Why wait until Sunday’s final race of the 2024 Autobacs SUPER GT Series when you can clinch the GT500 Championships a day early?
TGR Team au TOM’S and ace driver Sho Tsuboi clinched their third set of GT500 titles in four years, alongside Kenta Yamashita who won his second championship – and all the two drivers of the #36 au TOM’S Toyota GR Supra had to do was qualify on pole position for the Suzuka GT 300km Race Grand Final.
The championship-clinching lap in Q2 from Tsuboi makes him the sixth driver to win both the SUPER GT GT500 Championship and the Super Formula Championship in the same calendar year: He joins his 2023 co-driver Ritomo Miyata, as well as Naoki Yamamoto, Satoshi Motoyama, Pedro de la Rosa, and Richard Lyons in this exclusive club.
Tsuboi also entered an even more exclusive club: At 29 years old, he became the youngest driver to win three or more GT500 Championships and joined Motoyama, Yuji Tachikawa, Juichi Wakisaka, and the retiring four-time champion Ronnie Quintarelli.
“Since Yamashita-san had given me a briefing on the conditions in his run in Q1, I was able to learn from that and run my time attacks accordingly,” said Tsuboi. “Although we couldn’t read the situation, we really wanted to win pole position, and we wanted to clinch the championship today.”
“There are few chances to take titles like this, so I am really happy. Being as cold as it is now, there is no predicting what will happen in tomorrow’s race, so I wanted to be relieved from this pressure as soon as possible! This has been great.”
For Yamashita, it’s his first GT500 Championship since 2019, when he won the title for Team Le Mans – a championship that overlapped a brief run as Toyota’s international sports car prospect, before he returned home amidst the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic on the racing world.
“I am very happy that we have won the title. Tsuboi-san did a great job for us in Q2. The fans watching may be disappointed that we won the title in the qualifying, but since Tsuboi-san’s double title depended on this, it was a great relief for me!” added Yamashita.
The other remarkable story in Qualifying at Suzuka was the volume of lap records set in this final round – free of Success Weight in the cool temperatures of December.
Tsuboi and Yamashita’s combined time of 3:27.008 (average speed 201.975 kilometres per hour) consisted of a 1:43.737 from Yamashita in Q1 and the title-clinching 1:43.271 from Tsuboi in Q2, but these laps were only third-quickest in their respective groups!
Instead, the new GT500 course record over a single lap – by nearly a full second over the previous record – belongs to Nirei Fukuzumi, who set a blistering 1:43.143 aboard the #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra, at an average speed of 202.682 km/h.
Fukuzumi’s lap time is the fastest sports car lap ever recorded around Suzuka Circuit on the current 5.807-kilometre layout, but it is, remarkably, just short of the all-time sports car course record at Suzuka.
That honour still belongs to Philippe Alliot and his Peugeot 905 Evo 1B, who set a 1:43.957 during qualifying for the 1992 Suzuka 1000km, at an average speed of 203.070 km/h – around the slightly longer 5.864 km course that was used until 2003.
But in the same session, Fukuzumi also inadvertently impeded the #12 Marelli Impul Nissan Z of Kazuki Hiramine at the final Chicane, and earned a five-place grid penalty. Despite Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima setting the third-quickest aggregate time, they’ll start eighth in the #14 Eneos GR Supra.
The #17 Astemo Honda Civic Type R-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Kakunoshin Ohta converted the top time in Free Practice into second on the grid with a total time of 3:27.208. The Yokohama-clad #24 Realize Corporation Nissan Z NISMO GT500 (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) qualified fourth and will be promoted to third on the grid.
Tsukakoshi previously held the course record on Saturday morning with a 1:43.840, before it was taken by Natori who led Q1 with a 1:43.670 – despite Natori spinning off at NIPPO (Dunlop) Corner during his run!
TGR Team au TOM’S’ third title in four years was confirmed with the #100 Stanley Honda Civic Type R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) qualifying fifth, earning no points for qualifying as Tsuboi and Yamashita went 21 points ahead with only 20 available. They’ll start fourth following the #14’s grid penalty.
Also eliminated from championship contention were the #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) and the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) in ninth and tenth.
The #23 Motul Autech Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Ronnie Quintarelli) qualified 11th; the retiring four-time GT500 Champion Quintarelli was last place in Q1 in his final SUPER GT time attack, but a great lap from Chiyo in Q2 kept the Motul Z from starting last.
While one title is already wrapped up, the GT300 Championship will go into Sunday’s 52-lap finale – and thanks to flying laps from Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima, the white-hot #88 Venteny Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 won the pole position for the second time this season.
Kogure set a provisional GT300 course record in Q1 with a 1:55.132, and Motojima’s Q2 lap of 1:55.206 gave the #88 JLOC Huracán the pole with an aggregate time of 3:50.338. The three points for pole position bring Kogure and Motojima within eight points of championship leaders Naoya Gamou and Takuro Shinohara – and within eight points of JLOC’s long-awaited first SUPER GT championship after 31 years.
Meanwhile, Gamou and Shinohara in the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 could only manage tenth-fastest. The #88 Lamborghini still has to finish at least fourth to be able to win the title, while the #65 Mercedes can clinch with a top-two finish.
“We have a good roll going (considering last round’s win after winning Q1), don’t we?” remarked Motojima, who has won the last two races at Autopolis at Motegi alongside Kogure. “But this pole position is certainly due to Kogure-san’s amazing time in Q1. My result in Q2 was certainly due to his help. But we knew that we had to win this pole position, and it was great that this was realized thanks to the combined skills of the team, the tyre maker, the drivers and everyone else’s efforts.
“Now we just have to do our best in tomorrow’s race, and the rest depends on how our rival does.”
“The car’s performance was great today. Not only me, but Motojima-san was also very fast. I am just glad that we got pole position,” added Kogure. “It brings us a big step closer to the championship. If we can run a good race tomorrow, that will make our chances even better. It will surely be a very meaningful race for us.”
The #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) qualified second with a total time of 3:50.796, followed by the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) – which has kept its very slim championship hopes alive, qualifying third and gaining one point. Taira spun during his Q1 time attack but was able to salvage a time quick enough to reach Q2 Group 1, the ‘top split’, and put Tsutsumi in position to gain that point.
Taira and Tsutsumi are still 19 points behind Gamou/Shinohara, facing nearly impossible odds, but they can still win the championship if they win the race.
In fourth was the #31 apr Lexus LC 500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Jin Nakamura/Yuki Nemoto), followed by the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R NISMO GT3 (Daiki Sasaki/João Paulo de Oliveira).
In Q2, Oliveira set a blistering new GT300 course record, his 1:55.092 (average speed 181.639 km/h) lap is the fastest time ever recorded by a GT3 car in an official session at Suzuka, breaking a record that stood since 2018!
More to follow!
Images © GTA
