While reminiscing about the holidays it reminded me that I have never gotten around to writing up my whole experience of the Super GT when I first went to the famous Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture.
I remember that weekend very well, it was when my girlfriend came to visit and that weekend we were about to make our 7 hour trip to Ebisu Circuit for the Drift Matsuri but my friend at the last minute gave me a heads up on the Super GT 700km endurance race and due to the shortage of both time and funds at the time we headed off to Suzuka Circuit instead.
The day started off with a good breakfast since it was an endurance race, we knew it was going to be a long day for us and the summer heat at that time wasn't going to help either.
One of the stations we had to change trains at, and for those that don't know, Suzuka Circuit is in the middle of nowhere in Mie Prefecture.
I was already feeling good during the walk from the station to the circuit as the car parks were just filled with amazing cars. This Jazz/Fit with full racing livery caught my eye.
This clean EK9 Civic Type-R was also very nice and yes I'm a Honda fanboy.
When we arrived at the circuit Carlos handed my girlfriend and I our tickets and we had a giant smile on our faces, well at least I know I did. After spending years of racing on this circuit on Gran Turismo and Forza it was surreal to be standing at the gates of what I would only see in video games.
We got there a bit early before the race started so we had time to walk around and check out some of the stalls they had up.
Look how happy my baby is!
There were also cars on display and this CR-Z was easily my favourite with it's roots tracing back to the CRX
Even the standard one with Mugen goodies looked very nice, I sure as hell wouldn't mind one of these for a daily.
My friend Carlos took interest in the 370Z they had on display instead.
The race was about to start so we headed to our seats, unfortunately it wasn't in the VIP suite. Instead our seats were right towards the end of the pit exit and the main straight and just hearing the cars start up for their formation lap gave me goosebumps and just thinking about it now it's still giving me goosebumps. The downside to where we sat was that we had a massive fence in front of us so I couldn't get some clear photos.
But it wasn't too bad, also the cars had a rolling start which none of us expected so we were caught off guard when the race started.
Not knowing much about the Super GT's cars or drivers it was nice just to enjoy and take in the whole experience of being at Suzuka Circuit watching cars go screaming past.
Later on in the day we moved around a bit to try and find some better places to watch the race and it was just so raw being able to hear all the different engine notes of all the different types of cars out on the track. The difference between the GT500 and GT300 class was quick a big gap with the GT500 cars overtaking and lapping the GT300 cars with ease.
As it got darker it made it interesting to take a decent photo, so after a while of trying with some very low shutter speeds and my lack of skills I decided to put down the camera and just watch the race finish. It was also nice that it was cooling down as well so we weren't burning in the sun but it was still humid as hell!
The final results for the GT500 Class were:
1st Place
Arta Honda HSV-010
2nd Place
Motul Autech Nissan R35 GTR
3rd Place
Raybrig Honda HSV-010
Final thoughts, well it was a great day, one that I won't be forgetting any time soon and having my girlfriend there with me made it that much more special. I was really impressed with the Honda's out on the track ever since the HSV-010 replaced the NSX I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm really looking forward to see the Honda's go head to head with the Lexus LF-A next season. I also managed to tick off Suzuka Circuit from my "Must go before I die" list, next up is Tsukuba!
I have a whole bunch of more photos here as well so be sure to check them out.
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