Returning from the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ long summer break with renewed vigour, the Honda HRC Prelude-GT has scored its first GT500 pole position thanks to Team HRC ARTA Mugen and drivers Kakunoshin Ohta and Hiroki Otsu.
The #8 ARTA Mugen HRC Prelude-GT Ohta and Otsu led a Honda top-three lockout in qualifying for the Fuji GT 300KM Race at Fuji Speedway. Ohta’s pole-winning run in Q2 was also the Honda star’s second career pole in the GT500 class.
Practice results indicated that Honda’s fleet of five would be formidable, as Astemo Real Racing’s rookie sensation Yuto Nomura logged the fastest time. Nomura and the #17 Astemo Prelude-GT backed that up in Q1; as all five Hondas advanced to Q2, Nomura led the way with a 1:27.420, edging out the #100 Stanley Prelude-GT of Naoki Yamamoto by 0.027 seconds. Otsu clocked in with the third-fastest time, more than enough to put the #8 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT into Q2.
The big upset in Q1 was the #36 au TOM’S Toyota GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita missing the cut by two-tenths of a second. But considering their heavy Success Ballast, including a tighter fuel flow restrictor and 50 kilos of ballast weight, it was understandable that they would end up on the wrong side of the cut line – along with the #19 WedsSport GR Supra, the #39 Denso GR Supra, and the #24 Realize Z.
Honda’s great form rolled over into Q2 – all that was left to settle was which car would get the top spot. In rapid succession, the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT of Ren Sato, the #100 Stanley Prelude-GT of Tadasuke Makino, and finally, the #8 of Ohta took turns at the top.
Aided by a slipstream from the car of Makino in front of him, Ohta took the pole with a lap of 1:26.776. It was half a second down on the time that won the pole for the Fuji GT 3 Hour Race three months ago, but enough to put the #8 car of Ohta and Otsu on the board with its first pole, and first point of 2026.
In contrast to his recent success in Super Formula at this same Fuji Speedway, Ohta admitted, “It has surely been different with SUPER GT. It may be pressure, but we seem to be a team that has a big load on our shoulders. Nonetheless, in the last two rounds have been no good. Still, the team has been trying hard to do something about this, and it has finally paid off. We really came into the qualifying with a serious attitude.”
Makino improved to a 1:27.078 to secure second on the grid for he and Stanley Team Kunimitsu co-driver Yamamoto, while Koudai Tsukakoshi in the #17 Astemo Prelude-GT locked down third place with a 1:27.325.
A potential Honda lockout of the first two rows was broken by the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra (Toshiki Oyu/Rikuto Kobayashi) – as Oyu put the car fourth on the grid, ahead of the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT of Sato and Tomoki Nojiri in fifth. The #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) qualified sixth, and the Dunlop-clad #64 Modulo Prelude-GT (Riki Okusa/Igor Fraga) qualified seventh.
Then in eighth was the fastest Nissan, the #23 Motul Niterra Nissan Z NISMO GT500 of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi, one place ahead of the #12 TRS Impul with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) in ninth, and the #14 ENEOS X Prime GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi/Kazuya Oshima).
Over the three-month break, PONOS Racing made a controversial change by dismissing long-time ace driver Kei Cozzolino and replacing him with Shintaro Kawabata, who hadn’t driven in the series in three years. But both he and Takuro Shinohara, a winning combination in years past, dominated both stages of qualifying in their #45 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to secure PONOS Racing’s first pole position, and Kawabata’s first in SUPER GT.
It certainly helped that the most recent Balance of Performance adjustments gave Ferrari’s customer teams a lift, now with all three teams using the newest 296 GT3 Evo.
Shinohara, the quickest driver in the morning practice session, led the first of two Q1 groups while rookie Kiyoshi Umegaki led the second group in the #7 CarGuy MKS Ferrari. Q1 Group A also saw the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Charlie Fagg miss the cut, which will put he and Tomonobu Fujii down in 27th to start the race.
Q2 came down to the final minutes – and with under 90 minutes left, Kawabata set a 1:36.209 to put the pole out of reach, nearly six-tenths clear of the next car.
During his time away from SUPER GT, 33-year-old Kawabata most recently won the 2025 SRO Japan Cup GT3 title for Hitotsuyama Racing, also at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3. He exclaimed after qualifying, “I didn’t know this kind of thing can actually happen! Since this is the car that the team has been working hard on, the result is clear. This time it has nothing to do with the fact that it was me driving. Rather, I was worried whether or not we would even get through Q1 – I think we owe this result to Takuro as well.”
In second place was the #60 Syntium LM corsa Lexus LC500 of Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno. Kohno set a 1:36.800 to split up a potential Ferrari top-three lockout.
Instead, the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari (Yoshiaki Katayama/Niklas Krütten) and the #7 CarGuy MKS Ferrari (Zak O’Sullivan/Kiyoshi Umegaki) will share the second row. This was Velorex’s first weekend with the 296 GT3 Evo – Krütten set a 1:36.008 to put himself ahead of O’Sullivan’s 1:36.822.
The leading Mercedes-AMG teams also qualified up the order, led by the #18 UpGarage AMG GT3 EVO (Takashi Kobayashi/Kotaro Shimbara) in fifth, the #32 ENEOS X Prime AMG (Hiroaki Ishiura/Tokiya Suzuki) in seventh, and the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) in eighth. In between them, the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) qualified sixth.
The top ten was completed by two of the leading title contenders: The #65 LEON Pyramid AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) in ninth, and the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R NISMO GT3 (João Paulo de Oliveira/Iori Kimura) in tenth.
Other notables include the #2 Hyper Water INGING Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Kazuhisa Urabe) in 11th, and the #31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama) in 16th.
Sunday’s 66-lap sprint race at Fuji Speedway starts at 1:30 PM JST (local time).
Images © GTA
