 in his final attack during the closing phase of the session and got the eighth grid. This wasn't too bad for the young Japanese who was in only second season in the Super GT because his main opponents were veteran European drivers such as Richard Lyons who became the pole sitter, Loic Duval, the reigning series champion, or Andre Lotterer.

After a forty minute interval, the second qualifying session got underway to decide the grids for Race 2 on Sunday. As the surface temperature dropped, it was important to adapt the condition change quickly by adjusting the car set up and the way to drive. The HIS ADVAN Kondo GT-R's ace, de Oliveira, did just what the team expected and secured the sixth grid with an only three tenth gap with the pole sitter.

The formation lap for Race 1 began at five past two on Saturday. The track was dry but it was cloudy and the surface temperature was as low as 17℃, so good use of tires by the drivers might be crucial.

In this special round, the races were kicked off with standing starts, instead of usual rolling start and it was the first experimental example in the Super GT races. As Duval made a mistake at the start and was sucked into the pack, the field was very crowded when they reached to Turn 1. But Yasuda coped with the situation well and completed the opening lap in sixth, gaining two positions.

The young Japanese went on with a consistent pace. Though he was passed by recovering Duval in the middle phase of the race, Yasuda reclaimed the position from the Frenchman and eventually finished in fourth, just a step away from the podium.

Race 2 on Sunday concluded the weekend. The sky was overcast and clouds were thicker than those of Saturday, which meant even lower surface temperature.

Oliveira is usually very good in the first laps but, this time, he pushed Yuji Tachikawa's car off the track at the first corner. Though he completed the opening lap in third by overtaking a few cars including Tachikawa's, a tough race was waiting for him.

After registering his fastest time in a 1'35" bracket on Lap 2, the Brazilian struggled to keep his pace, probably due to low track surface temperature. Therefore, he lost some ground during the race but regained one position by making a move on Jyuichi Wakisaka at the last corner of final lap on his way to finish the final race of the season in sixth where he started. However, he was penalized for a contact during the race and classified in tenth.