In a total reversal from Friday's free practice sessions, Saturday morning's qualifying for Round 6 of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC, the "JAPAN GT in KYUSHU 300km", started off dry and sunny with a track temperature of 21 degrees, only slightly cooler than the air temperature of 23 Celsius. The track surface had not completely dried at the beginning of the session however, and a few wet patches remained around the circuit.

It was the No.88 Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT that took to the track first, followed by the No.21 Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, the two Italian cars lapping with their signature Italian V12 wail.

Among the cars most likely to take the series crown, Satoshi Motoyama in the No.1 Fairlady Z set the fastest lap time early in the session with a 1'44.105; this in spite of a heavy 80kg weight handicap.
"As I tried to set a time in the early stage of the session, the track was a little dusty. However, my flying lap was perfect" Motoyama said after the session.

Behind the Nissan, three Toyota Supras occupied the upper rows of the timing monitor. The No.37 car entered by Toyota Team Tom's, the No.39 Toyota Team SARD machine and the Dunlop-shod No.35 Supra. Any one of this trio would be capable of beating the best lap time set by the No.1 Nissan.

At the very last moment of the time slot allowed for the GT 500 cars, it was Yuji Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra (Toyota Team CERUMO) who came out on top after putting in a scorching lap that stopped the timing beam at 1'43.725. Tachikawa had made good use of his relatively light weight handicap, which was only 30kg.

Juichi Wakisaka in the No.6 Supra (ESSO TOYOTA Team LeMans) ran well considering the 80kgs of success ballast he was running with, clocking the second fastest lap up to that point with a 1'44.031.

Third place went to the No.37 Supra entered by Toyota Team Tom's (50kg) with James Courtney managing a best time of 1'44.485.

At the start of the day's second session, held in the middle of the afternoon, the track temperature had dropped marginally to 20_ while the ambient measurement of 23_ remained unchanged. In this session, eight cars' crews managed to beat their morning's best times.

As usual, many teams attempted to post their best qualifying times in the closing minutes of the 2nd session. Further adding to the excitement was the red flag that came out unexpectedly when the No.100 Honda NSX spun and stopped on the track, creating a tense scramble for pole in the last nine minutes of Saturday's action.

Dominik Schwager in the No.25 Supra entered by Team ADVAN Tsuchiya managed a best of 1'43.406. Moments later Motoyama dislodged his efforts when he took the No.1 Nissan around the circuit in 1'43.141.
The main rival to the No.1 car, the No.6 Supra driven by Wakisaka, demonstrated fantastic driving ability to beat the factory Nissan river with a crushing time of 1'43.050.

But the hero of the day was clearly Yuji Tachikawa in the No.38 Supra. Although he had crashed hard into the trackside sponge barriers earlier on in the session (without any serious damage to the car), Tachikawa posted an incredible 1'42.840 around the 4.674 kilometer track, earning him the coveted top spot on the grid.

Hiroki Kato took fourth overall in the No.100 NSX after setting a 1'43.181 - by far the fastest lap among the Honda drivers.

The No.80 Fairlady Z, and then the No.77 Subaru Impreza started the qualifying action among the GT300 runners. Mitsuhiro Kinoshita in the No.80 Nissan set a particularly good time at the mid-stage of the time slot reserved for the class. His 1'50.601 with 50kg of success ballast onboard was a clear warning to his rivals. Tetsuya Tanaka in the No.10 Team GAINER Ferrari F360 Modena was also impressive with his best of 1'50.849.

Third fastest car in the morning session was the No.30 Toyota MR-S entered by Team Reckless. The Kyushu-based squad showed particularly high motivation at this round, with driver Kouta Sasaki clocking a best time of 1'50.983. These three cars all broke the circuit record set by Tetsuya Tanaka in the Ferrari last year (1'50.990).

As Team Daishin had already used two sets of fresh rubber on the team's two Fairlady Zs in the morning session, they opted not to venture out in the afternoon session.

The No.19 Celica from Racing Project Bandoh was first to launch an attack in the midde part of the session when Nobuteru Taniguchi set a hot time of 1'50.656, firmly planting the car on the top row of the timing monitor.

Only a few minutes later however, there was a major stir all around the circuit when Shinichi Yamaji blasted across the finish line in the No.7 Mazda RX-7 after clocking an excellent lap time of 1'50.443. The incendiary effort awarding pole position to the RE Amemiya Racing outfit for the second time this season.

Third place went to the No.43 ARTA Garaiya, lead driver Morio Nitta setting a fine 1'50.710 despite the heavy 65kg weight handicap on the car.

(from left) S.Ara, Y.Tachikawa, S.Yamaji, H.Iiri

GT500 Pole Position

No.38 au CERUMO SUPRA

Yuji Tachikawa "I don't know exactly what happened when I crashed (giving a sheepish smile). The rear of the car slid when I entered the corner. Fortunately, our car was good enough to resume although the alignment was damaged slightly. As the crashes yesterday and today were caused by my mistakes, I knew I just had to go for it! The teams that are behind us are carrying more weight than we are, so their tires will go off sooner than ours. I think we will be able to hold them off."
Seiji Ara "I think we have a good chance to win the race. We've gained the upper hand starting from the front row. I hope to take advantage of our position and have a good race."

GT300 Pole Position

No.7 Amemiya Aspara Drink RX7

Shinichi Yamaji "To be honest, I was already satisfied with our performance in the first session. I just had to hustle in the afternoon because of the improved track surface conditions. I hope to have an eventful race because if I pull out a large margin before handing over to Iiri like I did in Sepang, he'll have too easy a stint!(laughing),"
Hiroyuki Iiri "Though he sounds otherwise, Yamaji is actually a tenderhearted guy (laughing). I think he'll hand over the car with a good gap. The Mazda RX-7 suits this kind of track well. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to win judging by the current performance of the team,"