The Sugo Inter 500 km, was the fifth round of both the 1991 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and the 1991 Long Distance Series, held at the

Sugo ''Sugo'' (International title: ''The Chosen One'' / ) is a Philippine television drama action series broadcast by GMA Network. Directed by Dominic Zapata and Lore Reyes, it stars Richard Gutierrez in the title role. It premiered on July 4, 200 ...

on 15 September, in front of a crowd of approximately 45,000.

Report

Entry

A total of 14 cars were entered for the event, in two classes, one for cars running to Group C1 specification and the other to

IMSA GTP IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada. History The series was founded in 1969 by John and Peggy Bishop, and Bill F ...

regulations.

Qualifying

The Nisseki Racing Team of

George Fouché George Robert Fouché (born 15 May 1965 in Pretoria, South Africa), nicknamed "Fast Fouché", is a former South African and international motorsport racecar driver and South African Formula 1 Powerboat pilot. He retired from competition in 2005. ...

and

Steven Andskär Steven Andskär (born 30 October 1964, in Stockholm) is a Swedish race car driver. His long career started out in the mid-1970s when he competed in karting. After that—in the early 1980s—he went from karting to driving several races in Form ...

took

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

, in their Porsche 962GTi ahead of the Toyota Team SARD’s Toyota 91C-V of Roland Ratzenberger and

Pierre-Henri Raphanel Pierre-Henri Raphanel (born 27 May 1961) is a French former racing driver. He participated in 17 Formula One Grands Prix for Larrousse, Coloni and Rial, debuting on 13 November 1988. He only qualified for one race, the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix, ...

, by only 0.047secs.

Race

The race was held over 135 laps of the Sportsland Sugo circuit, a distance of 500 km (actual distance was 500.075 km).

Eje Elgh Eje Elgh (born 15 June 1953) is a Swedish racing driver and television reporter. He currently works as an expert commentator for Formula One in Sweden together with Janne Blomqvist. The two have worked together as Formula One commentators for a ...

and Geoff Lees took the winner spoils for the Toyota Team Tom’s, driving their Toyota 91C-V. The European duo won in a time of 2hr 57:30.838mins., averaging a speed of 105.641 mph. Second place went to

Akihiko Nakaya is a successful racing driver in the Japanese Touring Car Championship and F3000, as well as regular presenter on the Japanese motoring show ''Best Motoring''. Nakaya offered a distinctively analytical approach to reviewing cars on the show, provi ...

and Volker Weidler in the From A Racing’s

Nissan R91CK The Nissan R90C was a platform used for Group C racing cars built in 1990 by Nissan Motors for competition in World Sportscar Championship (WSC) based in Europe and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC). The cars based on the basic R90C ...

who finished about 6.5 seconds adrift. Also on the lead lap, in third place was the

Nissan Motorsport , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

Anders Olofsson Anders Olofsson (31 March 1952 – 22 January 2008) was a Swedish racing driver. Racing career He won back-to-back Swedish Formula Three titles in 1977 and 1978 and finished runner-up in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship in the same seasons ...

and

Masahiro Hasemi is a former racing driver and team owner from Japan. He started racing motocross when he was 15 years old. In 1964 he signed to drive for Nissan. After establishing himself in saloon car and GT races in Japan, he participated in his only Formula O ...

Classification

Result

''Class Winners are in Bold text.'' * Fastest lap: Masanori Sekiya/ Hitoshi Ogawa, 1:14.593secs. (111.74 mph)

References

{{reflist, 30em All Japan Sports Prototype Championship Fuji Long Distance Series SUGO Inter 500km