Craft-Bamboo Racing will start on the pole once again for the Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours. In the blue ribbon event of the 2025 Eneos Super Taikyu Series empowered by Bridgestone, Kakunoshin ‘Kaku’ Ohta and Jeffrey Lee combined to set the fastest aggregate time in the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
Lee and Ohta led their respective stages of Qualifying, which began under damp conditions following a Friday morning rain shower.
Taiwanese driver Lee led the ‘A’ driver phase of time trials ahead of the #81 Daishin/GTNET Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Ryuichiro Oyagi in second place, and Hiroyuki ‘Bankcy’ Ogawa in the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R in third.
Ohta was the pace-setter during the ‘B’ driver session that followed – the Honda factory driver was the only driver under the one-minute, 39-second barrier with his best time of 1:38.884. That put him a half-second clear of the #81 Nissan of Natsu Sakaguchi, and the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Sota Ogawa in third.
While the qualifying practices that followed did not impact the grid, Craft-Bamboo drivers Tom Kalender and Seiya Motojima also led their respective sessions. Motojima, the younger brother of reigning SUPER GT GT300 Champion Yuya, was a last-minute addition to the line-up of the #33 Mercedes-AMG.
The #81 Daishin GT-R will start second, ahead of the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi in third. The #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG, #666 seven x seven Porsche, and #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 rounded out the remainder of the ST-X class grid that will compete for overall victory starting Saturday at 3:00 PM JST when the green flag flies for the tenth annual Fuji 24 Hours.
In ST-Z, the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 took the pole position, the second Fuji 24H pole in a row for the newest Nissan GT4 machine. Ligier European Series regular Yuki Tanaka and Nissan GT500 works driver Teppei Natori combined to give the #25 car the class pole position. Natori’s top time from the ‘B’ driver session – a 1:46.252 – established a new GT4 course record at Fuji Speedway.
Behind them were the #22 Porsche Team EBI Cayman GT4, the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, and the #20 Team Impul Nissan.
In a pair of two-car categories, the #98 Waimarama Racing Hyundai Elantra N TCR won the pole in ST-TCR, and the #2 K’s Frontier KTM Cars X-Bow GTX won the ST-1 pole position.
In the production-based categories, Honda R&D Challenge’s #743 Civic Type R won the pole in ST-2, Okabe Jidosha Motorsports’ #16 Nissan Fairlady Z34 took the top spot in ST-3, and the #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 won the ST-4 pole position.
ST-5F’s pole-winning #4 Team Bride Honda Fit RS (GS4) set a combined time faster than the quickest car in ST-5R, the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster.
The liquid hydrogen-fuelled #32 TGRR Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept had an issue during the first qualifying stage that prevented Akio ‘Morizo’ Toyoda from setting a representative time, one of four cars that had issues in time trials – including the #5 Team Mach Toyota GT4, the #15 Okabe Jidosha Z34, and the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo. They’ll start at the back of their respective grid groups.
Images © Mercedes-AMG
