The opening round of the 2010 SUPER GT was held at Suzuka Circuit on March 20th and 21st. Balmy spring weather and a three-day weekend brought 22,000 fans to the circuit on the 20th. This year, the NISSAN camp has three of their iconic GT-R cars in the GT500 class, each one carrying the new 3.4-litre V8 engines to the battle.

The #23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R of Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer are starting their third season together. This season presents a new challenge as they switch to Michelin tyres, which come from Benoit's home country. Despite the change, the drivers' hopes remain high.

In the #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, regular driver Tsugio Matsuda is joined by Ronnie Quintarelli who until last season was racing for Hasemi Motorsport. Victories look like a good bet with this combination of two very fast drivers.

Using Yokohama tyres, director of the #24 HIS ADVAN KONDO RACING GT-R, Masahiko Kondo invited young charger Hironobu Yasuda to join Joao Paolo de Oliveira in the driver lineup. The team has won at least one race per season for the last three years; this year they're aiming for two victories in a single season.

In qualifying, drivers have to make it through all three of the knockout sessions (S) in a row. Treluyer was 8th in the #23 GT-R in S1, his partner Motoyama came sixth in S2, and Treluyer was 3rd in S3 - just 0.185 off the top time, despite "saving energy in both the first and last corners."

In the #12 GT-R, Quintarelli was 7th in S1 before teammate Matsuda came fourth in S2, advancing them to S3. Despite Quintarelli reporting that he had "a good time, and the set-up on the car was good", he came in a disappointing sixth. He swore to get revenge by "taking the team's first points in the race."

New recruit Yasuda got through S1 in tenth place, while Oliveira, aiming for a top-seven spot in S2, crashed out at turn two while attacking. The car was completely destroyed and ended up tenth overall. It was only repaired in time for the race due to the strenuous effort of all the mechanics, who worked until 4:00 in the morning of race day.

The rain stopped early on race day, though gusts of wind blew throughout the morning, bringing with them lots of yellow sand. Just before the race was due to get underway, rain once again began to pitter-patter. As a precaution, the wiper motor on the #23 GT-R was replaced while the car sat on the grid. Meanwhile, the sky over the western part of the circuit was covered in dark, grey clouds.

As raindrops fell, the rolling start began behind the NISSAN GT-R. The air temperature was 14 degrees Celsius, cold in comparison to the track temperature of 21 Celsius seen the previous day and in the morning. How would this influence each of the teams? The 31,000 fans gathered for the start held their breath as the 32 cars prepared to begin the race.

Rain caused the #12 GT-R to go off track while chasing the #23 GT-R on lap 11."Because of running slowly at Dunlop corner, the car came to a stop at the hairpin," commented Quintarelli. It remained a mystery as to why the car died.

A non-functioning wiper forced Treluyer in the #23 GT-R out while battling with the #1 car for fifth place. However, Treluyer's pace didn't increase as expected. Then at the first corner on lap 11, a huge crash between two other cars brought out the Safety Car.

Once the Safety Car left the track, the race resumed, though Treluyer pitted early on lap 18 to hand the car over to Motoyama. However, matching the tyres with the track temperature - which remained low, meant they were unable to move up the order. Despite this, the car ran steadily throughout, taking the chequered flag in eighth place and earning 3 valuable championship points.

The #24 GT-R reached the top spot on lap 25, Oliveira extending his lead until handing over to Yasuda on lap 34. A gap of over 70 seconds to second place was maintained while pitting without changing tyres, the car getting back on track with Yasuda at the wheel and keeping the position. Would the lead of 19 seconds be maintained over the remaining 17 laps?

Yasuda maintained his position at the top without allowing the following car to catch up. Team Director Kondo said, "The last 10 laps were real nail-biters." Oliveira and Chief Engineer Kimitoshi Sugisaki watched in earnest from the platform, while Yasuda ran the distance to take the flag in the top spot.

This was the first victory for KONDO RACING since the opening round at Okayama last year. The team's new objective is to "take two wins in a year" after this success. Team Director Kondo's strategy for "no tyre change" had been decided in the morning. Oliveira and Yasuda made no secret of their joy, saying that they "wanted to lift up this victory to the mechanics who had had such a hard time."