Both of the two Official Practice sessions for this weekend's fifth round of the 2005 AUTOBACS SUPER GT showed Honda NSX machinery at the top of the timesheets. In the morning session, Sebastien Philippe piloted the #100 Raybrig car to a best time of 1:47.042 around the 4.801-kilometer circuit - a mere 0.058 ahead of the 2nd-placed #18 TAKATA Dome NSX with Japanese hotshoe Ryo Michigami at the wheel.
Rounding out the top three was the sister Team Honda Racing car, the #8 ARTA NSX of Daisuke Ito, who stopped the timing beam a scant 19 thousandths in arrears of the car ahead.

The best of the NISSANs was the #3 G'ZOX Hasemi Z, followed by last year's winner, the #32 EPSON NSX. Next up a pair of SUPRAs, punctuated by the #12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z, found themselves ahead of a brace of 5 more SUPRAs.

GT300 was dominated by the #11 JIM GAINER FERRARI DUNLOP - the red car the recipient of a new-spec engine since the previous round at SUGO. Strong also were the #7 Amemiya Aspara Drink RX-7, back at the sharp end of the timesheets after a while away. More impressive however, the #46 Dream Cube's ADVAN Z and the #27 direxiv ADVAN 320R (Vemac) - both from new teams in the series this season, taking 3rd and 4th respectively in the class.

The afternoon session was run under the same bright sunny conditions as the morning, the mercury topping the 33-degree mark while the track scorched at 47 Celsius.

Again it was Honda to the fore as all four GT500-class NSXs hovered around the top of the monitors early on in the session. At the end of the 90 minutes, it was the #8 ARTA NSX that set the benchmark for the day. The car's best time was an improvement of one full second over the top time set in the morning.

Second went to the #3 G'ZOX Hasemi Z, followed by a pair of NSXs - the #100 Raybrig machine edging out the #18 TAKATA car from Team Honda Racing.
The top Toyota of the afternoon was the #6 ESSO ULTRAFLO machine while the #22 Motul Pitwork Z rounded out the top six. Showing the amount of success ballast it's carrying, the #1 Xanavi NISMO Z was down in 16th place - though we can expect to see that position change in tomorrow's qualifying sessions.

Ending the day in 9th position was the #32 EPSON NSX, it too expected to end up rather higher in the rankings tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile in GT300, the day went to the #7 Amemiya RX-7, its 1:55.044 nearly two-tenths ahead of the ever-strong #46 Dream Cube's ADVAN Z in second. In its strongest Practice showing of the season so far, the #2 Privee Zurich Apple RD320R (Vemac) was third, ahead of the #10 and #11 Ferrari F360 machines. Also confounding the pundits was the #87 JLOC Murcie RG-1 - a new chassis after the previous car burnt to a crisp last time out at SUGO.

Some of the main protagonists were well down the order, saving their best for tomorrow's pair of Official Qualifying sessions to show their stuff.

Expect to see strong Saturday performances from the #27 direxiv ADVAN 320R, the #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX, and both the Toyota MR-S entries.

Temperatures are expected to cool tomorrow, and there is a 50% chance of rain predicted. These changes will also create vast differences among the various teams and drivers - and some qualifying upsets are definitely on the cards.


Selected driver comments:
Sebastien Philippe - #100 Raybrig NSX
"We are quite pleased with progress so far. This time we weren't going for any major changes on the car, just working on a lot of little things. To be in this position (1st in the morning, 3rd in the afternoon) this early on in the weekend is obviously good. Tomorrow's sessions will tell all - I'm looking forward to qualifying and the race."

James Courtney - #36 TOM'S SUPRA
"The track was very dirty off-line today; you could see all the dust and grime being thrown up by the cars as they went ever-so-slightly off the racing line. It would be interesting if we had rain this weekend - it'd be kind of like last year!"

Peter Dumbreck - #35 YMS Yellow Hat SUPRA
"I'm very happy to be back, racing in Japan. While we haven't yet found the exact set-up we're aiming for, the sessions tomorrow should get us a lot closer to our goals. It's going to be very interesting learning the car and getting familiarized with everything in the series. I'm really looking forward to racing with everybody here."