The long-awaited season opener of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC got underway at TI Circuit Aida in Okayama Prefecture on April 3. As it is the first race of the season, none of the 39 cars entered carried any handicap weight for the qualifying sessions. As was expected, many cars broke the 2003 circuit record as the result of running on a newly resurfaced track and a winter interval for development of cars and engines.

As predicted following the JGTC official test sessions at Suzuka in March, Michael Krumm pushed hard with his sights on seizing the season's first pole behind the wheel of the No.22 Nissan Fairlady Z. His performance was nothing short of incredible, beginning from early on in the morning. After only a little over eight minutes into the session, Krumm put in a time of 1'22.920" to create a new circuit record. Other exceptional times in the morning included a fine 2004 opener appearance by Juichi Wakisaka in the No.6 Toyota Supra at 1'23.060" and then Yuji Ide in the No.12 Fairlady Z with a lap time of 1'22.968" midway through the GT500 class stint. Then came the usual flurry of time trials at the end of the session, numerous teams determined to claim the fastest flying lap. Satoshi Motoyama, one of the defending Driver's Champions, whipped around the track in the No.1 Fairlady Z with a superb time of 1'22.722", moving into the No.1 spot on the timing monitor. But Krumm showed his persistence in pursuing the pole with a lap time of 1'22.404". There is no doubt about it... The Nissan Fairlady Z is very quick. Tachikawa did the best of the rival teams, crossing the finish line in the No.38 Supra with a time of 1'22.705" and settling for a provisional third on the grid after the morning session.

The Honda camps seem to be having a hard time to match the development pace of the Nissan and Toyota cars. The quickest of the NSXs was the No.18 car driven by Ryo Michigami, setting the 11th fastest time in the morning. Even so, by the end of the first session, 13 cars had broken the 2003 circuit record (1'24.670" by Satoshi Motoyama in a Skyline GT-R, 2003 JGTC Rd.1).

Only a few cars managed to improve their morning lap times during the second qualifying session in the afternoon. Among them were morning Jeremie Dufour in the No.39 Supra with a time of 1'23.205", Erik Comas in the No.3 Fairlady Z at 1'23.262" and James Courtney in the No.37 Supra with a 1'23.650".

The sole team using Dunlop tires in the GT500 class (the No.35 Supra) failed to improve on the morning time, driver Naoki Hattori setting a 1'23.675". For the Yokohama Tire team, TEAM ADVAN Tsuchiya, things looked a little bit better, Dominik Schwager improving the time of the No.25 Supra to 1'24.104" in the afternoon session.

The driver pair of Masami Kageyama-Michael Krumm took the pole and the No.22 Fairlady Z (NISMO) will start at the front of the grid for tomorrow's race.

The No.63 Vemac (driver Hiroki Yoshimoto) of TEAM LEYJUN held on to the top notch on the timing monitor for a good bit of time in the morning session. But it was pushed out of the slot by the No.16 Honda NSX entered by M-Tec (formerly, Mugen), Tetsuya Yamano recording a fine lap time of 1'29.506" at the end of GT300 time slot. After dominating the second half of the 2003 season, the Toyota Celica strutted its stuff again in the 2004 opening qualifying session, the No.19 Celica driven by Takayuki Aoki putting in the third quickest time. The car driven by the 2003 GT300 Driver's title, the Fairlady Z, ran well too. Defending Driver's Champion, Mitsuhiro Kinoshita set at time of 1'30.610", putting the No.80 car in provisional fourth on the grid.

The Ferrari F360s, which showed impressive speed last season, were sixth and seventh quickest in the morning session. Tetsuya Tanaka clocked a 1'30.731" in the No.10 car and Hideshi Matsuda a 1'30.952" in the No.11 car.

For the second session in the afternoon, the top teams tried for their qualifying laps at the very last moment. Yamano surpassed his best time for the No.16 NSX, clocking a 1'29.019" just before the checkered flag. Kota Sasaki, whose No.30 Toyota MR-S sat fifth in the lineup following the morning session, set a fine time of 1'29.640", moving the grid position to third. The combined results in, the No.16 Honda NSX, driver pair Yamano and Yagi, ended the day with pole position.

(from left) M.Kageyama, M.Krumm, T.Yamano, H.Yagi

GT500 Pole Position

No.22 MOTUL PITWORK Z

Michael Krumm "We were the quickest in both tests held by the three constructors, at TI and the JGTC official test sessions at Suzuka, so I wanted to get the pole. But it was not so easy. I could feel the pressure, and then there were the two yellow flags shown this morning. My qualifying laps were marred by other cars, a car went off the track and another came out of the gravel bed. That is why we used second set of tires in the morning session. But my flying lap was not as good as it could have been, so I prayed it would rain in the afternoon (laughing). Motoyama said that a car interfered with his qualifying lap in the afternoon. Otherwise, he should have come out on top. So I can say it was lucky to get pole position today. For the race, I got the pole last year, but we couldn't win the race... So I think it would be fine if we even finish second."
Masami Kageyama "They said that the Fairlady would be quick, so I was afraid of what would happen if we couldn't get pole position. I'm relieved that we got it. Even better the front row is dominated by Nissan's flagship car, and in its debut race. This is not an achievement of driver ability alone, it includes that of Nissan and NISMO as well. There were no problems had, and we are in good condition for the race weekend. Based on our experiences, we have been able to get good lap times in the morning here at TI, so we decided to go for the flying lap in the morning. Michael did a good job."

GT300 Pole Position

No.16 M-TEC NSX

Tetsuya Yamano "Honestly, I'm very happy to get pole position. The Honda NSX is the greatest car for drivers who like to race, especially in Touring and Grand Touring car races like me. I'm proud to be driving the car and having the opportunity to show its good performance through the lap time today. The ability of the team�\which has always raced in the GT500 category�\is really so high in terms of know-how and materials when compared to the other teams. My teammate, Yagi, is doing very well too. Although he has never raced in the GT category, he set nearly the same lap time as me during the test sessions held at TI in February, and he's a very steady driver."
Hiroyuki Yagi "As this is the first GT race for me, there are a lot of things I need to learn. Since this series is at a higher level than the races that I have participated in so far, I'm going to be improving my ability along with the other drivers. The most surprising thing for me in the JGTC race is the speed difference between the GT500 and GT300 cars. It is very difficult to be overtaken by GT500 cars. The NSX is a very good car, allowing even an inexperienced driver like me to put in a good lap time."