Qualifying Session 1

The official qualifying began with the GT300 class' 20-minute session. The first car to dip under 1 min. 35 sec. was the No. 777 RYOZANPAKU apr MR-S driven by Kazuya Oshima, but soon after that the No.2 Priv_e Zurich APPLE Shiden driven by Hiroki Kato turned in the fastest time. As the GT300 session entered its last five minutes the teams' time attacks grew more intense. Soon the No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC 408R machine driven by Shinsuke Shibahara had recorded the second fastest time. The No.14 HANKOOK ENDLESS PORSCHE driven by Mitsuhiro Kinoshita that had run so well in the rain the day before was also performing well in dry conditions, coming in with the third fastest time. Among the other top runners was the No.96 EBBRO BTEC MAZIORA 350R driven Tsubasa Kurosawa that scored its first Super Lap qualifying time ever.

In the following 20-minute session for the GT500 class only four cars were out on the track in the early running, but by the time the session entered its final ten minutes all the machines were on the track. After checking out the course condition, the drivers began their time attacks. It was the teams on Dunlop tires that went after qualifying times first, with the No.35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 driven by Naoki Hattori turning in a fastest time by being the first to dip under 1 min. 35 sec. Next, the No.32 EPSON NSX driven by Loic Duval topped that time to take the lead. Entering the last five minutes of he session, it was Yuji Tachikawa in the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO SC who turned in a fastest time of 1'34.385 sec. On his next lap "Fuji Meister" Tachikawa ran even faster, with a 1' 34.255 sec. lap. This set Tachikawa up his seventh pole position at the Fuji Speedway. Turning in the second fastest time was the No.32 EPSON NSX, followed by the No. 8 ARTA NSX driven by Daisuke Ito in third position. In the usually intense final three minutes of the session there turned out to be little action this time.

In the following mixed class session some teams tried to better their qualifying times but there were eventually no changes in the time ranking before the checkered was waved to end the session. As a result, the ten machines that qualified for the Super Lap were No. 1, No. 32, No. 8, No. 36 OPON INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka), No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure), No. 35, No.66 triple a SARD SUPRA GT (Andre Couto), No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX (Shinya Hosokawa), No.22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) and No. 3 Yellow Hat YMS Tomika Z (Joao Paulo De Oliveira).

There was a change in the qualifying order in the GT300 class, however, during the final mixed 20-minute session. The No.46 Kiccho houzan DIREZZA Z driven by Kota Sasaki and the No. 110 TOTALBENEFIT GREENTEC BOXSTER driven by Ichijyo Suga joined the Super Lap qualifiers. As a result, the GT300 Super Lap qualifiers were No. 2, No.62, No.14, No.110, No.11 JIM CENTER FERRARI (Tetsuya Tanaka), No.777, No.26 Porsche GT3R (Shinichi Yamaji), No.46, No.96, and No.7RX7 (Hiroyuki Iiri).

Qualifying Session 2

The second qualifying session began at 15:25. The first 15 minutes was for the GT300 class and the second 15 minutes for the GT500 class, followed by the Super Lap session with the GT300 machines running first. During the GT300 session, the No.88 AKTIO Murcie RG-1 driven by Yasutaka Hinoi that had machine trouble during the morning session was able to get a qualifying time, but in the end it spread oil on the track and the red flag came out just as the GT500 session was beginning, causing the session to be stopped. After the oil was cleared from the track the GT500 session began.

Due to this delay, the GT300 Super Lap started 20 minutes behind schedule at 16:20. Beginning with the No.7RX7 (Hiroyuki Iiri), the qualifiers ran their timed laps one at a time. No.7 dipped under 1 min. 45 sec. while the next three cars all broke 1 min. 44 sec. The first car make a big time improvement was the sixth runner, No. 11 FERRARI (Tetsuya Tanaka) with a 1' 42.929 sec. lap. The seventh runner, No. 110 BOXSTER (Ichijyo Suga), ran very fast on the straight to lead in the first sector, but after that it lost momentum and finished the lap at 1 min. The seventh runner, No. 110 BOXSTER (Ichijyo Suga), ran very fast on the straight to lead in the first sector, but after that it lost momentum and finished the lap at 1' 42.959 sec., just short of No. 11's time. No. 14 Porsche(Mitsuhiro Kinoshita)and No.62 VEMAC (Shinsuke Shibahara) also failed to break 1 min. 43 sec., leaving only the top finisher in the morning session, No.2 Shiden (Hiroki Kato). Kato was slightly behind pace in sector one but ran well through sectors two and three to beat No.11's time by 0.041 sec. with a 1' 42.889 sec. lap. This gave Shiden their first SUPER GT pole position ever. For Kato, this was his first pole in the GT300 class since the 2005 opening round at Okayama and the third of his GT career.

After an interval to check the course, the GT500 class Super Lap started at 16:56. The first two Fairlady Z machines and the No. 100 NSX (Shinya Hosokawa) were unable to break 1 min. 35 sec. but the fourth runner, No. 66 triple a GT (Andre Couto) ran a 1' 34.248 sec. lap to take the initial lead. Then the No. 35 SC430 (Naoki Hattori) ran even faster, almost breaking the 1 min. 34 sec. barrier with a 1' 34.079 sec. lap. After that, No.18 NSX (Takashi Kogure), No.36 TOM'S SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka), No.8 NSX (Daisuke Ito)and No.32 NSX (Loic Duval) all ran between 1 min, 34 and sec. and 1min. 35 sec. That left only No.1 SC (Yuji Tachikawa) to run. Tachikawa ended up running faster than his rivals on all the sectors to turn in a 1' 33.169 sec. lap, a decisive 0.9 sec. faster than the second fastest machine. This gave Tachikawa his 11th career pole position, on the Fuji Speedway track where he always runs so well. This is a new record for poles won by a single driver. And, it was his seventh pole here at the Fuji Speedway. The 2nd place qualifier was machine No.35. This is a team that has had trouble matching its machine and tires since the opening round, but it looks like they have finally caught up with the competition. Qualifying third was No.66, the highest place this season for the Supra machines. It was followed by No.36, thus giving Toyota machines the top four places. In 5th position was No.8 NSX. The highest qualifier among the Fairlady Z machines was No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z in 7th position.

T.Takagi, Y.Tachikawa, H.Kato, K.Takahashi

GT500 Class Pole Position

No. 1 ZENT CERUMO SC

Yuji Tachikawa

I am very happy to have set a new record for most pole positions by a GT driver. My goal for the season is to win the championship title, but this pole position record was another goal I had my sights on, so it's very gratifying. With this, I have cleared the first hurdle toward winning tomorrow's race. Now all I have to do is go out and win tomorrow and get a good momentum going for the season ahead.

GT300 Class Pole Position

No. 2 Privée Zurich APPLE Shiden

Hiroki Kato

I wasn't thinking about winning the pole position because we are still in the process of developing this machine and working on one issue at a time. I was surprised that the other machines weren't getting faster times. At the SUPER GT Official Test at Fuji we were able to run a long test that served as a good race simulation, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race.