MZ RACING

Copyright © MZ Racing

RE AMEMIYA RX-7 scores victory at 2010 SGT Opening Round

The race started in a slight drizzle that made the track slippery. That led to the many upset of the race. The first upset came on the Degner Curve of lap one when the pole starting #7 RE AMEMIYA RX-7 driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi ran off the track and lost several places.
However, Taniguchi in car #7 to boldly overtake car #86 Lamborghini on lap 21. And while #11 Ferrari F430 made his team's pit stop on the following lap, car #7 moved up into 2nd place.

An unexpected amount of time was lost in the driver change and a team suffered a loss of position. In contrast, team #7 had gained time by electing to forego a tire change in their pit stop on the 25th lap, thus giving them the lead.
In the driver's seat of car #7 was Ryo Orime. He continued to push at a fast, steady pace while being careful to put as little stress as possible on his car's worn tires and maintaining his lead all the way to the checkered.

For the #7 RE AMEMIYA RX-7 team (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Ryo Orime), this was the first SUPER GT victory since the Suzuka opening round of the 2008 season. Adopting a no-tire-change strategy from last season had brought the team frequent podium finishes, but this was their first win in two years.

Nobuteru Taniguchi:Just after the start, there were some sections of the track that were dry and others that were wet, and I didn't know which were which until I actually ran them. I was caught by surprise and ran off the track.
Our strategy was to not change tires, so I expected us to get a lead after the pit stop, but after the track surface conditions improved the machine performed very well and I was able to make it to the pit stop in the lead. That was a big relief for me.

Ryo Orime:Suzuka is a special circuit for me. To be able to get a pole-to-checkered victory here has been a real confidence-builder for me. I was able to use my experience from running several times last year on a no-tire-change race strategy, and I think I did a nearly perfect job of pushing as much as necessary while watching the margin with the machines behind me.