1991 Sugo 500km
# 1991 Sugo 500km

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 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 regulations.

### Qualifying

The Nisseki Racing Team of George Fouché and Steven Andskär took pole position, in their Porsche 962GTi ahead of the Toyota Team SARD’s Toyota 91C-V of Roland Ratzenberger and Pierre-Henri Raphanel, 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 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 and Volker Weidler in the From A Racing’s Nissan R91CK who finished about 6.5 seconds adrift. Also on the lead lap, in third place was the Nissan Motorsport of Anders Olofsson and Masahiro Hasemi.

## Classification

### Result

Class Winners are in Bold text.

| Pos. | No. | Class | Drivers | | | Entrant | Car — Engine | Time, Laps | Reason Out |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st | 37 | C1 | Eje Elgh | Geoff Lees | | Toyota Team Tom’s | Toyota 91C-V | 2:57:30.838 | |
| 2nd | 27 | C1 | Akihiko Nakaya | Volker Weidler | | From A Racing | Nissan R91CK | 2:57:37.020 | |
| 3rd | 1 | C1 | Masahiro Hasemi | Anders Olofsson | | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan R91CP | 2:58:55.982 | |
| 4th | 100 | C1 | George Fouché | Steven Andskär | | Nisseki Racing Team | Porsche 962GTi | 132 | |
| 5th | 25 | C1 | Hideki Okada | Masahiko Kageyama | | Team Le Mans | Nissam R90VP | 132 | |
| 6th | 18 | C1 | Mauro Martini | Jeff Krosnoff | | TWR Suntec Jaguar | Jaguar XJR-11 | 129 | |
| 7th | 38 | C1 | Roland Ratzenberger | Pierre-Henri Raphanel | | Toyota Team SARD | Toyota 91C-V | 127 | |
| 8th | 21 | C1 | Hideo Fukuyama | Hideshi Matsuda | | Aoshima Tsunemasa | Spice-Ford SE90C | 127 | |
| 9th | 202 | GTP | Tetsuya Ota | Takashi Yorino | | Mazdaspeed | Mazda 787B | 126 | |
| 10th | 36 | C1 | Masanori Sekiya | Hitoshi Ogawa | | Toyota Team Tom’s | Toyota 91C-V | 126 | |
| 11th | 119 | C1 | Kazuyoshi Hoshino | Toshio Suzuki | | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan R91CP | 119 | |
| DNF | 201 | GTP | David Kennedy | Yojiro Terada | | Mazdaspeed | Mazda 787B | 23 | Course Out |
| DNF | 230 | GTP | Tetsuji Shiratori | Masatomo Shimizu | Syuuji Fujii | Pleasure Racing | Mazda 767 | 3 | Differencial |
| DNQ | 3 | C1 | Taku Akaike | Karou Iida | | Navi Connection Racing | Mazda-Ford 767B | | |

* Fastest lap: Masanori Sekiya/Hitoshi Ogawa, 1:14.593secs. (111.74 mph)
