The bright orange #8 ARTA Mugen Honda Civic Type R-GT of Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita won the pole for Sunday’s SUPER GT Fuji GT 350km Race, leading a standout performance from the Honda fleet in Qualifying.
In particular the #8 ARTA Civic, the #64 Modulo Civic of Takuya Izawa and Riki Okusa, and the #100 Stanley Civic of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino were strong throughout Saturday’s track activities, with Okusa clocking the fastest time in Practice aboard the Dunlop-clad #64 Honda.
Makino got the upper hand on his rookie Honda stablemate Q1, and took the provisional pole with a best lap of 1:38.026. Okusa got within a tenth in second place, while Matsushita was third-fastest, two-tenths behind Makino.
It felt as if a Civic Type R-GT would take pole after Q2 – the only question was which one? Izawa put in a 1:28.673 and it looked like Modulo Nakajima Racing would score its first GT500 pole since 2021. But with less than 30 seconds to go until the chequered flag, Nojiri put in a stellar lap of 1:28.160 – elevating the #8 ARTA Civic ahead into pole position!
Yamamoto and Izawa couldn’t match that time on their last flying laps, while Nojiri improved slightly to a 1:28.135 at the chequered flag. That gave Nojiri and Matsushita the pole position with a combined time of 2:56.359, a two-lap average speed of 186.3 kilometres per hour.
“This time I wanted to start the race from pole position, no matter what – and I’m happy that I managed to do so,” said Nojiri. “If I had known that it was a competition between Honda, I think we could have saved the tyres. But we had such a good car that we were able to make consecutive attacks!”
For Nojiri, it was his seventh career pole position in GT500 – which moves him into a tie for fifth place all-time, alongside Satoshi Motoyama and João Paulo de Oliveira.
“This is my first pole position in SUPER GT, and I would like to thank Nojiri,” added co-driver Matsushita. “The Civic has been good up until now, but our form has not been good – such as going off course (at Okayama). This time I can start from pole position, so I will definitely bring home the Civic’s first victory.”
Honda locked out the top three places and secured every championship bonus point. Yamamoto and Makino, Honda’s highest-ranked driver pairing in the championship heading into the weekend, will start on the outside of the front row in the #100 Stanley Civic.
For the #64 Modulo Civic of Izawa and Okusa, third place is by far their best qualifying result of the season – one that gives Modulo Nakajima Racing hope of contending for their first win since the 2017 Suzuka 1000km, if the race pace of the Dunlop tyres is up to the challenge.
At Toyota-owned Fuji Speedway, several GR Supras finished well down the order. But the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) led the way with a respectable fourth-place run – ahead of the #17 Astemo Civic (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta) in fifth.
The best of the Nissans were the #12 Marelli Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) and #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) in sixth and seventh, while the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) qualified eighth thanks to a quick run from Fukuzumi in Q2.
It was a tough qualifying session for the top runners in the championship. NISMO’s two cars finished 11th and 12th, with the #23 Motul Autech Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli) in 11th, ahead of the #3 Niterra Motul Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi/Atsushi Miyake) in 12th.
The two TOM’S Toyotas languished at the back – championship leaders Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita were only 14th in the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra, only ahead of the #37 Deloitte TOM’s GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi).
They’ll all have some work to do to consolidate points in tomorrow’s 77-lap race.
Over in GT300, the final result appeared pretty typical – as the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou, Takuro Shinohara, and Haruki Kurosawa won its second pole position of the season.
But the process was a bit different – as GT300 qualifying took on a different complexion. During the preceding Formula 4 race, oil leaked onto the race track. Race Control delayed the start of SUPER GT Qualifying by five minutes, and also declared a “wet” qualifying session despite the sunny weather and balmy summer heat.
This decision was made to ensure that the first Q1 group wouldn’t be left at a severe disadvantage due to the track conditions. Under the new qualifying regulations, Q1 times would only determine which cars go to the “Lower 17” and “Upper 16” groups, and from there, the grid would be determined by Q2 times only.
Gamou and Shinohara will still be credited together for winning the pole position, however. Shinohara got the black #65 Mercedes through to Q2’s “top split”, finishing less than a tenth off the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Hideki Yamauchi who topped Q1 Group B. Tomonobu Fujii, meanwhile, led Group A in the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 – while the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 of Hibiki Taira missed the top eight cut line, a significant upset for the championship leaders.
Then, with less than three minutes left in Q2, Gamou set a 1:37.764 to take the pole position, and wouldn’t be matched at the end once D’station Racing’s Charlie Fagg came to the pits before the end of the session.
“It’s my second pole position, but as in the opening round (at Okayama), it is all thanks to Gamou. I am very grateful,” said Shinohara. “In Q1, the times were not as good as I had expected. Perhaps the track temperature was too high – because our rivals’ times were not so good either. Anyway, this is all thanks to Gamou.”
“I was able to hear the good parts of Shinohara’s driving and data in Q1, and that’s how I was able to win this pole position,” added Gamou, who scored his seventh career pole position. “The Success Weight (42kg) was heavy, but the car was in great shape and the Bridgestone tyres were performing well – so I just had to give it my all in Q2.”
K2 R&D LEON Racing will now turn all attention towards ending a four-year winless drought dating back to September 2020 – when the LEON Pyramid AMG won at Fuji.
FIA GT3 cars locked out the top seven places on the grid, with second place going to the all-new #87 Metalive S Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Kosuke Matsuura and Natsu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi came within 0.051s of snatching pole position in the #87 crew’s first race with the latest Lamborghini, which arrived in bare carbon just 48 hours prior.
The #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) picked up the last qualifying bonus point in third, ahead of the #777 D’station Vantage of Fujii and Fagg which ended up in fourth.
In fifth was the #88 JLOC Lamborghini (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima), going for the Fuji season sweep from fifth on the grid, followed by the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R NISMO GT3 (Daiki Sasaki/João Paulo de Oliveira) and the #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Kei Cozzolino/Lilou Wadoux).
The best of the GTA-GT300 cars was the #11 Gainer Tanax Nissan Fairlady Z (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa) in a fine eighth place as the new car aims to finally finish a race – they’ll start ahead of the #61 Subaru BRZ of Yamauchi and Takuto Iguchi in ninth.
Further down the order, the #2 muta GR86 of Taira and Yuui Tsutsumi will start 18th, giving all of muta Racing INGING’s title rivals a golden opportunity to try and cleave into their 17-point lead.
The #20 SHADE Racing GR86 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Eijiro Shimizu) didn’t get to run in Q2 – the car suffered from intense porpoising, leading to a part failure that needed repairs. Hiranaka and Shimizu will start 27th and last on the grid.
Images © GTA
