Last week the Autobacs SUPER GT Series held its first official pre-season test at Okayama International Circuit, for two days and four sessions of track action.
Conditions were cloudy and bitterly cold on Saturday, and with the threat of rain on Sunday, the two-hour morning session was extended to two hours and 30 minutes. The defending champion #1 au TOM’S Toyota GR Supra led the GT500 class, as three-time and defending GT500 Champion Sho Tsuboi set the top time in the closing minutes with a 1:17.833.
Two Honda Civic Type R-GTs followed closely behind – the #17 Astemo Civic of Koudai Tsukakoshi (1:17.962), and the #8 ARTA Mugen Civic of Tomoki Nojiri (1:18.022) in second and third. Kazuya Oshima’s best time in the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra, a 1:18.126 set in the early stages, was good enough for fourth-quickest.
In eighth place, in very familiar colours yet with a new title sponsor, was the fastest Nissan – the #12 TRS Impul with SDG Nissan Z NISMO GT500 of Kazuki Hiramine (1:18.671).
The morning session saw a total of six red flags for cars stopping and/or going off course, due to the low temperatures and, certainly, not helped by sleet showers in the middle of the session. Among them, Yuhi Sekiguchi in the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra went off at the first corner, but the 2021 Champion hadn’t damaged his car and the SARD Toyota would quickly return to action. A mechanical problem for the #5 Mach Syaken Air Buster MC86 would keep them out of the rest of the day – not the way that newcomer Aruga Tomita wanted his first GT300 outing to start off.
In GT300, the best time belonged to the new-look Venteny Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of defending champions, Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima. On Friday, JLOC rolled out the champions’ car with not only its new livery, but the number 0 – reserved for the reigning GT300 Champion team – on the car.
JLOC had said that day that the #0 plate would only appear for one day before the team reverted to its flagship #88. But by Saturday morning, the change from #88 to #0 was made official for the 2025 season. Kogure marked the occasion by setting a 1:25.475 early in Session 1. That wasn’t just the best time of the session, but the best time of the day.
Though, not far behind were the retro-inspired #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari 296 GT3 of Roberto Merhi (1:25.486), and the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Tatsuya Kataoka (1:25.673).
“It is an honour that we are able to use the #0, so I am happy about that,” said Kogure. “It is also encouraging that we were able to record the fastest time, even though it was just in the tests. However, because of the temperatures, we couldn’t warm up the tires well, and the fact that we weren’t able to get any reliable data also makes things difficult. Since the settings that we came here with were not bad, I believe that we can go into the opening round of the series with a good feeling. However, I also feel that the rivals are fast, which means we can’t let ourselves be overly optimistic at all.”
The afternoon’s session, which started under wet conditions due to rain and sleet, was disrupted early on when Hyper Water Racing INGING driver Hibiki Taira spun and crashed his all-black #2 Toyota GR86 GT300 just a few minutes into the session.
Taira was able to walk away, and was released from the medical centre with no injuries. But the Hyper Water GR86 had suffered a broken rear diffuser, and with no spares on hand, INGING Motorsport sat out Sunday’s rain-soaked tests.
The final ten minutes of the session, the GT500 Exclusive Run, were used for teams to simulate their low-fuel Qualifying runs on new tyres. And that led Toshiki Oyu to post the top time of the weekend, a 1:17.456 aboard the blue #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra.
In second place was Ren Sato, driving ARTA’s new-look #16 Civic with Wako’s as a new primary sponsor – giving the car a distinct look from the sister #8 ARTA Mugen Civic. Sato set a 1:17.603, ahead of the #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra of Ukyo Sasahara in third.
Riki Okusa was fourth-fastest in the afternoon driving the Dunlop-clad, #64 Modulo Civic for Nakajima Racing His 1:17.846 was the fifth-best time on Day 1 behind Tsuboi’s top time from the morning session. Hiramine set the best time of the Nissan brigade once again in the #12 TRS Impul Z, a 1:17.923, good for sixth-quickest overall.
Last year’s GT300 Championship runner-up Naoya Gamou in the #65 LEON Pyramid AMG was quickest in Session 2, setting a 1:27.349. He was followed by two nice surprises – the #62 HELM Motorsports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Reiji Hiraki in second, and the #9 Pacific Idolmaster NAC AMG of Yusuke Tomibayashi in third. Yuya Motojima was fourth-fastest in the #0 Venteny Huracán.
Oyu said after Saturday’s tests: “The tyres that we brought in this day did not fit today’s weather conditions, and there were also big changes in the conditions. So, we thought that we shouldn’t be misled by trying to base our decisions for the actual race on what we found here and, instead, we decided to focus on working in the right direction in the tests themselves. But since we were able to get a good feeling from this one time attack with dry track conditions, that gives us some confidence. Although we were able to get the fastest time, I believe we still have to work on improving the overall performance.”
Sure enough, the rain that was forecast on Saturday arrived on Sunday and persisted throughout the day. The likes of Oshima and Nobuharu Matsushita went off course and brought out red flags in the morning session, and so did Miki Koyama in her #31 apr Lexus LC500h GT300.
Kenta Yamashita led GT500 in the #1 au TOM’s GR Supra, and with his co-driver Lilou Wadoux occupied at Sebring, Kei Cozzolino led GT300 in the #45 PONOS Ferrari 296.
Conditions improved marginally by the afternoon, where the #100 Stanley Civic of Tadasuke Makino set the top time in GT500, and the #6 Uni-Robo Ferrari of Merhi was quickest in GT300. A handful of GT300 teams sat out the second day of the test due to weather, or did just a few installation laps.
Even still, five GT300 drivers passed their Rookie and Refresher Tests this weekend: Yuto Nomura (Team UPGarage), Yuki Sano (SHADE Racing), Daiki Fujiwara (NILZZ Racing), Yu Kanamaru (Kondo Racing), and Haruki Kurosawa (K2 R&D LEON Racing).
SUPER GT pre-season testing continues at Fuji Speedway on 29/30 March.
Images © GTA
