GTNET MotorSports’ #81 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 will start on pole for the NAPAC Fuji 24 Hour Race on Saturday, thanks to the combined efforts of drivers Ryuichiro Oyagi and Natsu Sakaguchi.
Both drivers were the quickest during their respective legs of the two-stage qualifying session. Oyagi was nearly seven-tenths clear of the field during the first stage, setting a 1:41.063. Sakaguchi, meanwhile, was the only driver to clear the 100-second threshold with his second stage lap of 1:39.817, putting him over six-tenths to the good of the next-fastest car.
These combined times put Oyagi, Sakaguchi, Iori Kimura, Kohei Tokumasu, and Kiyoto Fujinami on the pole, ahead of the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3, which makes up an all-Japanese front row.
The second row will feature the #777 D’station Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo which starts third, next to the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in fourth. The rest of the ST-X grid is rounded out by the debuting #182 R Zero Racing Mercedes-AMG, the #44 Team Pop Race Mercedes-AMG, and the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG, which recovered from an accident during pre-event testing on Thursday.
Then it’s the two ST-1 class cars, with the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX (qualified by Taiyo Ida and Hiroki Katoh) ahead of the #47 D’station Porsche 992 Cup.
Kota Matsui and Seita Nonaka put the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 on the pole in ST-Z, starting ahead of the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4, and the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 who’ll line up second and third in class.
The fastest of the ST-Q prototypes was the #61 Team SDA Engineering Subaru High Performance X II, the Crosstrek-based prototype which will start 21st overall behind the ST-Z runners.
In the other classes, the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS3 LMS took the pole in ST-TCR, and the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda Civic Type R will start up front in ST-2. The #39 Tracy Sports Lexus RC 350 was the quicker of the two ST-3 cars, and the #3 Endless Sports Toyota GR86 won the pole in ST-4.
ST-5F pole honours went to the #67 Team Yamato Honda Fit3 RS; Team Yamato elected to step down from ST-2 back to ST-5F for Fuji. And after an accident earlier in the week, the #65 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF recovered to take the pole in ST-5R.
Finally, the #250 Birth Racing Project Ford Mustang Dark Horse R qualified 32nd out of 62 cars, as the sole ST-TCR representative.
The complete entry list as it was finalised can be seen HERE.
And the first of five parts of live streaming coverage of the Fuji 24 Hours starts at 12:30 PM JST (local time) on the official Super Taikyu TV YouTube channel (with Japanese commentary), followed by the drop of the green flag, Saturday at 3:00 PM JST / 8:00 AM CEST (for those watching from Le Mans!)
Feature image © Fuji Motorsports Forest
