In their Eneos Super Taikyu Series debut, Craft-Bamboo Racing has won the pole for the ninth annual Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour Race and will lead an all-Mercedes top three to the green flag on Saturday afternoon.
Across the two-stage aggregate qualifying format, the combined time of 3:22.261 set by Jeffrey Lee and Kakunoshin Ohta was enough to give Craft-Bamboo the top spot and two ST-X class championship points. Lee was the fastest amateur driver in the A-Driver segment of qualifying with an individual time of 1:41.859. Honda factory driver Ohta was second-fastest in the B-Driver segment but his time of 1:40.402 was enough to win the pole by nearly a second.
2023 Fuji 24H winners Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing qualified second, with Ryuta Ukai and Giuliano Alesi setting a combined time of 3:23.248 in the #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Mercedes-AMG. The #23 TKRI Mercedes qualified third to complete a Silver Arrows top three on the grid. Mercedes will aim for their third overall victory in the race.
Behind them, the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 qualified fourth, followed by the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in fifth. GTNET MotorSports’ Kiyoto Fujinami was the fastest driver in the B-Driver segment of qualifying with a time of 1:40.187.
The sole ST-1 class entry, the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX, qualified sixth overall with a total time of 3:30.925 – followed by two GT4-based ST-Q cars: The #230 NISMO Nissan Z Racing Concept with a 3:33.636 set by Daiki Sasaki and Kohei Hirate, just 0.065 seconds ahead of Keizo Kato and Takamitsu Matsui in the #92 GR Team Spirit Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept.
In ST-Z (GT4), the #26 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 won its second pole position of the 2024 season. Ryuichiro Otsuka and Ryuichiro Tomita won the pole with a total time of 3:35.729, Nissan’s first in class at this event and enough for ninth overall on the grid.
Saitama Green Brave’s Manabu Yamazaki and Hiroki Yoshida qualified just one place behind them in the #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo with a 3:36.049, as Green Brave aims for its second consecutive ST-Z class win. The #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan was third in class, followed by the #885 SHADE Racing Toyota, the returning #5 Team Noah Toyota, and the #20 Naniwa Denso Team Impul Nissan making it an all-Japanese top six in ST-Z qualifying.
Unfortunately, one team has already stated it will not race – that is the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4, the only Audi in the provisional entry list.
The car suffered an engine issue in pre-event testing and with no spare parts available, the car that was due to feature SUPER GT veteran Hironobu Yasuda, and current Honda works drivers Riki Okusa and Tadasuke Makino – the latter coming off his first Super Formula victory last week – did not take any further part.
One other car that failed to make a qualifying run was the ST-5 class #50 Lovedrive Mazda Roadster, but as of writing the car is expecting to be on the 58-car grid for the race.
ST-2 pole position went to the #6 Shinryo Racing Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Tomohiro Tomimasu/Yasushi Kikuchi) in 20th overall, just ahead of the fastest production-based ST-Q car, the #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R CNF-R (Hiroki Otsu/Hideki Mutoh) by 0.025s.
The #15 Okabe Jidosha Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z34 (Shuji Maejima/Masaaki Nagashima) qualified 22nd overall and won the ST-3 class pole position.
In ST-4, the #41 Tracy Sports with Delta Toyota GR86 (Hirotaka Ishii/Yusuke Tomibayashi) won its second pole of the year, classified 36th overall and leading a GR86 1-2.
And in ST-5, the #65 Over Drive Mazda Roadster (Tatsuya Ota/Shuichiro Hokazono) took its first pole in the class, leading a Mazda top-five sweep and all-Roadster top four down in 45th overall.
Another car of note is the #32 ORC ROOKIE Racing Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept which has made significant gains in performance since the car re-debuted as a liquid hydrogen combustion car last year. Akio “Morizo” Toyoda and Masahiro Sasaki posted a total time that was seven seconds better than their mark from 2023.
A similar improvement was made by the #55 Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda3 Bio Concept which continues to develop using renewable biodiesel fuel – Kazuhiro Terakawa and Kaoru Ijiri’s total time was 5.2 seconds up on the time set by Terakawa and Yutaka Seki in 2023.
The #55 Mazda3 Bio Concept qualified 33rd overall, with the #28 GR Corolla H2 Concept in 44th.
Images © STO, Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda
