2008 SUPER GT
Round1 Mar.15sat-16sun Suzuka Circuit 300km
Round2 Apr.12sat-13sun Okayama International Circuit 300km
Round3 May. 3sat-4sun Fuji Speedway 500km
Round4 Jun.21sat-22sun Sepang Circuit 300km
Round5 Jul.26sat-27sun Sportsland SUGO 300km
Round6 Aug.23sat-24sun Suzuka Circuit 1000km
Round7 Sep.13sat-14sun Twin Ring Motegi 300km
Round8 Oct.18sat-19sun Autopolis 300km
Round9 Nov. 8sat- 9sun Fuji Speedway 300km

Official tests
Feb.29fri - Mar.1sat Suzuka Circuit
Mar.26wed - 27thu Fuji Speedway
Jul.30wed - 31thu Twin Ring Motegi

For more informations:
http://supergt.net/en/

The Motegi GT 300 km Race, Round 7 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Twin Ring Motegi (lap = 4.801 km x 63 laps) in Tochigi Pref. on Sept. 9, and the victory was claimed by the TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Ryo Michigami and Takashi Kogure.?The race started under clear skies and saw the pole starter Takashi Kogure drive the TAKATA DOME NSX into the lead and gradually widen the gap over the competition. After taking over the wheel at the regular pit stop, Ryo Michigami continued to hold the lead with impressive driving despite trouble in his machine's transmission. The ZENT CERUMO SC430 was giving chase in 2nd position until machine trouble forced it to retire from the race. After that, Michigami drove on with apparent ease to the checkered and the team's first victory of the season.?This victory also gave the Honda NSX machines their seventh straight victory at Twin Ring Motegi in seven years.?In the GT300 class, the YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Dominik Farnbacher) team that started from the 2nd position on the class grid, took the lead soon after the start and ran on to victory unchallenged and went on to claim the victory, its first of the season.?(Spectators: 38,000)??
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The qualifying for the Motegi GT 300 km Race, Round 7 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Twin Ring Motegi (lap = 4.801 km) in Tochigi Pref. on Sept. 8. In this day's qualifying, the TAKATA DOME NSX (drivers: Ryo Michigami / Takashi Kogure) won the GT500 class pole position and will start from the front row in the final race on the 9th.??Up until this point in the season, the qualifying has been conducted in a Super Lap format with each of the top 10 qualifying machines making a single timed-lap run one machine at a time. For this 7th round at Motegi, however, a new "knock down" style format was tried. This involves three timed-lap session, with the slowest cars from each of the first two sessions being eliminated (knocked down) from the next session. In the third session the remaining top machines compete for grid position. This is the only race of this season to use the knock-down qualifying format.
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With undeniable speed, ARTA NSX claims its second win of the season!
2nd-place podium finish ends TAKATADOME NSX nightmare streak

The SUGO GT 300 km Race, Round 5 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at SPORTS-LAND SUGO in Miyagi Pref. on July 29. In the GT500 class, victory went to the second-place qualifier, ARTA NSX (Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman). In the GT300 class, WedsSport Celica ( Akira Iida and Yuhi Sekiguchi) emerged the winner.

Race?Weather:Rain | Course:Wet | Air Temp. 22°C | Track Temp. 25°C


GT500 Class

The race started at just after 14:00. Before the start the weather was cloudy with the air temperature at the start was 22°C. and the track surface temp. was 25°C., but rain began to fall when all the cars had returned to the dummy grid after the warm-up run. The rain wasn't heavy at first but it was enough to spread a film of water across the track and all the teams with the exception of a few in the GT300 class changed to wet tires on the grid.
This led to trouble for the No. 6 Forum Eng. SC430 (Tatsuya Kataoka) when the right front brake caliper was found to be scraping the inside of the wheel. What's more, the machine also developed clutch trouble. The car was pushed back to the pit to attempt repairs butte team ended up being unable to start the race.

