The Sugo GT 250km Race was held at Sport Land Sugo in Miyagi prefecture which had suffered badly from the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in March. Even though the venue is situated in the Tohoku area, northern part of Japan mainland, and the altitude is rather high at the track, the end of July date normally means a very hot weather for the race weekend. But, because of some showers and watery sky throughout Saturday and Sunday, the race was fought in unexpected cold weather with the air temperature between 20 and 25 degree Celsius and the surface temperature below 30.
It was raining on Sunday morning but the fickle weather kept changing and tossed the teams about. After all, the track surfaces were completely dry when the race began at 2 p.m.

With Bjorn Wirdheim at the wheel, ADVAN Kondo GT-R made a good getaway from the third grid and soon started to put heavy pressure on a SC430 (car no.39) running in second. When they began to lap GT300 cars, the gap with the SC430 once grew up to nearly three seconds but it became less than a second after 15 laps or so. The two cars were running really close but overtaking looked almost impossible because the ADVAN shoed GT-R lacked the straight line speed for some unknown reason at that time.

Wirdheim's skillful driving paid off to keep the position with the handicapped car and he came in the pit to change to Hironobu Yasuda at the end of Lap 30. As soon as the team finished refueling and putting four fresh tires on the car, the Japanese went out to the track. However, Yasuda also suffered from the lack of the top speed and never had an opportunity to gain position on the track. Eventually, ADVAN Kondo GT-R finished the race in fourth and the team narrowly missed the podium as they did in the previous round at Sepang.

Another ADVAN shoed GT500 car, WedsSport ADVAN SC430, started the race from the 14th grid with Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel. He lost a place during the opening lap but then began to move up gradually.

Making the most of the new ADVAN tires specifically designed for the Lexus SC430, Kataoka ran in a strong pace that was comparable to those of leading cars and got into the top ten on Lap 16. Surprisingly, he was in second when he brought the car back to the pit at the end of Lap 35 to change to Seiji Ara who drove for the second half of the race.

Ara was in seventh when he resumed racing and in pursuit of another SC430 in front of him. However, he was given a 10 second penalty stop for overtaking a slower car under yellow flag, which he fulfilled on Lap 60. As a result, he had to settle for finishing eighth but the team earned some valuable points after the two pointless races at Sepang and Okayama.

The battles in the GT300 class were fierce from the opening stage.

Starting from the third grid, Ryo Orime in SG Changi IS350 moved up to second by making a very good getaway and Tetsuya Yamano in R&D Sport Legacy B4 followed him to join the pursuit of the early race leader. Orime easily kept up with the leader during the next few laps and then began to put pressure on the car in front of him. On Lap 8, he finally overtook the leader by placing his car on the inside when they were approaching Turn 1. Soon after that, Yamano followed his path and moved up to second, forming a 1-2 by ADVAN equipped cars in the early stage.

After becoming the leader, Orime's margin once increased up to six seconds but then Yamano began to fight back and reduced it to the minimal gap. On Lap 23, however, being determined to take a risk on that lap, the Subaru driver made a mistake at Turn 4 and went off the track. This exursion caused considerable damage on his car's under floor and radiator and he had to retire the race in the pit.

Yamano's retirement gave Orime some more cushion to the runner-up. While Hatsune Miku Goodsmile BMW and Evangelion RT Test Type-01 Apple Shiden, Nobuteru Taniguchi and Hiroki Kato at the wheels, were closing from behind, Orime's position was never threatened by them and he came in the pit to change to Alexandre Imperatori on Lap 32 when the Japanese still had a four second gap with the Shiden.

By the SG Changi IS350's pit stop, the Evangelion Shiden became the interim leader. Using their usual tactics, Kato ran for the longest possible stint and then changed to Kazuho Takahashi who rejoined the race in second. However, he was forced to come back to the pit soon due to a loosen wheel nut and, to make the situation worse, he was penalized for starting engine while his mechanics were still at work. This ruined their chance to get on the podium.

Then Yuji Kunimoto in Corolla Axio apr GT emerged as the runner-up. Utilizing the advice on the conditions from Morio Nitta who drove rather shorter first stint and changed to Kunimoto on Lap 20, his consistent and clever drive paid off and resulted in the second place finish.

Eventually, the SG Changi IS350's lead position wasn't threatened by anyone and Imperatori finished first by driving safely to the checkered flag. This was the first Super GT victory for the Swiss only after three races under his belt. For Orime, this was the first win since the last year's fourth round at Sepang.

Thus, the ADVAN equipped cars finished the GT300 class race in first and second, followed by ZENT Porsche RSR (Akihiro Tsuzuki/Takeshi Tsuchiya) in fourth and Hatsune Miku Goodsmile BMW in sixth, which meant many of the top rankers were the ADVAN tire users again this time.

　[Result : 4th in the GT500 class]
"The ADVAN tires were very good, as they had been in Malaysia, but the car lost its top end speed in the middle of Bjorn's stint for some reason. It might be engine or something else but I don't know the exact cause of the problem at the moment. The problem still existed in my stint. I actually had a few opportunities to overtake the Honda in front of me but there was a difference in the straight line speed between us, so it was impossible to get ahead of it. In this race track, if you try to overtake in the infield section, you will have to take a high risk of contact. And the problem got worse in the closing stage, so I could do nothing but to see the Honda pulling away. It was a shame but we finished in fourth at least. This means we keep our momentum from Malaysia. I think this was a good race for us if we look forward."

　[Result : 1st in the GT300 class]
"I'm delighted and I fee relieved at the same time. In the past three races, we haven't had good results due to mechanical troubles or an accident, so I have to admit I was a bit frustrated. But I knew I had to be patient and have had many discussions with the team. I think this process resulted in the speed we had here from the qualifying session. My teammate, Alex, also did a great job and safely finished the race. That's why I said I feel relieved."

"For this Sugo round, we provided the tires with which we focused on durability, grip level and good traction because we took account of the characteristics of this track and the anticipated temperatures for the end of July event date. But, due to the weather conditions, the actual temperature range has been much lower than that we assumed, throughout Saturday and Sunday. So we had supposed the qualifying on Saturday could be tough but Hironobu Yasuda in ADVAN Kondo GT-R did a great job and secured the grid on the second row, which we were happy with.
"As for the race on Sunday, the temperatures were still out of the anticipated range but it was same for the other tire manufacturers. Therefore, we thought the car would be able to keep the position following the two cars on the front row.
"It was a shame that there was a problem with the car and it lost the straight line speed during the race. I expected an eventful race today but I didn't want to see something happened to our car...
"Regarding WedsSport ADVAN SC430, the team has had a hard time because they haven't had proper testing opportunity besides the races. But they finally had a testing at Suzuka just before this Sugo round and found out the direction to go in the car set up. The testing also gave us a good picture about the issues that we need to sort out with our tires. Therefore, we provided them the tires which we had tried in the Suzuka testing and the drivers had had a good feeling with. In this context, we were confident that those new ADVAN tires for the Lexus SC430 had much better performance than before.
"In the GT500 class, we were forced to use the tires in the temperature range that was well below the anticipated range but I personally had an impression that our ADVAN tires seemed to have a wider working range than the products of other manufacturers did.
"As for the GT300 class, SG Changi IS350 did an excellent job to win in the class and Corolla Axio apr GT finished in second. We are happy with their one-two finish and our tires surely had the ability to perform well under the conditions today, I would say."