The weather may have darkened measurably since Friday's practice sessions at Toyota's state-of-the-art racing facility 100 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, but Saturday's racing action only got more intense. With predictions of the approaching typhoon set to disrupt Sunday's main feature, the heavy black clouds gathering over the circuit looked set to dump during the all-important SL, or Super Lap qualifying session.

QUALIFYING SESSION 1

The morning session was run in dry conditions, though overnight rain meant the track was wet with standing water in some places. Within the first half of the session however, the surface had dried considerably and a clear line was visible all around the track.

As usual, the GT300 machines were out for the first twenty minutes, followed by the GT500 cars for another Twenty. The final third of the hour-long session featured both classes out together, the 45-car pack creating a beautifully deafening roar as their engine notes reverberated off the grandstands and pit buildings.

The order at the end of the session showed the power and pace of the Toyota Supras, the top three spots going to the machines that are such an integral part of the championship. Leading the field was the #38 ZENT Cerumo Supra with Yuji Tachikawa at the wheel. This is the car that won so decisively in Round 2, beating the 2nd-placed finisher by some 30 seconds.

Today, it was a tenth of a second ahead of the #35 Yellow Hat YMS Supra in the morning, though that machine's time was subsequently disallowed after the car was found to be 1kg underweight. The penalty was a big disappointment for new recruit Peter Dumbreck, whose driver partner Naoki Hattori had pulled out all the stops to set the time in the Dunlop-shod car.

Moving up to second place as a result, the #36 Open Interface TOM'S Supra was ahead of the first of the NSXs, the #8 ARTA machine. It was followed closely by the leading Nissan entry, the #3 G'ZOX Hasemi Z, before another Supra, the #6 Esso Ultraflo. Rounding out the top ten were the #32 EPSON NSX, followed by three Toyotas; the #37 TOM'S Supra, the #39 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT, and the #25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SUPRA.

With the disqualification of the #35 Yellow Hat entry's time, the #22 Motul Pitwork Z was set to also contest the afternoon's SL, or Super Lap session.

Further back, the sister factory Nissan entry was 12th ahead of the identical #12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z and the #34 Bandai Supra. Next were the two remaining NSX entries; the #18 Takata Dome car ahead of Round 5 winners, the #100 Raybrig machine, feeling the weight of success with 80kgs of ballast onboard.
Bringing up the rear were the three European supercars in the GT500 class; the #21 Nomad Ferrari 550 GTS just ahead of the second Hitotsuyama Racing entry, the #20 Tajimax McLaren F1 GTR. These were trailed by the JLOC Murcie RG-1, a further three seconds in arrears of the spot-entry McLaren.

GT300 was a massive fight as usual, and the leaderboard changed with every passing minute in the latter half of the session.
The SL qualifiers were as follows: the #46 Dream Cube's ADVAN Z leading the #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX, with the #62 Willcom ADVAN Vemac 350R taking third ahead of another of the mid-engined British cars, this time the #5 Proµ MACH 5 B-1 320R. Fifth was the #13 ENDLESS ADVAN Z, sandwiched between yet another Vemac, the #2 Privee Zurich Apple RD320R entry. The pair of Ferrari F360 entries lined up 7th and 9th, with the #7 Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 eighth and the #30 RECKLESS MRS in tenth. A few hitherto strong entries that didn't make the SL cut included the #27 direxiv ADVAN 320R, the #43 ARTA Garaiya, Round 4 winners the #31 Kicchouhouzan MR-S, and the #87 JLOC Murcie G-1 (Murcielago).

QUALIFYING SESSION 2

With the weather getting steadily fouler as the day wore on, it was no surprise to see the rain begin to fall - just as the SL session was about to get underway.
The GT300 machines were out first, and had to bear the brunt of the showers.

The #30 RECKLESS MR-S went out first, setting a 1'52.857 which was quickly eclipsed by the cars that followed. The purple and silver car ended up sixth. The real performers among the GT300 competitors were the pair of Ferrari F360s, the #11 Jim Gainer scoring 4th while the #10 Mach-Go Ferrari entry ended up 2nd. Strongest of all was the reigning champion in the category, the #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX, particularly satisfying for the squad that has been slightly off-form lately. The #13 ENDLESS ADVAN Z was third, with the identical #46 entry, the Dream Cube's car of Kazuki Hoshino fifth. Vemac machinery took seventh, eighth and ninth; the #62 Willcom car strongest ahead of the #5 MACH Go entry and the #2 Privee Zurich machine. In tenth, the #7 Amemiya RX-7 rounded out the group.