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In GT300 No. 101 apr MR-S runs ahead of the pack

The qualifying for the SUPER GT International Series in Malaysia, Round 4 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia Pref. on the morning of June 23. In the GT500 class the TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Takashi Kogure won its third consecutive pole position. (fastest qualifier) and will start from the front row in the final race on the 24th. In the GT300 class, the apr MR-S driven by Kazuya Oshima ran fastest to claim the class pole position.

Qualifying #1? Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 32° | Track Temp. 42°

The first qualifying session began at 11:00. The clouds of the previous day had cleared and the qualifying began in typical Sepang heat. The rubber grip on the main lines had improved from the day before, making it easier to run fast times.

The first 20 minutes were for the GT300 class. On its first timed lap, the No. 101 apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima) broke the course record (2 min. 7.897 sec.) with a time of 2 min. 6.856 sec. What's more this time was three seconds faster than any of the competitors. Then another machine on Michelin tires, the No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi) also dipped under 2 min. 7 sec. to claim second position. Entering the final minutes of this class' session, however, the other teams also began to turn in fast times. The No. 46 houzan DUNLOP Z (Kota Sasaki) upped its time to 2 min. 6.885 sec. to move into second position. But no other machine was to run under 2 min. 7 sec. The No. 33 HANKOOK NSC PORSCHE (Mitsuhiro Kinoshita) running 2 min. 7.013 sec. to move into 4th position. Following it were other teams racing hard to make the top-ten cut-off for the Super Lap. The session ended as the No. 7 RE AMEMIYA RX7 (Hiroyuki Iiri) moved into 8th position ahead of the No.13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z (Masami Kageyama) and the No. 77 USCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA (Tetsuya Yamano) .

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The Fuji GT 500 km Race, Round 3 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4.563 km x 109 laps) in Shizuoka Pref. on May 4, and victory went to the 11th-place qualifiers, the XANAVI NISMO Z driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons. As can be expected from a long 500 km race like this, there was a good number of car contacts, crashes and machine trouble occurring one after another. Through it all, the experienced Motoyama-Lyons pair constantly moved up through the pack to take the lead by the end of their second pit stop. It was a perfect come-from-behind victory scenario acted out with skill and precision.

The GT300 class victory went to the ARTA Garaiya driven by Morio Niita and Shinichi Takagi.
(Spectators: 54,800)
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AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 top qualifier in GT300 class

The qualifying for the FUJI GT 500 KM RACE, Round 3 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, took place at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4.563 km) in Shizuoka Pref. on May 3. In the GT500 class, the pole position went to the TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Takashi Kogure and in the GT300 class it was won by the AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 driven by Marco Apicella.

Qualifying #1? Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 19° | Track Temp. 30°

The first official qualifying session began at 10:20. The track surface was dry and the temperature at the start of the session was 19 degrees C., with a track surface temperature of 30 degrees.

The first 20 minutes were for the GT300 class. The first car to post a top time was the No. 88 AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 (Marco Apicella) at 1 min. 42.515 sec. The next fastest time after that came from the No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Morio Niita) and the third fastest was by the No. 26 YUNKER-POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Shinichi Yamaji) . They were followed by the No. 2 Priv_e KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) in 4th and the No.33 HANKOOK NSC PORSCHE (Mitsuhiro Kinoshita) in 5th place. The Porsche machines clearly showed their speed advantage on the Fuji Speedway's long straights. After them came the No. 46 houzan DUNLOP Z (Kota Sasaki) , the No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima) , the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Shinsuke Shibahara) , the No. 7 RE AMEMIYA RX-7 (Hiroyuki Iiri) and the No. 31 apr MR-S (Kyosuke Mineo) to fill out the top ten qualifiers for the Super Lap.

