SuperGT Round 2 at Okayama won by Kogure and Duval05/04/2010

Kogure and Duval dominate SuperGT Round 2 at Okayama

Round 2 of the SuperGT championship took place on Sunday 4 April at Japan’s Okayama International Circuit. The Bridgestone-shod Honda HSV-010 pairing of Takashi Kogure and Loic Duval led from pole position to clinch their first win of the year. The top nine finishers in the race were all fitted with Bridgestone tyres.  

Saturday’s qualifying saw Kogure and Duval dominate the time sheets. The pairing put in good times in session one, and were the only team to lap in 1m 23 seconds in session two claiming pole position. Yuji Tachikawa and Richard Lyons (Lexus SC430/Bridgestone) took second position, with Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli (Nissan GT-R/Bridgestone) finishing third.  

Conditions were good at Okayama for SuperGT race

Conditions were good on race day. Duval led the pack from the start and by the first pit stop Duval had created a large gap to the rest of the field. Kogure continued to increase the gap even further taking an easy win at Okayama. The second place finish for Tachikawa and Lyons however was not so easy.  Tachikawa’s pit stop took 37 seconds allowing the No.1 Petronas Tom’s SC430 driven by Andre Lotterer to move into second place. The Lexus SC430 team were able to gain another 30 seconds later in the race by only changing the rear tires.  Juichi Wakisaka got caught behind a GT300 class machine allowing Lyons to take advantage and finish in second position.  

Happy for maiden win

“I was really happy that we were able to bring home the maiden win for HSV. The tires were very consistent in my part of the last stint and I was able to control my pace to finish.” 
Takashi Kogure, Honda HSV-010, Bridgestone  

Thanks to Bridgestone

“I played the part of starting driver for this event. I was able to do what I wanted and drove hard to create a gap right after my tires were warm enough. Thank you for every one, especially for Bridgestone. I was very happy to win with the new team and HSV”
Loic Duval, Honda HSV-010, Bridgestone  

Bridgestone dominated at Okayama

“First of all, congratulations for HSV’s maiden win. It was perfect for the team, to get pole and lead from star to finish. Bridgestone showed dominance in both qualifying and the race. All 9 cars on Bridgestone tyres finished in the top 9.”
Yoshihiro Hosoya, Bridgestone Tire Engineer