In the 2nd of the two Official Qualifying sessions for Round 3 of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC, the grid order had vastly changed from that seen in the morning. This was no doubt due primarily to the stark change in weather conditions. In contrast to the driving rain of the first session, clear skies and markedly higher temperatures were the order of the afternoon session.

Morning pole-sitter Jeremie Dufour was hampered by a hard-compound tyre choice in the second session, leaving the #39 DENSO SARD Supra down in 13th place, 1.819 seconds off the leading #12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z. Benoit Treluyer had moved up from 4th in the first session to claim pole with just seconds remaining in the 2nd qualifying hour.
The TEAM TOM'S Supras, so strong here two years ago, lined up 2nd and 3rd on the starting grid for Saturday's race. Also of note was the jump made by the #22 Motul Key Value Z, moving up to 4th overall from 11th in the morning. The sister car, the #1 Xanavi NISMO Z, had dropped two spots to 8th, one spot behind the other Nissan Fairlady Z, the #3 G'ZOX SSR Hasemi machine piloted by Erik Comas.

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."

Top of the NSX runners was the #18 Takata Dome machine, qualified by hotshoe Ryo Michigami. He starts 9th, one row ahead of the next pair of similar Honda cars, the #100 RAYBRIG NSX and the # 8 ARTA NSX. Tsugio Matsuda placed the #32 EPSON NSX in 14th.
A little further back are the two Lamborghini Murcielago entries; the #15 Amprex Motorsports machine piloted by newcomer Norman Simon, who gave the car a particularly impressive JGTC debut, placing the challenger within 5 seconds of pole. In the middle of this Murcielago sandwich is the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, lining up 17th. Bringing up the rear of the GT500 class, we see the #88 JLOC MURCIE RG-1; this car also expected to make its official JGTC on-track racing debut on Saturday afternoon.

In the GT300 class, the order saw its share of changes too, most notably the jump from 9th to pole by the #80 ENDLESS DAISHIN ADVAN Z. The car, driven masterfully by Kazuki Hoshino, grabbed the top spot by a one-tenth of a second over the AMEMIYA ASPARA DRINK RX7, one of the strongest cars in the category of late.
Next up, it was the M-TEC NSX, which had fallen from pole - though only to third position, so expect a strong push from the gold-coloured machine when the lights go out at 5pm.

The top Toyota MR-S was again the #30 RECKLESS MR-S, though the afternoon saw the car fall four grid spots to 6th. The identical #31 machine, the A'PEX i-mobisess MR-S, dropped from 6th to 12 on the grid. Other contenders in GT300 include the #63 LEYJUN DUNLOP 320R, lining up 4th, ahead of the #81 C-WEST DAISHIN ADVAN Z - the sister car to the pole-winning machine.
Race fans can also expect some lively action from the brace of Toyota Celicas in the field, the strongest of which is the 8th-placed #52 Project u Taiyo Sekiyu CELICA, two spots ahead of the #19 WedsSport CELICA in tenth.

(from left) K.Hoshino, M.Kinoshita, B.Treluyer, Y.Ide

GT500 Pole Position

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z

Benoit Treluyer "In this morning's session in the wet, we chose the wrong tires. However this afternoon, we could see right away the car worked very well with other tires. I was very confident, and the car was working excellently. In the beginning of the session, Yuji checked the balance on the car and barely used the tires. He did a really good job, setting a time but not overworking the tires so that when I went out, it was as if I was on new rubber. The car set-up was really good overall. I just had to control it, stay on the track and push a little. I'm very happy because it's my first time at this circuit. I hope to do more races here in the future."
Yuji Ide "With the very bad weather this morning, I didn't go out on track. For the 2nd session, our original plan was that Benoit would start and I was just to clear the standard time. But then Mr. Hoshino changed his plan; he said I should go for a good qualifying time and hand the car over to Benoit in a good state. I was able to do this with almost completely fresh tyres so he would know how the car felt on new rubber. The plan worked really well, particularly as it's Benoit's first time to race at this circuit. Since yesterday he's been working on his set-up and has gotten used to the track very quickly. I think he's done a really great job."

GT300 Pole Position

No.80 ENDLESS DAISHIN ADVAN Z

Kazuki Hoshino "It may not have looked like it, but it was actually quite a tough session for me because - especially at the start - the track was extremely dirty. Fortunately, I was on new tyres so I had a huge amount of grip, but it was so dirty that it made things really difficult on track. I tried very hard to do my best but had expected to end up in 10th or 11th position. After coming in to the pitlane I saw on the monitor that I was first! I was so surprised. It turned out to be a really good session after all."
Mitsuhiro Kinoshita "When I went out, the track was dirty and I was a bit confused. However, the team changed the set-up and did a really great job. The car was quite unstable on the high-speed S-corner and I was a little bit worried. However in the first stint, I know Kazuki did a great job, scoring a good time and I just wondered should he go on since he was doing such a great job for the team. I'm not sure what happened to the other cars, especially car #7, which was particularly strong yesterday. I'm not sure what their scheme is, so I'm a bit worried about that. Naturally, I'm extremely happy we're on pole."