Japanese
The official qualifying for the MOTEGI GT GRAND FINAL, Round 8 (final round) of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was run at Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Pref.) on the morning of November 13 (Sun.). The GT500 class pole position went to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F driven by Kohei Hirate, which had finished 2nd in yesterday’s race to move to the top of the season ranking. In the GT300 class, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT driven by Yuichi Nakayama won the class pole. Both of these two machines won their respective class pole with new Motegi course record times.
Official Qualifying Weather: clear; Course: dry; Air temp./track surface temp. at GT500 class start: 13℃/17℃; at finish: 14℃/18℃
The GT300 class’ 15-minute qualifying session started at 8:40 in the morning. The first to enter the track was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and with eight minutes remaining in the session it recorded a time of 1’47.729 that almost beat the standing GT300 course record (1’47.717). Then on his next lap, Taniguchi broke the record by a big margin with a time of 1’46.961.
Next, it was the No. 11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) who also ran a time in the 47 sec. range to move into 2ndposition on the time board, but that time was quickly beaten by the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT (Naoya Gamou) with a 1’47.022. Car No. 65 then improved on that time with a 1’46.830 on the next lap to move into the top spot on the board. The No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) and No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) also ran times in the 47 sec. range as the third spot changed hands again and again.
While many of the cars had taken to the track soon after the start of the session, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Jann Mardenborough) had waited for three and a half minutes before heading out on the track, and the winner of yesterday’s race, the No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS (Tomonobu Fujii) waited for four minutes before venturing out. On its first time attack, the No. 21 car recorded a time in the 1’47 range, and on the next lap that time came down to 1’46.121. However, the No. 3 Mardenborough was having trouble improving its times and eventually ended up in 14th position, thus putting the brakes on its chances of staying in the title race.
Just past midway through the session, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine), Matsui in car No. 25 and the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT Yuichi Nakayama) had brought their times down into the middle of the 1’47 range. Then, just before the end of the session, car No. 88 recorded a time of 1’46.857 to move into 2nd position on the time board. Next, on his second time attack, Nakayama in car No. 31 ran a time of 1’46.760 to take the top spot on the board. Then, at the last moment, the No. 9 GULF NAC PORSCHE 911 (Hiroki Yoshida) show his stuff by turning in a time of 1’46.942 on the checkered lap to move up into 4th position.
The pole position for the Round 8 race went to the No. 1 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT with a course record time. Filling out the top three were the No. 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG-GT and the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3.
The current leader of the season ranking, the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) placed 6th, while the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R and No. 21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS qualified 14th and 8th respectively, making their chances for a winning performance in the race difficult.
| 4/13-14 | Round1 OKAYAMA | |
| 5/03-04 | Round2 FUJI | |
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6/01-02 | Round3 SUZUKA |
| 8/03-04 | Round4 FUJI | |
| 8/31-9/01 | Round5 SUZUKA | |
| 9/21-22 | Round6 SUGO | |
| 10/19-20 | Round7 AUTOPOLIS | |
| 11/02-03 | Round8 MOTEGI |