Today I took my first win in the Land of the Rising Sun, and doesn’t it taste sweet!

Leading up to it, however, we had a torrid day with race one going far from the plans. I was slapped with a drive through penalty for passing the slow to get-away BMW Z4 at the start, and soon after I rejoined the race was abandoned with a serious accident at the end of the fast front straight.

A sombre mood swept over the pits when we found out that the driver involved has passed away in the accident.

This put a bit of a dampener on the second race, but we put our troubles behind us and started fresh to lead into the first corner and fend off my PETRONAS team mate – Super GT and Super Taikyu Champion ‘NOB’ Taniguchi – for the first half of the race.

I pitted soon after from the lead and an efficient stop and driver change had us rejoin with a comfortable buffer which my ‘partner in crime’ Melvin Moh was able to further extend to assure us of our first victory of the season.

It’s a real ‘monkey off the back’ scenario. We’ve had clear pace right from the get go but the results have never come our way, so as a unit – drivers, crew and management alike – we are all very happy right about now!

For me, it’s now into V8 SuperTourer mode. I return to NZ on Tuesday morning to prepare for the Pukekohe 500 with John McIntyre Racing. Bring it on!

Thanks to CRC motornews.co.nz for the continued support!

Jono