Third Sepang Victory for J.P. and Matsuda

Sepang, Malaysia, June 16: History was made in Sepang as J.P. de Oliveira and Tsugio Matsuda each scored their third victory in the midsummer Malaysian event. The weekend started out strong when the TEAM IMPUL squad planted the blue machine at the top of the timesheets in both official qualifying sessions.

In the race, Matsuda took the start, maintaining his postion in the early stages, only to get passed by a hard-charging Naoki Yamamoto in the #18 Weider Honda HSV-010 GT on lap 18. It all changed when the Honda incurred a huge delay in its pitstop, and the IMPUL car was never headed throughout J.P. de Oliveira's run to the flag, and a solid Equatorial victory. Of note was the hugely impressive drive by rookie Frederic Makowiecki, who battled relentlessly with the #6 Lexus of Daisuke Ito for an eventual fourth-place finish.