Over 100k fans flock to Super GT Malaysia 2013
The recent third round race of the Autobacs Super GT Series held at the Sepang International Circuit last week attracted the visit of more than 100,000 spectators over the two days which it was held on the weekend of 15 and 16 June 2013, according to organizers JPM Motorsports. In addition to watching the actual race itself, which featured the GT 300 and GT 500 categories, visitors were occupied by various activities and support races that gave them maximum value out of their entrance tickets.
Activities held in conjunction with the race at the SIC compound include another record setting attempt, but instead of super cars of previous years, more than 1,300 high-powered motorcycles gathered along SIC’s main straight attempting to create a record for the Biggest and Noisiest Super Bike Gathering in the country. Over 11,000 fans stayed past sunset on the Saturday night of 15 June for the Dash Berlin World Tour rave party. Other gatherings held included 155 Honda CR-Zs and 50 Porsche 911s, the latter marking the 50th anniversary of the 911 nameplate.
At the grandstand area was the Affin Bank Motor Show, in which the Subaru BRZ and Nissan Almera Nismo Performance Package Concept were officially launched. The motor show also included backdrop of super cars that included Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. There was a vast collection of American street customs and muscle cars on display which also served to preview of Summernats, Australia’s premier event for street machines, which JPM plans to co-organize in Malaysia next year.
Proceedings on track, meanwhile, were dominated by Nissan, Honda, and Toyota, who between them, accounted for five of six podium places in total for both the GT 500 and GT 300 classes. The GT 500 class was won by Tsugio Matsuda and Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira who drove a pole-to-flag race in their Calsonic Impul Nissan GT-R. Four seconds behind them was the Lexus SC430 of the Denso Kobelco team in second and in third place was Raybrig’s Honda HSV-010.
“A good start was important for this race, as well as to control tyre wear. We were fortunate to have been on pole position and this proved extremely important in securing today’s race victory,” said De Oliveira who completed the race with a time of 1:51:08.
“Victory today came down to team work. When I came out from my pit stop I had two to three clear laps ahead and that was enough to allow me to build a four-second gap ahead of the Denso Kobelco SC430 car. We did suffer from a slight oversteering problem but we managed to save the tyres until the finish,” De Oliveira added.
In the GT 300 class, ARTA CR-Z GT’s Shinichi Takagi and Takashi Kobayashi also won from pole position, but only securing a marginal victory of two seconds ahead of the pair of Hideki Mutoh and Yuhki Nakayama of the Mugen CR-Z GT Team, marking a dominant performance by the Honda CR-Z. Finishing third and 21 seconds behind was the Gainer Dixel SLS of Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Bjorn Wirdheim.
“The car was extremely good in Sepang but we were expecting a hard battle with car no 16 (Mugen CR-Z GT). We were hoping for a slight advantage given their weight handicap but they were still very fast. Our strategy was to change the two rear tyres and that played in our favour,” on the two of us coming to Sepang,” said Shinichi Takagi who drove the first half of the race before handing over to the reins to his younger team mate Takashi Kobayashi.
Pictures: Victor Ng.
