2012 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 3, Sepang International Circuit - Part 1

If last year’s Super GT was on fire, this year was nothing short of being explosive! Even at a simple glance, one could almost instantly tell that this year’s turn up was definitely higher than 2011; even during the qualifying day itself. The amount of endless effort put by the guys at JPM Motorsports had really made the AUTOBACS Super GT a great success, turning it into one of the must-go annually auto events in Malaysia. Kudos to JPM!







The event was undoubtedly a haven for automotive enthusiasts, where every corner of Sepang International Circuit greets them with a great dosage of automotive goodness. Right from the front entrance, visitors were already served with some great appetizers like this Denso Supra and some rare classical machines.



And is just the start of it. Further down inside, more and more auto goodies awaits the visitors, giving them a rare chance to get up-close and personal with some uber-rare machines that is rarely seen cruising on the streets today. The SLR McLaren and 458 Spider are just a small part of it.





And even with all that, the real action has yet to start, as JPM once again held the largest performance car gathering down at the circuit. Seeing some participation even from our neighbors up north, the gathering saw an endless row of performance cars from exotics like this twin SuperVeloce, all the way to the tuners like this RE-Amemiya kitted RX-7, lined up at Sepang’s main straights.







But before the main event, the spectators were already warmed up with a number of support races which were as thrilling as the Super GT itself. The Round 3 and 4 of the GT Asia in particular, brought some ear-splitting action to the crowd, seeing some great lineup of machines in the race like this Audi R8 LMS Ultra, going against other GT cars like the Ferrari 458 GT and the Ford GT.







But even with all that, the Super GT is still, and always be the highlight of the day. With a whole fleet of the finest racing machine from both the GT500 and GT300 class coming all the way from Japan, the greatest touring car championship promises a breathtaking show of high-speed racing from its blisteringly-quick cars and talented drivers at the sunny Sepang circuit. And as always, this year’s Super GT had seen some new entries to bring up some new breath in the race, and it is the GT300 class that had seen the most change for this year.







Besides of some new entries from Europe’s finest like the Audi R8 and the Mercedes SLS, there were also some new entries from Japan itself, with the Nissan GT-R, Toyota Prius and the all-new Subaru BRZ going head-to-head against the other entries of the GT300 class.

Although the GT500 class still has the same car lineup as the previous year, they had still put up a good show. The showdown between the mighty Nissan GT-R going against the slick Honda HSV-010 GT was always exciting to watch. And although it has been in the race for quite a while, the SC430 still proves to be a daunting weapon in the right hands, as they had successfully secured the podium positions for this round.