The #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 starts on the pole for the 2022 Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours, after the combined efforts of drivers Martin Berry and Shinichi Takagi earned them the overall and ST-X class pole position in just their second race together.
Of the gentleman drivers taking part in the first leg of qualifying, it was Berry who topped the lot, setting a benchmark time of 1’41.709, versus a 1’42.197 set by Yutaka Toriba in the #62 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R GT3.
In the second leg of qualifying, Kiyoto Fujinami in the #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R went quickest of all with a 1’39.902, but the fight for pole position would be settled between Takagi and Yuya Hiraki. Hiraki set a 1’40.266 aboard the #62 HELM GT-R, while Takagi set a 1’40.507.
The combined times of Berry and Takagi, 3’22.216, edged out the 3’22.463 set by Toriba and the older of the Hiraki brothers.
So, it’ll be the bright yellow and black #888 Grid Motorsport AMG GT3 of Berry, Takagi, Haruki Kurosawa, and Daisuke Yamawaki earning two championship points for pole position, and they’ll line up on the front row with the #62 HELM GT-R of Toriba, Yuya and Reiji Hiraki, and Shaun Thong.
The #31 apr Denso Lexus RC F GT3 (Hideki Nagai/Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka/Hiroaki Nagai/Yuta Kamimura) qualified third, ahead of the #9 MP Racing GT-R (Joe Shindo/Yusaku Shibata/Masami Kageyama/Takuro Shinohara/Hiroshi Koizumi/Keiichi Inoue) in fourth.
The #81 Daishin GTNET GT-R of defending race winners Noboyuki Oyagi, Fujinami, Takayuki Aoki, and Natsu Sakaguchi, will start from fifth on the grid, lined up next to the ST-1 pole sitter, the #2 Syntium Apple KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Hiroki Yoshimoto/Takashi Kobayashi/Kazuho Takahashi) in sixth; the #47 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT8R (Kenji Hama/Manabu Orido/Tsubasa Kondo/Kosuke Matsuura/Jake Parsons) starts seventh, followed by the ST-Q class #3 Endless Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Ryo Ogawa/Togo Suganami/Shintaro Kawabata/Riki Tanioka) in eighth, and the #38 muta Racing Toyota GR Supra (Yuui Tsutsumi/Yuichi Nakayama/Kota Matsui/Rintaro Kubo) in ninth.
The battle for ST-Z pole position was the closest of all, and in the end it was won by the #500 5Zigen Mercedes-AMG GT4 and drivers Ryuichiro Otsuka and Kakunoshin Ota.
Otsuka was by far and away the fastest driver in the “A” driver segment, setting a 1’49.168, over a second ahead of the #310 GR Garage Mito Inter Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Manabu Yamazaki. In the “B” driver segment, Honda’s GT300 and Super Formula Lights standout Ota wasn’t at his best, only setting a 1’48.740.
But the combined times of Otsuka and Ota, at 3’37.908, won them the ST-Z class pole position, together with co-drivers Toshihiro Kaneishi and Iori Kimura. It was a close margin of 0.156s that put the 5Zigen AMG GT4 ahead of the #22 Porsche Team EBI Waimarama Cayman GT4 RS CS (KIZUNA/Katsumasa Chiyo/Naoya Yamano/Riki Okusa/Giuliano Alesi/Lee Jung Woo), followed by the #310 GR Mito Inter Supra (Yamazaki, plus Sho Tsuboi/Seita Nonaka/Shinya Hosokawa/Takumi Sanada/Yuya Sakamoto), and the #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu/Morio Nitta/Yuhki Nakayama).
The debuting Nissan Z “Racing Concept” had a strong showing in qualifying. The #230 NISMO Z (Kohei Hirate/Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli/Daiki Sasaki/Kazuki Hoshino) qualified 14th overall, with Hirate and Matsuda times comparable to the ST-Z class front runners.
Unfortunately the #244 Max Racing Z (Tetsuya Tanaka/Toru Tanaka/Atsushi Miyake/Mitsunori Takaboshi/Hironobu Yasuda) will start from the very back of grid Group 1, after failing to set a time in the second leg of qualifying. Their car had just been repaired after a practice accident on Thursday.
Winning the battle of the ST-TCR Honda Civics was the #75 Team Noah Civic TCR (Toshiro Tsukada/Yoshikazu Sobu/Yu Kanamaru/Koji Miura/” J “/Yuji Kiyotaki), which starts 15th.
In ST-2, pole position went to the #6 Shinryo Auto Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi/Masazumi Ohashi/Turbo Asahi). They qualified 23rd overall and will line up from 21st in Group 1.
Leading grid Group 2 to the green flag will be the ST-3 pole sitters, the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Crown RS (Naoki Hattori/Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Hikaru Jitosho). The legendary Hattori and his former driving academy pupil Yoshida led both legs of qualifying in their class, and were 19th overall in the qualifying order.
Of the ‘carbon neutral’ ST-Q cars, the #28 ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR86 CNF Concept (Naoya Gamou/Daisuke Toyoda/Kazuya Oshima/Ryuta Ukai/Yuhi Sekiguchi) was the fastest, with Gamou and Toyoda outqualifying the ST-4 field. They were 32nd overall and will start seventh within Group 2.
Not far behind them was the hydrogen-powered #32 ROOKIE Racing Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept (Masahiro Sasaki/Akio “Morizo” Toyoda/Hiroaki Ishiura/Yasuhiro Ogura/Jari-Matti Latvala/Norihiko Katsuta), who were 37th overall in the one-year anniversary of the car’s debut. Sasaki turned in a lap of 1’58.867 during the first leg of qualifying, which was over five seconds faster than the car’s best race lap in 2021 – evidence of the car’s forward progress in just over a year.
In its debut race, the #86 TOM’s Spirit Toyota GR86 (Shunsuke Kohno/Takamitsu Matsui/Kenta Yamashita) won the ST-4 class pole with ease, with Kohno and Matsui’s aggregate time coming in over four seconds quicker than the next-fastest car.
And, in another close battle for the pole in ST-5 class, the rear-wheel drive #50 Love Drive Racing Mazda Roadster (Koji Yamanishi/Hiroyuki Matsumura/Yoshihito Shinoda/Takashi Hata/Kotaro Matsubuchi/Junko Fujii) won pole in its class by 0.224 seconds.
Cloudy weather and a mild risk of rain is in the forecast for the seventh annual Fuji 24 Hour race, which begins Saturday at 15:00 JST (local time), 6:00 UTC / 7:00 BST / 8:00 CEST / 1:00 EDT.
The first portion of English language coverage begins ten minutes before the green flag at 14:50 JST, with commentary provided by longtime SUPER GT pit reporter Amie Izawa and championship-winning driver João Paulo de Oliveira.
The second block of English language coverage begins Sunday at 12:30 JST and will run all the way to the chequered flag.
Super Taikyu’s official YouTube channel will carry all 24 hours of the race in Japanese, divided into five blocks.
Images © Fuji Speedway