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ARTA NSX makes a brilliant comeback from the disaster of round one!
Defending champion Housan TOM'S SC430 beaten by a penalty

The OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE, Round 2 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3.703 km x 82 laps) in Okayama Pref. on April 8. The GT500 class winners were the 2nd fastest qualifiers, the ARTA NSX driven by Daisuke Ito and Ralph Firman, who ran virtually the whole race without ever giving up the lead.
In the GT300class victory was claimed by the No.101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S driven by Kazuya Oshima and Hiroaki Ishiura.



Race?Weather:Cloudy | Course:Dry


GT500 Class


The race started at 14:00. The fair skies of the morning had clouded over by the time of the start and some of the teams could even be seen preparing wet-use tires on the grid. But it never did rain. The temperature at the time of the start was 18 degree C., with a track surface temperature of 25 degree C, the highest temperatures of the race weekend.
Just after the start, the 3rd position starter, Andre Lotterer in the No. 1 Houzan TOM'S SC430 tried to take the lead by taking the inside on the first turn. The pole starter, Ryo Michigami in the No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX took an outside line through the turn but spun out and off the track. This left No. 18 at the very tail of the GT500 class trying to catch up. An apparent collision between two of the machines resulted in a drive-through penalty decision for No. 1. This put Ralph Firman in the No. 8 ARTA NSX in the lead. The 4th qualifier, the No.32 EPSON NSX driven by Loic Duval, was also able to move up as a result and the first lap ended with the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Dominik Schwager) in 2nd position and the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) in 3rd position. No. 8 ran successive laps in the 1 min. 24 sec. range and began to pull away from the following machines that were running in the 1 min. 25 sec. range.


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ARTA NSX Crippled with Just One Lap to Go

The Suzuka GT 300km race, Round 1 of the 2007 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, was held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Pref. on March 18. The GT500 class was won in a come-from-behind victory by the 5th-place qualifier, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa and Toranosuke Takagi. With this, Yuji Tachikawa extended his own record of most wins by an individual driver to nine.
In the GT300 class, victory went to the No. 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z driven by Masami Kageyama and Tomonobu Fujii in a pole-to-checkered win.

The race started at 14:00 under clear blue skies. Last year this race had been plagued with strong winds and although the winds weren't as bad this time, it was still a windy race. The temperature at the start was 12 degrees C. and the track surface temperature was 22 degrees.

At the first corner on the opening lap, there was a collision between the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) and the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) in the middle of the GT500 class pack. This collision also forced the No.24 WOODONE ADVAN Clarion Z (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) off the track. No. 22 was able to get back on the course but the No. 39 machine crashed into the sponge barrier at track-side and suffered heavy damage in its rear end. It was able to return to the pit but never reentered the race. Meanwhile, the No. 24 machine developed drive train trouble in the 8th lap that caused it to slow down. Eventually De Oliveira pulled over to track-side and stopped the machine. Also, the No. 17 Real NSX (Katsutomo Kaneishi) was unable to maintain a fast pace and gradually dropped to 8th position.
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Philippe transfers to Hasemi Motorsport, 2007-model Z utilizes normally-aspirated V8 engine

NISSAN Motors and NISSAN Motorsports International (NISMO) announced at their headquarters in Tokyo on Friday, February 9th, their global motorsport activities for the 2007 season.
The SUPER GT series will once again be the company's main focus this season. Everybody who appeared on the stage, including Managing Director Mr. Kazuhiko Toida showed their motivation towards regaining the GT500 class title in SUPER GT, and pledged to rise to the challenge of taking the title back.

NISMO will continue to run the SUPER GT-spec Fairlady Z, but the 2007 model will utilize the new, normally-aspirated VK45DE 4.5 liter V8 engine, the same unit used in the Infinity M45.
Mr. Kunihiko Kakimoto, Managing Director of NISMO and also Team Representative of the NISSAN teams, told the assembled audience that the new car looked strong for the season ahead, with increased straight-line speed, while maintaining its characteristic strong point, high cornering speed. "We have maximized the merits of the new engine, and focused on the car's aerodynamics." he said.

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