Toyota began the 2025 Autobacs SUPER GT Series as it ended 2024 – in control of the GT500 class. But in a slight change-up, it wasn’t the #1 au TOM’S GR Supra on pole position, rather it was ROOKIE Racing and the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra.
A record-breaking lap from second-year Toyota Gazoo Racing factory driver Nirei Fukuzumi put himself and co-driver Kazuya Oshima on top in qualifying for the Okayama GT 300km Race, ahead of reigning GT500 Drivers’ Champions Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita.
Tsuboi set the fastest time in Saturday morning’s practice session under sunny skies, though by the start of qualifying there were clouds over Okayama International Circuit. It was back to the traditional knockout qualifying system, but now the top ten cars from Q1 would advance to Q2.
Yamashita led Q1 with a 1:17.157, but in a session where all 15 cars were covered by less than three-quarters of a second, there were some significant upsets – including the #8 ARTA (Tomoki Nojiri) and #17 Astemo Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi) Honda Civic Type R-GTs, and from the Toyota camp, the #37 Deloitte TOM’S (Ukyo Sasahara) and #39 Denso Kobelco SARD (Yuhi Sekiguchi) GR Supras also missed the cut.
Four Toyotas, two Hondas, and all four Nissan Z NISMO GT500s advanced to the pole shootout and with a minute to go, Tsuboi was the first driver to break Ronnie Quintarelli’s previous course record with a 1:16.516.
At the chequered flag, many drivers including Yuji Kunimoto, Tsugio Matsuda, and Naoki Yamamoto came close – but it was Fukuzumi who ultimately knocked the au GR Supra off the top spot with a record lap of 1:16.441. By less than a tenth of a second, Fukuzumi won his first GT500 pole since switching from Honda to Toyota in 2024, and the sixth of his career. And it bodes well for TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE, whose two previous wins in GT500 came at Okayama in 2021 and 2022.
Fukuzumi didn’t seem disadvantaged by having little time to test Bridgestone’s newest tyre compounds in dry conditions heading into the weekend. “The weather was bad for the Official Tests conducted here at Okayama, and I myself had not been able to drive here with the new tyres, and it wasn’t until this morning’s Official Practice session that I was able to run with the new tyres for the first time. And that was immediately followed by the Q2 session, so I was really nervous,” he said. “Since our rival, Tsuboi was also running in it, I thought it would be a close contest between us. But in the end, I was relieved to get my first pole position in a while, so I am really grateful to everyone on the team. Tomorrow I want to see us finish on top again.”
The last six races at Okayama have been won from the front row, which still bodes well for Tsuboi and Yamashita as they look to open their title defence with a win – just as the #1 au TOM’S Supra did in 2024.
Yokohama Rubber’s two GT500 teams, Kondo Racing and TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh, had an excellent showing in Q2. The #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) led the Nissan camp in third place thanks to a brilliant Q2 run from GT500’s all-time wins leader Matsuda – not far behind was the #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) in fifth.
In between was the fastest Honda, the #100 Stanley Civic Type R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) in fourth – sharing the second row with the #24 Nissan, while the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) will share the third row with the #19 Toyota.
Then it was the #23 Motul Autech Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi), the #16 ARTA Mugen Civic (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato), #12 TRS Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette), and #3 Niterra Motul Z (Daiki Sasaki/Atsushi Miyake) completing the top ten from GT500 Qualifying.
In GT300, Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO continued a string of Mercedes-AMG pole positions at Okayama. For just the second time since 2017, Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka will start up front in a 28-car field – while defending GT300 Champions JLOC, Takashi Kogure, and Yuya Motojima will have to come from the middle of the pack.
At the end of Q2, the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG of Kataoka took the top spot with a lap of 1:24.420, not far off the 2022 course record set by Hideki Yamauchi.
“The car was set up so well, and it felt like the car was responding exactly as I wanted it to all the time,” remarked Kataoka, whose second career GT300 pole position was his first since the 2017 season finale at Motegi. “I thought I got a good time, but when they told me over the radio that I had gotten the top time, I was really surprised. I’m glad that I was able to get such a good time attack. I am also glad to get my second pole position, but since I didn’t think we would get pole position today, I realize what a great job the team did in setting up the car for today, and that is why I got such a surprisingly good time. So, I am glad to say that it was the overall package that the team prepared for today that got us this pole position.”
Taniguchi and Kataoka will now aim for just their second win since 2017 – lining up alongside the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg which qualified second. Fagg progressed to Q2 despite the bonnet of his car coming loose in his Q1 run – his co-driver Fujii’s lap of 1:24.536 was good for the provisional pole for a moment at least.
The rebuilt #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi followed up its top time in practice with third place in Qualifying courtesy of Yamauchi, the best of the GTA-GT300 cars. In fourth was the #65 LEON Pyramid AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) which had won the last two Okayama pole positions.
On the third row are the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi) in fifth, and in a very impressive sixth was the #9 Pacific Idolm@ster NAC AMG (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi), while the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) and #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari (Kei Cozzolino/Takuro Shinohara) were seventh and eighth.
Of the GT300 newcomers, the #7 CarGuy MKS Ferrari (Zak O’Sullivan/Rikuto Kobayashi) qualified highest in 11th place, two spots ahead of the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Tsubasa Kondo).
But the other big story in GT300 qualifying was the poor form of JLOC’s two cars, which they pinned on a pre-event Balance of Performance adjustment to reduce the horsepower. The #0 Venteny Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Kogure and Motojima barely reached Q2 and only finished 15th, while the #87 Metalive S Lamborghini (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi) was a lowly 26th.
Another notable Q1 knockout was the #2 Hyper Water INGING Toyota GR86 of 2024 race winners Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira, who went from the front row last year to just 22nd yesterday.
Of course, a lot could change on Sunday – with overnight rain showers expected to continue well through the morning, potentially into mid-day. The 82-lap race starts at 1:10 PM JST (local time).
Images © GTA
