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Unlike previous seasons the final race this year was held at Motegi instead of Fuji. This was the final race for the Honda NSX model that will be scrapped for next year. I have yet to see what Honda will race instead. The other important factor this weekend was that all weight handicaps were removed so everyone was back on the same weight. A good opportunity to see the progress we’ve made since the start of the season.

Also, the qualifying system was slightly different. Instead of the normal Super Lap qualifying session there would be a F1 style knockout qualifying comprising of three sessions. We missed most of the free practice on Saturday morning with a propeller shaft failure. The team worked hard to get the car back out on track for the last 15 minutes of the session. Daisuke got a few laps but for me it was straight into qualifying for the second knockout session. Big pressure, but on my second attack lap I managed 4th quickest so we were safely through to Q3. We would end up starting the race in 3rd position.

As normal I drove the first stint and it was fairly uneventful. I followed the leaders in my third position and handed over to Daisuke half way through with a 4 second gap to the cars in front. In the second stint there was a safety car period and unfortunately we missed out on the final podium position during the last couple of laps.

On the positive side it is very obvious now that the team is finally strong enough to fight for the top positions. The arrival of our new engineer Kenji has made a big difference to the team. We’ve clearly been the quickest car/driver combination in the second part of the season with 4 Fastest Laps out of 9 races.

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