The qualifying sessions for Round 5 of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC, the "Motegi GT Champion Race", were held on Saturday under cloudy skies. With a weather forecast calling for rain in the afternoon, many teams fitted their cars with new tires and went for their qualifying times in the morning sessions. The 42 cars (GT500 17, GT300 25) entered for the weekend race put on an exciting show for the 17,000 fans who braved threatening clouds to watch the battles for pole position.

The temperature was relatively cool for this time of the year (27 degrees Celsius, track temperature 25 degrees Celsius). Just as the morning session got underway, a drizzle began, slightly wetting parts of the circuit. Wipers were being used by a few cars on the track, but not all. Different from usual rounds where the bulk of the teams focus on their best qualifying times in the latter part of the session, the ensuing threat of rain had everyone out on their flying laps early on, and the car order on the timing monitor changed at a dizzying pace.
Motoyama in the No.1 Fairlady Z, Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra, Lotterer in the No.32 Honda NSX, Hattori in the No.35 Supra and Kato in the No.100 NSX all clocked quick times one after another. The weather and track conditions improved as time passed, so many of the drivers claimed their best laps during the time slot when both GT500 and GT300 cars were on the course. Courtney's team put their second set of tires on the No.37 Supra midway through the session and got in a time of 1'47.292". Treluyer put in a 1'47.078" to put the No.12 Nissan at the top of the monitor, but Schwager, his No.25 Supra being the only Toyota running on Yokohama ADVAN tires, beat him out with a 1'46.927", and clenched the fastest lap in the morning session.

The afternoon session was the site of some severe competition for pole position under delicate conditions with occasional light rain. The Honda drivers started out early challenging for the chance to sit first on the grid. Lotterer in the No.32 NSX showed a strong performance, and Michigami in the No.18 NSX stormed around the circuit as well. Next came some excellent laps by Nissan drivers. Motoyama, the defending Driver's Champion, claimed the best Nissan time of the day (1'46.814") in spite of slightly slippery conditions and a 40kg handicap weight. Then came the Supra driver hero of the day, Hattori. The only Dunlop tire user among the Supras, claimed a time of 1'46.700 to steal the pole away from Motoyama. Motoyama took to the track again, but only managed to drop his time to 1'46.708.

Authorization to move Hattori's Supra up one level under the JAF performance enhancement regulations seemed to make the difference, as he quickened his best time even further in the closing minutes of the session, and finished the day in pole position with a final qualifying time of 1'46.698, a new circuit record. (The old record of 1'46.724" was set by Hattori himself in a McLaren F1 GTR in 2002.)

When the time came for the GT300 class in the morning session, the sky brightened ever so slightly. Takeuchi tried for the qualifying lap in the No.52 Celica immediately after the green signal. He managed a best time of 1'55.478". That wasn't enough though, and only moments, the winner of the last round in Tokachi, Nitta took the No.43 Garaiya around the circuit in 1'54.512". That time was then beat out by Kinoshita in the No.80 Fairlady Z, whose time of 1'53.720, gave him the provisionally pole. Repeating a scene from the JGTC official test sessions held in August, TEAM DASHIN's second car, the No.81 Nissan Fairlady Z driven by Yanagida, claimed the best lap of the day, a quick 1'53.147".

The conditions for the afternoon session were no better than those of the morning run. Even so, a few cars did improve on their times, but no one could touch the best morning time set by Yanagida. The best lap time in the afternoon came from Yamaji in the No.7 Mazda RX-7 (1'55.672"), followed by Sasaki in the No.31 Toyota MR-S (1'55.880"). At the end of the day, the pole position went to Masataka Yanagida-Naofumi Omoto in the No.81 Fairlady Z. A total of eight cars broke the previous circuit record for the GT300 class.

(from left) N.Omoto, M.Yanagida, N.Hattori, S.Wakisaka

GT500 Pole Position

No.35 Yellow Hat YMS Supra

Naoki Hattori "We confirmed in the long-run tests we had made up to now during the JGTC official test sessions that the tires are stable, but I made a mistake (bitter smile). We were not going to run for a full 20 minutes, and I worried about the fuel holding out. So I changed halfway through and focused on a lean setting, which is the race setting. I was going to change again and return to the original qualifying setting, forgot to (laughing). Otherwise, I could have improved more. But... we got the pole, so I can laugh about it now."

GT300 Pole Position

No.81 C-WEST DAISHIN ADVAN Z

Masataka Yanagida "We used two sets of tires in the morning session and our best lap was set with the second set of tires. That was a soft compound tire. I went off the line at in the third corner and ran on the curb and missed the timing coming off the gas, but I didn't give up. The performance of the tires was fine, the balance of the car was good too,"