The eighth (and final) round of SUPER GT was held on October 15-16 at Twin Ring Motegi with a 250-km event. Unfortunately, there was rain from the morning of the 15th. With no weight handicap on the cars for this race, it was all about the basic performance of the car.

The championship battle in the GT500 class was down to the points-leading #46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Ronnie Quintarelli) and the #23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer), 2nd in the series' rankings. All eyes were on the intra-GT-R battle this time out.

This round also adopted a knockout-style qualifying format. The #24 ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Bjorn Wirdheim) made it through Q1 in 4th place in the hands of Yasuda, before Wirdheim's effort in Q2 put the car eighth on the grid.

In the #23 NISMO GT-R, Treluyer took 11th place in Q1, advancing to Q2. In the second qualifying session, Motoyama recorded the third-quickest time, allowing Treluyer to attack once again in Q3, where he was fifth-fastest."Although we're not in a bad grid position, I wanted to be a little closer to the front. There's only one thing to think about tomorrow, and that's the victory," commented Motoyama.

The #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Joao Paolo de Oliveira) ended Q1 in fifth place with Oliveira, Matsuda finishing 7th in Q2. Oliveira was back in the car for Q3, but went off track while attacking, though still managed to score the third-fastest time.

The #46 MOLA GT-R had Quintarelli at the wheel for both Q1 and Q2, where he took the top spot on both occasions. Yanagida then got in the car for Q3 where he too went top, for a complete domination of qualifying. The team's third pole position, after SUGO and Suzuka, was secured. Regarding the race, Yanagida said, "The desire to win is very strong."

The rain continued into the morning of race day, meaning that all the cars had run only on rain tyres. However, during the morning the rain stopped completely. The track surface was also likely to be dry for the race, allowing competitors o use slicks.

In the afternoon, the temperature rose rapidly to 26 degrees, with the track measured at 33 Celsius just prior to the start of the race. Here NISSAN COO Mr. Toshiyuki Shiga and other executives visited each of the NISSAN teams on the grid to give them encouragement ahead of the race.

At precisely 14:09, the 53-lap race got underway. In the #46 GT-R, Quintarelli protected his position at the head of the field on the opening lap, while Oliveria brought the 3rd-starting #12 GT-R up to 2nd place. Treluyer in the #23 GT-R advanced to 4th, and the #24 GT-R of Wirdheim maintained his starting position of eighth.

For the #24 GT-R, the track surface temperature and the tyres were not well matched so that after four laps, the car's pace slowed considerably, leading to a pit stop on lap 7 for new rubber. After that, the car's pace improved and another stop was made on lap 30 for the driver switch, bringing Yasuda into the car. However, stopping twice lost a lot of time and the car finished in 12th.

Despite advancing to 2nd at the start, the track surface and tyres were not well matched in the #12 GT-R and the car's pace dropped off after five laps, necessitating a stop on lap 8 for new tread. A second stop on lap 34 saw Matsuda take the wheel. Although it was running in eighth place, on the final lap the car had some condition as ran out of fuel and finished ninth. The car took fifth in the series' rankings.

Protecting his position in the lead, Quintarelli brought the #46 GT-R in on lap 28 for its driver switch. After Yanagida took the wheel, he was back in the top spot by lap 35, with the #23 GT-R in hot pursuit. On lap 41, the #23 took over the lead, but the championship was secured with the #46 running higher than sixth place. The chequered flag was reached in 2nd place, and the joy of the title with it.

Targeting only the victory to seeking to reverse the order in the championship, Treluyer took charge in the first half, moving the car up to third place before pitting on lap 29. After the driver switch, Motoyama moved into 2nd place with deft pit work, moving into the lead after passing at Victory Corner on lap 41.

Taking its second successive victory after its win last time out in Round 7 at Autopolis, the #23 GT-R took a total of three victories this season. Although the title wasn't taken, an the team ended up 2nd in the points, the encouragement of the fans was in evidence with the smiles on the drivers' faces. Team Director Yutaka Suzuki also seemed satisfied, "It was a perfect race, in character with NISMO in which everybody contributed."

The #46 GT-R reached the chequered flag in 2nd place, both Yanagida and Quintarelli taking their first GT500 titles. "We're so happy!" they commented. MOLA took not only the Drivers', but also the Team title. It was an inspiring victory for the squad battling its maiden season in GT500.