Nissan takes its first win at Sugo27/07/2009
Sport Land Sugo played host to round 5 of the Super GT championship on Sunday 26 July 2009, where the Bridgestone-shod pairing of Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer (Nismo) broke Nissan’s run of bad luck at the circuit, claiming their second win of the season.
Saturday’s qualifying was run under dry conditions. Sepang race winners Ronnie Quintarelli and Hironobu Yasuda (Hasemi Motor Sport) claimed pole position, whilst Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim (Lexus team LeMans Eneos) finished 2nd and J-P de Oliveira/Seiji Ara (Kondo Racing) finished 3rd.
Race day also started under dry conditions, despite weather reports predicting rain. Quintarelli made a good start and led from the off closely followed by Swedish driver Wirdheim. By lap 25, Wirdheim had grabbed the lead just as the heavens opened and the rain began to pour. Ito managed to maintain the lead following a pit stop, but the weather conditions changed again with the rain becoming lighter and the track changing from wet to damp. Ito was running on deep rain tyres allowing Treluyer, who was running on shallow rain tyres, managed to shorten the gap to the leader. The rain returned for the closing laps but Treluyer battled hard to take the lead, winning the race by over 20 seconds.
Nismo driver, Satoshi Motoyama, said:
“We have not previously won in Sugo, so this win makes us very happy. The team made the right decision to call me in to pit, then Benoit had a super drive taking us on to the win.”
Nismo driver, Benoit Treluyer, said:
“It was difficult to drive in the heavy rain at the start of my stint due to the shallow rain tyres. Though when the rain got lighter I was able to set the pace. I would like to say thank you to Bridgestone for their support this weekend.”
Bridgestone Tyre engineer, Yoshihiro Hosoya, said:
“It was great race and it was an honour for Bridgestone to be able to support Nissan’s maiden win in Sugo. From dry to wet, tyre choice played a big role in the conclusion of this race.”
