Sportsland SUGO, Miyagi-pref. (May 25, 2014) - About 2 months since this season's opening round, round 2, the SUGO Super Taikyu 3 Hours Race was held in Miyagi Prefecture's Sportsland SUGO where the #81 GTNET ADVAN NISSAN GT-R" (Kazuki Hoshino / Naofumi Omoto / Takayuki Aoki), making its ST-X debut, started the race in pole position and from there continued to build a substantial margin over the pursuing vehicles until it grabbed its first victory of the season.
ST-X Class - #81 GTNET ADVAN NISSAN GT-R
ST-3 Class #35 - asset ings Z34
Starting from a 2nd place qualification, the #24 "ThreeBond Nissan Technical College GT-R" (Tomonobu Fuji / GAMISAN / Daiki Sasaki) was hit by machine trouble and forced into the pits where the whole crew, including students from the Nissan Automobile Technical College, worked tooth and nail to repair the vehicle and return it to the race. Although this caused the team to fall a great deal behind the top runners, after the machine was repaired, Sasaki put in a valiant effort right up until the checkered flag. After the race Fujii went on to say, Unfortunately we had some trouble but our pace after the repairs was good and even though we couldn't achieve a satisfactory result this time, I've developed a lot of confidence and I'm hoping to take home a good result at the next round at Fuji."
Furthermore, the #35 asset ings Z34" (Shuji Maejima / Masahiro Sasaki / Hirokawa Kazuki) showed overwhelming speed in the ST-3 class to take pole position in the qualifier and follow this up by dominating on race day to take a superb lights-to-flag victory. To top things off the same team's #34 asset ings Z34" (Takao Onishi / Satoshi Matsubara / Kiyoto Fujinami) came home in second to grab a 1-2 finish for the TECHNO FIRST racing team. The #35 asset ings Z34" has now achieved consecutive top places since the opening round in Motegi and is maintaining its place at the top of the point rankings. This result signifies a Nissan domination of the top 4 within the ST-3 class.
Kazuki Hoshino (# 81 GTNET ADVAN NISSAN GT-R, Race 1st)
“I feel that we were able to achieve this result due to the fantastic condition of the car and Aoki's great drive which increased our lead. I've really been hanging out for a win so I'm very happy with this achievement. I'm also glad I could combine my efforts with these two guys to take victory. I want to maintain this pace and bring home this season's championship."
Naofumi Omoto (#81 GTNET ADVAN NISSAN GT-R / Race 1st)
“Although this is my second year competing in the GT3 this is my first victory. I'm really happy with this result. The level of our entire team has greatly improved so I'm really looking forward to the next race."
Takayuki Aoki (#81 GTNET ADVAN NISSAN GT-R / Race 1st)
“Well I would first like to say how happy I am. I had some difficult experiences last year so I'm really glad we were able to win like this. I'm really glad that the three of us could win this together."
| Pos | No | Machine | Drivers | Lap | Time/Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 | Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 | Kazuki Hoshino Takayuki Aoki Naofumi Omoto |
126 | 3:00'50.974 |
| 2 | 3 | ENDLESS ADVAN BMW | YUKE TANIGUCHI Kyosuke Mineo |
126 | 3:01'50.398 |
| 3 | 32 | K's Frontier DR Audi R8 | Takashi Kobayashi Testuo Ogino Shinichi Takagi |
124 | 3:00'52.547 |
| - | 24 | Threebond Nissan Technical College GT-R |
Tomonobu Fuji GAMISAN Daiki Sasaki |
78 | 3:03'33.853 |
| Pos | No | Machine | Driver | Lap | Time / Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 35 | asset ings Z34 | Shuji Maejima Masahiro Sasaki Kazuki Hirokawa |
115 | 3:01'00.920 |
| 2 | 34 | asset ings Z34 | Takao Onishi Satoshi Matsubara Kiyoto Fujinami |
115 | 3:01'41.345 |
| 3 | 14 | Okabe Jidosha Cent Trente195 Makers Z33 | Manabu Yamazaki Isao Ihashi Mitsunori Atake |
115 | 3.01'51.853 |
| 4 | 5 | Okabe Jidosha Makers Z34 | Kazuomi Komatsu Kenichi Sugibayashi Tsuyoshi Shirai |
114 | 3:01'51.759 |
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