The Saturday qualifying sessions for Round 2 of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC, "SUGO GT Championship", were held at Sportsland Sugo in Miyagi Prefecture on May 22. Of the 42 cars entered for the race, 41 participated in the sessions. The teams concentrated on squeezing the best possible times out of their machines under delicate conditions on the 3.704256km track. One car, a Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1, failed to run on due to lack of spare parts after having problems on Friday.

The first session was held in foggy morning conditions, with all drivers lapping cautiously. Toward the end of the first GT500 time slot, the cars picked up the pace as drivers got down to setting their qualifying laps. The top position on the monitor was initially held by Schwager and the No.25 Supra-the Yokohama ADVAN tire-supported team having shown good potential at Friday's free practice sessions as well. But it was the No.38 Supra driven by Tachikawa that set the pace to beat, taking the time below the 1'20 second barrier for the first time in the day with a 1'19.507" at just 5 minutes remaining in the GT500 session. But that was still sufficient time for faster laps to be posted, and at the end of the morning session it was: Wakisaka and the No.6 Supra with the fastest lap at 1'19.259", Tachikawa and the No.38 Supra second on the monitor at 1'19.323" and Schwager and the No.25 Supra third on the list at 1'19.446. The fastest Nissan car, the No.22 Fairlady Z driven by Krumm, was fourth.

The No.32 NSX of EPSON NAKAJIMA RACING gave the fastest time for the Hondas, Lotterer finishing the morning with a best time of 1'19.967". "There was no problem on my flying lap. And our strategy to be on top among the Honda teams succeeded. Even so, the conditions were not 100% as I had to qualify on tires previously used by my teammate."

The conditions for the afternoon were little changed from that in the morning. At 12 minutes into the time slot with both classes on the track, the No.3 Fairlady Z went off the track, brining out the red flag. "The brakes locked up when I touched them lightly at 'Umanose Corner' following the back stretch", said Kaneishi. The Hasemi Motorsport team was forced to retire from the session. Regardless of the red flag, none of the GT500 teams were able to better their best lap times set in the morning.

Round 2 was to be the debut race for the Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 of Team JLOC. Late delivery of the car resulted in the team making its first tests in Japan at the Sugo circuit during the Friday free practice sessions. There were problems with the car on Friday, and the team could not participate in the qualifying sessions due to a lack of parts. The final decision to withdraw from the event came after not being able to run on Saturday.

Another European car, the No.21 Ferrari F550 Maranello, will not make the starting grid either. The car crashed hard during the first qualifying session when Uematsu was behind the wheel, and the team decided to withdraw from the race.

In striking contrast to the GT500 class, it was a Honda NSX that clocked the fastest time in the morning session. Yamano drove the No.16 car consistently quicker though the field to set a best lap time of 1'24.336" in spite of the difficult track conditions. At the moment, it was a new track record for the GT300 class. The No.11 Ferrari Modena, last year driven to the pole position under the hands of Tetsuya Tanaka and Hideshi Matsuda, was second fastest. "The track was wet in spots, and the humidity was quite high. All in all, we classified the morning conditions as wet," commented the veteran driver after the session. Aoki finished third fastest in the No.19 Celica with a lap time of 1'25.081". Team A'PEX with apr had hard time in the morning session. After clocking the 4th fastest lap, the No.31 MR-S went off the track and got stuck in the gravel bed.

The car class time slots for the afternoon session were in reverse of those in the morning, changing to the order of combined, GT300 and GT500. The No.52 Celica sat at the top of the monitor for some time during the afternoon GT300 time slot, Takeuchi setting a best lap time of 1'25.458". But before long, Minoru Tanaka took the No.31 Toyota MR-S to the top of the GT300 field with at time of 1'24.866.

But as usual, car number and drivers names began to consistently in the last five minutes of the session. Aoki cleared a lap of 1'24.236" in the No.19 Celica to move to the top, only to be quickly replaced by Yamaji and the No.7 Mazda RX-7 (1'24.183). Matsuda also brought down the time for the No.11 Ferrari with a lap at 1'24.275", as did Tanaka in the No.31 with a time of 1'24.376". Yamano, quickest in the morning session with the No.16 Honda, clocked a 1'24.397", but could not beat his best lap in the morning. In the end, the pole position for Round 2 went to Shinichi Yamaji and Hiroyuki Iiri in the No.7 Mazda RX-7.

(from left) A.Iida, J.Wakisaka, H.Iiri, S.Yamaji

GT500 Pole Position

No.6 ESSO Ultraflo Supra

Juichi Wakisaka "At Round 1 in TI, a car that was penalized won the race. So we were thinking that the Toyotas were inferior to the Nissans this year. Our teams have tried changing everything. Tires, car set-up everything, completely. As a result of those efforts, we got the pole. And I am quite happy. I am happier to have this pole than any other pole position I have had to date."
Akira Iida "Starting from pole position is always tense and feels good because the pole sitter may be the pace setter of the race. After the race in TI, our development staff tried various measures and the conditions of the car are quite good. The last round of 2003 went very badly; as did this year's opening round at TI. Then Juichi really light a fire under TRD, Toyota and Bridgestone, and they all responded admirably, preparing such a good car for this weekend. As a result, Juichi was able to fight for pole position."

GT300 Pole Position

No.7 AMEMIYA Aspara Drink RX7

Shinichi Yamaji "The car conditions were not the absolute best when I set the fastest lap. I could feel a loss in tire performance at the time. One of our rivals bettered our best time, so the team told me to try again. The next time I went out, I tried a different driving technique and it worked. I gave it my all as the team mechanics worked very hard all night to get the car ready for this race, and I owed it to them. We're also being helped by Yokohama Rubber, who chose good tires for us. They are quite suitable for our car and today's conditions."
Hiroyuki Iiri "That's just what Mr.Yamaji would expect. I don't want to talk about the car since I drove only a few laps. The priority was for Yamaji set the car up. I will focus on driving without mistakes."