Modulo Nakajima Racing’s Riki Okusa has emerged as a qualifying superstar to close out the 2026 Autobacs SUPER GT Series – on Saturday morning, Okusa put the Dunlop-clad #64 Modulo Honda HRC Prelude-GT on pole for the first Motegi GT 250km Race of the weekend, which starts this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. JST (local time).
It’s the third consecutive pole position for team and driver, and the fifth consecutive pole – and front-row sweep – for Honda since the end of the summer break.
Okusa set a 1:36.572 to win the pole by over three-tenths from the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT of Tomoki Nojiri in second with a 1:36.917. Both drivers set their fastest times at the very end of the 15-minute qualifying session – with the double-header format for this weekend’s races at Mobility Resort Motegi, qualifying for both classes was consolidated into one session per class, without the knockout format.
Behind the two leading Hondas, two Toyota GR Supra GT500s locked out the second row, led by Nirei Fukuzumi in the #14 ENEOS X Prime GR Supra (1:36.942) ahead of the Yokohama-shod #19 WedsSport Bandoh GR Supra of Sena Sakaguchi (1:37.009).
And then two Nissan Z NISMO GT500s will start on row three – Atsushi Miyake in the #24 Realize Corporation Z (1:37.097), next to Bertrand Baguette in the #12 TRS Impul with SDG Z (1:37.242).
Championship co-leader Kenta Yamashita qualified seventh in the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra (1:37.404), one spot ahead of Tadasuke Makino and the #100 Stanley Prelude-GT (1:37.418), Makino and co-driver Naoki Yamamoto enter today’s race three points behind Yamashita and Sho Tsuboi.
Rounding out the top ten in GT500 were Toshiki Oyu (#38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra) and Sacha Fenestraz (#39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra) in ninth and tenth.
But the tough-luck loser of GT500 qualifying was rookie Yuto Nomura, who had set outright best first and second sectors on his flying lap before a puncture in the final sector forced him to abort the lap. Instead, the #17 Astemo Prelude-GT will start 14th and last in today’s race.
The 20-minute GT300 qualifying session produced a surprising pole winner. Veteran driver Ryuichiro Tomita put the #11 Gainer Tanax Nissan Fairlady Z on top in the session, giving Gainer its first SUPER GT pole position since 2022, and the first for both the driver and the GTA-GT300 Nissan Z-car.
Tomita’s 1:45.418 on his last flying lap put him nearly four-tenths up on Autopolis 3 Hour winner Shinichi Takagi and the #96 K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3 (1:45.786) in second place.
The #88 Venteny Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Takashi Kogure, 1:45.809) will line up third, next to the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Hideki Yamauchi, 1:45.857) in fourth, and ahead of the #31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka, 1:45.890) in fifth.
Five teams in GT300 still stand within 25 points of championship leader João Paulo de Oliveira, who qualified 17th in the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 (1:46.905). The best of those title contenders was Charlie Fagg in the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (1:46.188) in eighth, and the returning Ritomo Miyata, who qualified ninth in the #7 CarGuy Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (1:46.290).
However, the #2 Hyper Water INGING Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi, 1:46.986) and the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Togo Suganami, 1:47.009) will have a long way to climb to get in contention after qualifying 21st and 22nd respectively.
On the last row, the #32 ENEOS X Prime GR GT3 Concept qualified 27th for its worldwide motorsports debut. Hiroaki Ishiura’s best time of 1:48.105 was 2.7 seconds slower than the pole, and now all efforts will turn towards running a trouble-free debut race this afternoon.
Images © GTA, Honda Mobilityland
