Round 5 of SUPER GT took place at Sportsland SUGO near Sendai on July 24 and 25. Partly due to the summer holidays being in full swing, some 38,500 fans turned up for the two-day event. For this round, the GT-R teams added a new aero kit and changes could be seen to the cars' front fenders and rear ends.

Last year's winners, the #23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) had 36kgs of success ballast onboard. In their aim for victory, the SUGO round presented a perfect opportunity. Treluyer was in charge of set-up and qualifying for this round. He also marked the top time in the practice session.

The #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), who won the last race, had 66kgs' handicap weight onboard, and took fifth place in the official practice session. However, Matsuda who was in charge of setup and the time attack said, - The car's still slow. -

The #24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda) had 50kgs' handicap weight on their car. In the practice session Oliveira came 10th. It was in their best interest to get into the top 8 in qualifying and get into Super Lap (SL).?

The first official qualifying session started at 12:45, with ambient temperatures at 32 C, and the track surface measured at 44 C. Treluyer in the #23 GT-R took the top position, and in the #12 GT-R Matsuda came 6th to also make it into SL. However, the #24 GT-R of Oliveira was unable to perform at its best as a car in front of him went off track. As a result, he came 11th, not making the cut for SL.

TSL for GT500, fought over between eight cars, got underway at 15:50. Matsuda in the #12 GT-R dropped a wheel in the dirt at the Highpoint corner and couldn't maintain balance through Horseback. He ended up in sixth place. -The track was very slippery, I'm not happy. However, we're still in 6th place so I want to make it up in the race,- he said.

Treluyer made the final time attack in the #23 GT-R. He showed a remarkably smooth run in his attack lap, and was quickest through the first sector. He set the top time in the second sector as well, netting pole position for the first time this year.

- A perfect day. We've had a lot of struggles, but I'm getting my pace back to where it was in '08 and '09,- said Treluyer. Motoyama: -I was comfortable watching the time attack. The next step towards Suzuka is extremely important; tomorrow we must go for the gold. I'm going to give it my best,- he said, smiling at the fans.

The 25th dawned cloudy with patches of summer sun shining through. In the moist conditions, Motoyama in the #23 GT-R marked the top time. This means the car finished first in all sessions, including official practice, the 1st qualifying session, SL and Sunday's free practice. All that's left was the race, as he waited to start at the top of the grid.

The 81-lap final round got underway with ambient temperatures of 32 C and the track surface measured at 41 C. The race started at 14:02. From the beginning, the #23 GT-R kept its lead and opened up a gap to the 2nd-placed car. On lap 3, two cars fighting for third place spun out. On lap 10, the car in 2nd place spun on its own.

Matsuda was the starting driver for the #12 GT-R. Starting from 6th he began picking off the cars in front, and with the cars in higher positions dropping back due to spins etc., reached 3rd by lap 10. Then on lap 29, the 2nd-placed car made its pit stop, allowing him to move up to 2nd behind the #23 GT-R. However just after this rain began to fall.

Oliviera was the starting driver for the #24 GT-R. He tried to strategically delay his pit stop, but with traffic in the early stages he was left with nowhere to go and was unable to move up as much as he had wanted. Still, he was able to make progress, and made his pit stop on lap 51, just after going into the lead.

After making its pit stop on lap 50, the #23 GT-R switched drivers from Treluyer to Motoyama. Fast pit work allowed the car to get back out on track with a 15-second lead over 2nd place. In the late stages of the race Motoyama still held a nearly 10-second lead. However, at thec SP corner of the 74th lap his car suddenly lost power. After about 1 minute he was able to restart, but had dropped to 6th place.

Yasuda and the #24 GT-R returned to the race in 6th place, but soon got caught up in traffic. Still, he was able to move up one position late in the race and finish 5th. -The next race is at Suzuka where I won the opening round, so I want to get a lot of points and make some progress towards the championship,- he said. Oliveira added, with a satisfied expression, -Considering we started from 11th it was a good race.-

The #12 GT-R made its pit stop on lap 45 and handed over to Quintarelli. -It started raining so the timing for the pit stop was really difficult.- said Matsuda regretfully. -Even though we were heavy we still placed, which was good. Now we are ranked 3rd. We'll both be doing our best at Suzuka, so please support us,- said Quintarelli, looking towards the next race.