Day two of the official SUPER GT pre-season test at Okayama International Circuit told a familiar story to the first day: TGR Team au TOM’S set the fastest time in GT500, Toyota teams led both sessions in the premier class.
Unlike Friday’s testing, the circuit was open to spectators on Saturday, who got their first chance to see some of the new team and driver combinations, and an array of new and updated cars like the Honda HRC Prelude-GT.
Sho Tsuboi and the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra were the quickest combination yet again in the morning session (Session 3), setting a 1:18.009 – fastest of all GT500 cars on both days, though a bit slower than yesterday due to low grip.
“That best time was set during the initial lap to assess the car’s condition. It was in traffic, so in that sense, it’s a time with plenty of room for improvement,” Tsuboi said at the end of the day. “That’s why I felt it gave us a good sense of what we can achieve. Today’s session focused mainly on long runs, using the tyres that performed well yesterday for extended stints. The original plan was to use the entire two-hour session for checking long runs. Although there was a red flag midway, the engineers handled it flexibly and adapted. We completed everything we wanted to do, making it a very productive test.
“Regarding tyre selection, we also arrived at a clear conclusion within our team. We’ve made good preparations heading into the season opener.”
Four-time and reigning GT500 Champion Tsuboi was the fastest on day two, but not by much: His rival Tadasuke Makino put the #100 Stanley HRC Prelude-GT second on the leaderboard with a 1:18.049, just four hundredths behind the white and orange au TOM’S GR Supra.
The #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara, 1:18.152), the #12 TRS Impul with SDG Nissan Z NISMO GT500 (Kazuki Hiramine, 1:18.311), and the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT (Ren Sato, 1:18.449) rounded out the top five in the morning session.
Overnight rain caused the track surface to be damp when the day started. This caught out GT500 rookie Rikuto Kobayashi, who crashed the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra on the backstretch, bringing out the first of two red flags. Kobayashi walked away from the incident, and after rebuilding the entire rear cowl, TGR Team KeePer Cerumo was able to resume running in the afternoon.
The second red flag came out when Takashi Kobayashi in the #18 UpGarage AMG GT3 went off at the Hairpin Corner and was stuck in the gravel.
As is tradition at the Okayama test, a simulated race start kicked off the final afternoon session of the weekend, with the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra on the “pole position” by virtue of being the fastest car yesterday.
Keeping Toyota on top, while breaking the TOM’S stranglehold on the top position, was the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra from TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE. Nirei Fukuzumi set the best time of the fourth and final session with a 1:18.076, in a session that was interrupted by three red flags. Fukuzumi’s time was the third-fastest of the entire day.
Finishing second was Teppei Natori in the #24 Realize Corporation Z. Kondo Racing, now using Bridgestone tyres in GT500, had a solid test, Natori’s best time on Saturday was a 1:18.176. He set the time after he went off at the Hairpin, bringing out the third and final red flag of the session with less than 20 minutes to go.
Earlier, Miki Koyama in the #31 apr Lexus LC500h spun off at the First Corner, and then Tomoki Nojiri in the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT slid off at the same corner – likely due to an oil leak from the #87 JLOC Lamborghini GT3. It also began raining again, causing the track to be slippery until the last half-hour of the day.
Rounding out the top five were the #12 TRS Impul Z (Bertrand Baguette, 1:18.201), the #19 WedsSport Bandoh GR Supra (Sena Sakaguchi, 1:18.312), and the repaired #38 KeePer GR Supra (Toshiki Oyu, 1:18.433). Just behind them, the fastest of the Hondas was the #17 Astemo HRC Prelude-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi, 1:18.456) in sixth.
GT500 COMBINED DAY 2 RESULTS >>>
Over in GT300, Saitama Green Brave led both sessions with the updated #52 Toyota GR Supra GT300. Green Brave’s Seita Nonaka set the fastest time of the day in the morning session, a 1:25.152.
“We’ve updated the car this off-season, and this test was its first run,” said Nonaka. “We were getting decent lap times right from the start, but as of yesterday, there were still issues — or rather, several areas we needed to adjust — and we were essentially running while trying out different things. This morning went smoothly, but the afternoon saw quite a few red flags.
“Honestly, we didn’t quite complete everything on the test menu. I think everyone else is still trying various things too, so I’m not overly concerned about our position. Looking ahead to race week, we need to keep thinking about how to improve further. We can’t be satisfied with the current situation; we need to build more options so we can adapt effectively when the conditions around us change.”
Hiroki Yoshimoto, the fastest driver in GT300 on Friday, went second-fastest in the #60 Syntium LM corsa Lexus LC500, setting a 1:25.216.
And rounding out the top three was the #32 Eneos X Prime Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, driven by Hiroaki Ishiura, who set a 1:25.267, which had been the fastest time for some parts of Session 3 until Nonaka and Yoshimoto improved.
Then it was a pair of Ferraris, the #7 CarGuy Ferrari 296 GT3 in fourth (Zak O’Sullivan, 1:25.725) and the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari (Niklas Krütten, 1:25.766) in fifth. These two Ferrari 296 GT3s were running without the most recent Evo package on their cars, and of the two teams, CarGuy MKS Racing is more likely to have the 296 GT3 Evo in time for the first round at Okayama.
In Session 4, Hiroki Yoshida put the #52 Green Brave GR Supra on top with a 1:25.347, only two milliseconds ahead of Ishiura’s 1:25.349 in the #32 Eneos AMG.
The #2 Hyper Water INGING Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi, 1:25.634) finished the afternoon session in third, followed by the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R (Kiyoto Fujinami, 1:25.789) in fourth. And to finish his first official pre-season test, Daniil Kvyat was fifth-quickest in the #88 Venteny Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, setting a 1:25.815.
GT300 COMBINED DAY 2 RESULTS >>>
Official pre-season testing concludes next week at Fuji Speedway on Sunday and Monday, 15–16 March.
Images © GTA
