It’ll be an all-Toyota front row for the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ annual Golden Week Special, the Fuji GT 3 Hours Race led by TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE and drivers Nirei Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima on the pole position.
At the climax of two-stage knockout qualifying, Fukuzumi braved misty conditions and a slick track to put the #14 ENEOS X Prime Toyota GR Supra GT500 on the pole for Monday’s race with a time of 1:26.254. He was only half a second away from the GT500 course record set by three-time champion Kenta Yamashita in November 2021, but on this day, he beat Yamashita’s best time by less than two-tenths to grab the pole.
“In Q2 my time attack itself went well,” said Fukuzumi, whose eighth career GT500 pole now leads all active drivers in SUPER GT’s top class. “Before the attack I was told that rain had started to fall in the area of the last corner, so I wanted to get in me first time attack as quickly as possible, and I believed that it would be OK. Also, when I made my first attack, car #8 (ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT) had run off the track at the first corner and I came quite close to it, so I didn’t make my attack on that lap. I had to take the chance of making my attack on the last lap.
“In the end, it turned out that the rain didn’t fall, and although I had a disappointing result in the last race at the season opener in Okayama, this time in addition to the team working so hard, I’m glad that I will be able to start from pole position.”
Championship leaders and Okayama race winners Yamashita and Sho Tsuboi will start second in the #36 au TOM’S GR Supra: Yamashita’s best time in Q2 was a 1:26.418.
But a Toyota 1-2-3 lockout was thwarted by the #23 Motul Niterra Nissan Z NISMO GT500 (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi). The top Nissan qualified third via a 1:26.582 from Chiyo in Q2.
That put him ahead of the #38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra (Toshiki Oyu/Rikuto Kobayashi) in fourth; Oyu and TGR Team KeePer Cerumo enter tomorrow’s three-hour race as the defending GT500 winners, while Kobayashi set the top time in Q1, continuing his great start to life in GT500.
All five Honda HRC Prelude-GTs advanced to Q2, but in a bit of a surprise, the top-qualifying Honda was the Dunlop-clad #64 Modulo Prelude-GT of Riki Okusa and Igor Fraga, in fifth ahead of the Bridgestone-clad #8 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta/Hiroki Otsu) in sixth.
The #100 Stanley Prelude-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino), the #16 ARTA Mugen Prelude-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Ren Sato), the #17 Astemo Prelude-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Yuto Nomura), and the #12 TRS Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) completed the top ten grid positions in GT500.
The story of GT300 qualifying was a magnificent pole run for the flat-six powered #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport, capped off in Q2 by a record-setting lap from Hideki Yamauchi.
After co-driver Takuto Iguchi led his group in Q1 to get the EG33-powered Subaru into Q2, Yamauchi eclipsed his own GT300 qualifying lap record, setting a 1:34.314 to beat his old mark from 2021 by 0.081 seconds, and win the pole by over three-quarters of a second. The result also extends Yamauchi’s record for most pole positions in GT300 all-time, with his 17th.
“I’m very happy. The team sent me out on the track in very good condition, so I was able to drive feeling very good,” said Yamauchi. “I am truly grateful to the team.
“The new engine has great power, but due to the strong tailwind, I think that made the car’s speed even greater (laughs). We didn’t score any points in the opening round at Okayama, so tomorrow’s race is crucial. I want to do my best to get through tomorrow with the same kind of smile that we are wearing now.”
FIA GT3 cars have held the upper hand in the last seven races at Fuji, but for Monday’s race, four GTA-GT300 cars occupy the first two rows. The #31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama/Charlie Wurz) starts second, #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) in third, and the #11 Gainer Tanax Nissan Fairlady Z (Ryuichiro Tomita/Kazuki Oki) in fourth.
The fastest of the GT3 cars were reigning champions was the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami/Haruki Kurosawa), sharing row three with the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R (João Paulo de Oliveira/Iori Kimura), with the #60 Syntium LM corsa LC500 (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) in seventh and the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R (Sven Müller/Kiyoto Fujinami in eighth.
Okayama winners Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg start 11th in the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. And last year’s Fuji 3 Hour-winning car, the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Niklas Krütten), will have to come from deep in the field as it did last year, starting 21st after missing the cut in Q1 in a lacklustre performance from the three Ferrari customers.
Also of note, Team ENEOS ROOKIE’s superstar substitute Kamui Kobayashi successfully completed his SUPER GT “refresher test” during practice on Sunday morning, and put the #32 ENEOS X Prime AMG GT3 (with co-driver Hiroaki Ishiura) 14th on the grid.
The 2026 edition of SUPER GT’s Fuji Golden Week race starts Monday afternoon at 2:00 PM JST (local time).
Images © GTA
