The two ARTA Mugen Honda Civic Type R-GTs finished on top of the leaderboards during the final day of Autobacs SUPER GT Series pre-season testing at Fuji Speedway.
After a full day of wet-weather running on Saturday, dry, cloudy – and cold – conditions were at least guaranteed for Sunday morning’s three-hour session. Towards the end of Session 3, Nobuharu Matsushita in the bright orange #8 ARTA Mugen Civic set the quickest time of 1:27.834.
But the black #16 ARTA Civic wasn’t far behind – Hiroki Otsu’s best time was just 0.048 seconds behind Matsushita’s. Katsumasa Chiyo was third-fastest in the #23 Motul Autech Nissan Z, followed by Kazuya Oshima in the #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra in fourth.
Two red flags briefly interrupted the morning session: First, Morio Nitta in the #96 K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3 crashed and stopped against the guardrail near the pit lane exit. Then, Kakunoshin Ohta spun at Dunlop Corner and the #17 Astemo Civic was stopped on course. Both cars would be recovered and continued running through the end of the day.
In GT300, Yuui Tsutsumi led the way in the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 with a 1:36.480, followed by Naoya Gamou in the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3, just 0.046 seconds off the top.
Yuya Motojima was third in class driving the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, in fourth was Kazuto Kotaka in the #31 apr Lexus LC 500h.
Perhaps the surprise of the day in GT300 was PONOS Racing returning to action for the second day of testing, less than 24 hours after Lilou Wadoux’s heavy crash on Saturday.
In a stroke of good fortune, PONOS Racing already ordered a second Ferrari 296 GT3 chassis months in advance. That car arrived from Europe earlier in the week – much earlier than PONOS Racing had expected – and was transported to Fuji Speedway last night. Kei Cozzolino recorded the tenth-fastest time in Session 3, and Wadoux passed her compulsory rookie test with ease.
These times held up as the best times on Sunday and across both days of the Fuji test after the rain returned in Session 4.
In the afternoon, Nissan finished 1-2 in GT500, led by Chiyo in the #23 Motul Z. In second was the dark blue #12 Marelli Impul Z of Kazuki Hiramine.
Toyotas finished third and fourth – Oshima in the #14 Eneos Supra, then Kenta Yamashita in the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra – followed by the fastest Honda, the #100 Stanley Civic of Naoki Yamamoto. Yamamoto’s co-driver Syun Koide was able to log 46 laps in his first weekend of GT500 testing – filling in for the absent Tadasuke Makino.
In terms of mileage, the #23 Motul Z of Chiyo and Ronnie Quintarelli led all GT500 cars, with 199 laps – 210, if you include the mock qualifying session on Saturday afternoon). The #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/João Paulo de Oliveira) logged a total of 187 laps to lead GT300 in distance covered.
The Michelin-clad #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 of Seiji Ara was quickest in the wet conditions during Session 4, with Takuto Iguchi in the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport and Eijiro Shimizu in the #20 SHADE Racing GR86 rounding out the top three.
Finally, seven months after the car was feared lost to a fire at this same circuit, the rebuilt #25 Hoppy Schatz Toyota GR Supra returned to SUPER GT action to the delight of the team’s supporters! Togo Suganami, Takamitsu Matsui, and Kimiya Sato combined to complete over 400 kilometres across the car’s two-day shakedown with no major issues.
SESSION 3 RESULTS >>
SESSION 4 RESULTS >>
The 2024 Autobacs SUPER GT Series – celebrating the series’ 30th anniversary season – starts on 14 April with the Okayama GT 300km Race, three weeks from today.
Images © GTA, Toyota