The rain petered off - only to start again later in the session, causing some surprises in the final order among the GT500 class.

First out was Michael Krumm in the #22 Motul Pitwork car, the rain working against the German driver, resulting in his time being some 5.5 seconds off the nearest GT500 time. As an indication of just how wet it was, he ended up over 9 seconds off pole. As each car went out, the times tumbled. Andre Lotterer had a scintillating run, the Nakajima Racing driver setting an unbeatable 1:43.924, though he was only the fifth car to go out. Others came close however, and the strength of the two TEAM TOM'S entries, ending the session second and third, was clearly evident. They look to be favorites for the race, assuming all goes well and the weather works to the Supras' liking.

Winners the last time SUPER GT visited this track, the #38 Zent Cerumo Supra will start fourth on the grid and can not be discounted. Drivers Yuji Tachikawa and Toranosuke Takagi should be strong all afternoon, though Ralph Firman and Daisuke Ito are sure to push them hard from their fifth-place on the grid as soon as the lights go out at 14:00.

Sixth goes to the #6 Esso Ultraflo Supra, with the #39 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT taking seventh. Andre Couto put on the most exciting performance of the entire SL session, going off briefly at Coca Cola corner, only to recover and set the quickest Sector 3 time in the process. His trademark 'climb' in the early stages of the race tomorrow are becoming a tradition in SUPER GT, and are eagerly anticipated by fans.
Toshihiro Kaneishi put the #3 G'ZOX Hasemi Z eighth, and the #25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SUPRA will start ninth.

(from left) T.Matsuda/A.Lotterer, H.Kurosawa/S.Hosokawa

Driver comments:
Andre Lotterer - #32 EPSON NSX - GT500 Pole Position
"It feels fantastic to get Pole Position here. I'm actually surprised we were able to get it. We haven't tested that much in the rain and we decided on the set-up during the 15-minute session prior to SL. Obviously we got it right! I was a little worried about the tires as I thought it was maybe a drying out a little too much for the rubber we had on the car.
With this result today, I'm confident we can be strong when it matters tomorrow."

James Courtney - #36 Open Interface TOM'S Supra - GT500 2nd
"I didn't have a chance to really run the car in the morning - we just worked on the set-up, changing tires etc. so I never got a full lap. I was surprised to be 2nd in SL as I wasn't pushing hard at all. I saw everyone else making mistakes and I thought it would be better to settle for a fourth or fifth. I didn't want to go off myself and start tenth. On my SL lap, I just braked early and kept the car really straight. There's a lot more to come from the car, and we're confident for the race tomorrow. I'd say we're in a win-win situation; the car works really well in the wet, and is also excellent in the dry. At our recent test in Autopolis, the car was really strong - and it has been here too.
We're reserving ourselves today to make sure we're in a good position in the race. It should be a lot better tomorrow if it rains. I'm looking forward to the race. It'd be great to finally get a win"

Shinya Hosokawa - #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX - GT300 Pole Position
"It rained ahead of SL and that made things more challenging. However, because we had a good rain set-up and we were able to test the tires on Thursday, it was possible to concentrate on my running in the car without panicking about the track conditions. However, in my SL I went out and nearly went off as the tires didn't have enough heat in them. Therefore, getting Pole Position feels really great. I'm not worried about whether it rains or not tomorrow as the car is working well. We'll be aiming to keep our position at the head of the field right to the flag."
Haruki Kurosawa - #0 EBBRO M-TEC NSX - GT300 Pole Position
"I feel confident about our chances in the race tomorrow. The car works well in both the wet and the dry so the weather is not going to be a problem. We've got a lot of weight on the car, and the set-up and tires are working well as things stand. We never imagined we'd take the victory at Round 2 either, so maybe a win is within our grasp tomorrow. Our clear aim is to eliminate the gap to the leaders in the championship with strong performances here, at Autopolis, and at the final round at Suzuka. Every point is valuable, and the pair we've gotten today for pole position put us two closer to defending our title."