Qualifying Session 1

Mobil 1 SC is fastest in the morning qualifying session
The skies were cloudy at the start of the first qualifying session. Although it was hot and humid, there was no fear of rain and the track was dry. at 10:00 a.m. but no rain would fall during the session and the track remained dry. The first 20 minutes were for the GT300 class. About 10 minutes into the session, the top cars were still running in the 1 min. 55 sec. range, with the No. 88 AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 (Apicella) holding the fastest time at that point. When the teams started making their serious attack laps, Apicella in the No. 88 machine was the first to dip under 1 min. 55 sec. He was followed by the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R driven by Shinsuke Shibahara and the No. 11 JIM CENTER FERRARI DUNLOP driven by Tetsuya Tanaka. After that it was No. 11 that moved into the lead with a 1 min. 54.399 sec. lap. Fifteen minutes into the session, the No. 96 EBBRO BTEC MAZIORA 350R machine driven by Tsubasa Kurosawa suddenly slowed down and came to a stop under the first bridge. None of the other GT300 teams were able to improve on their times after that before their class session ended.

The next 20 minutes were for the GT500 class exclusively. Few teams made serious time attacks during the first ten minutes of the session, and it was the No. 66 machine that held the fastest time at that point. That time, a 1 min. 45.167 sec. lap, was already under the existing track record of 1 min. 45.499 sec. With five minutes remaining in the session, all the GT500 machines were on the track. The next machine to top the leading time was the No. 35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 driven by Naoki Hattori with a 1 min. 45.059 sec. lap. Immediately after that, however, the No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 driven by Andre Lotterer became the first to dip under 1 min. 45 sec. with a 1 min. 44.774 sec. lap. Next the No. 8 ARTA NSX driven by Daisuke Ito squeezed in a 1 min. 45.008 lap. The No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX driven by Takashi Kogure and the No. 6 Mobil 1 SC driven by Tatsuya Kataoka scored fast times. In the final round of time attacks, No. 18 blazed a 1 min. 44.769 lap to become the fastest qualifier. But a few seconds later No. 6 topped that with a 1 min. 44.095 lap, a full 0.6 sec. faster than the rest.

Next came the mixed session for both classes. Five minute into this session, the No. 47 Kiccho Houzan DIREZZA Z began to spew white smoke that brought the red flag out to stop the session for about 10 minutes. By the end of the session, Takuya Kurosawa in the No. 96 machine and Masaoki Nagashima in the No.47 machine were unable to record qualifying times, and thus lost their chance to compete in the Super Lap.

Qualifying Session 2

RAYBRIG NSX comes from behind to finish 1st in the Super Lap
In the afternoon, the second qualifying session was held under partially cloudy skies with sun shining through at times to bring the temperature up to 27 degrees C. and 34 degrees on the track surface. The first 15 minutes of this session were allotted to the GT300 class and the next 15 minutes to the GT500 class. During these sessions the No. 96 and No. 47 machines that had trouble in the morning session were able to post qualifying times to enable them to take part in the race.

The GT300 class Super Lap started at 14:50. The first runner was Shigekazu Wakisaka in the No. 19 WedsSport Celica. The sixth runner, Marco Apicella in the No.88 AKTIO MURCIE RG-1 was the first to break the 1 min. 55 sec. barrier with a 1 min. 54.972 sec. time. The next runner, Hidetoshi Mitsusada in the No.55 DHG ADVAN FORD GT topped that time by more than a second with a 1 min. 53.865 sec. lap. With three machines left to run, Ichijo Suga in the No. 110 TOTAL BENEFIT GREENTEC BOXSTER turned in a 1 min. 54.749 sec. lap, Shinsuke Shibahara in the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC 408R ran a 1 min. 54.569 sec. and Tetsuya Tanaka in the No. 11 JIM CENTER FERRARI DUNLOP also unable to better No. 55's time. It looked at this point as if the FORD GT had won the pole position. However, in the machine inspection after the qualifying a violation was found in one of the front-end aerodynamic parts and the team's qualifying time was invalidated. This gave the pole position to WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC 408R.As for No. 55, it was given permission to run in the final after a second successful inspection provided that it start from the very tail of the starting grid.

In the GT500 Super Lap, the first runner was the No. 1 ZENT CERUMO SC driven by Yuji Tachikawa, who scored a fast run of 1 min. 45.729 sec. Next up were two Fairlady Z machines, the No. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA Z (De Oliveira) and the No. 24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z (Masataka Yanagida), but neither was able to break the 1 min. 46 sec. barrier. The No.66 triple a SARD SUPRA GT (Couto) broke 1 min. 45 sec. but was unable to match the No. 1 machine's time. The 5th runner was the No. 35 BANDAI DIREZZA SC430 driven by Naoki Hattori, who ran a 1 min. 45.361 sec. lap to claim a firm hold on top position at that point. Remaining to run were the five machines that had bettered 1 min. 44 sec. in the morning qualifying. Everyone was expecting to see a big jump in the times, but the No. 8 ARTA NSX (Daisuke Ito) had apparently chosen the wrong tires for the track conditions and only managed to run a 1 min. 45.731 sec. time. The No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX driven by Philippe also fell just short of breaking 45 sec. with a 1 min. 45.011 sec. lap but still claimed the top position at that stage. No. 36 OPEN INTERFACE TOM'S SC430 (Lottera) fell just short of No. 100 with a 1 min. 45.062 sec. lap. No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure) ran on the same type of tires as No. 8 and was only able to turn in a 1 min. 45.410 sec. time. That left only the morning's fastest qualifier, Kataoka in the No.6 Mobil 1 SC, remaining to run. With all eyes on him, Kataoka ran faster than the No. 100 had over the first half of the course only to suffer a time loss on the last corner and fall short of catching No. 100 by just 0.045 sec.

This gave the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX team its first pole position of the season, which also happened to be Philippe's first GT pole position as well. Having won last year's Motegi race, the No. 100 team will be trying to make it two in a row and the sixth in a row for NSX machines. The top position for the Fairlady Z machines went to No.24 WOODONE ADVAN KONDO Z in 9th position. The leaders of the driver ranking, No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z will be starting from 13th position. The winner of this year's round six, the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z, will be starting from the very back of the grid due to its machine violation.

S.Hosokawa, S.Philippe, S.Shibahara, H.Kurosawa

GT500 Class Pole Position

No.100 RAYBRIG NSX

Sebastien Philippe

The machine condition had been very good since yesterday. Once we had the settings down we put on a new set of tires and everything was perfect. Since I came close but ended up finishing a disappointing 2nd in the qualifying in round two (of this year's series), I'm very glad to have won the pole position this time.

Shinya Hosokawa

Motegi is a course that I know very well. The machine is running well even on used tires, so things look good for the race. Still, I don't think it will be easy to run away from the competition, so I am going to try to push hard.

GT300 Class Pole Position

No.62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R

Shinsuke Shibahara

I am not bothered by the fact that we won the pole position due to No. 55's violation, but when I consider the fact that I was 0.7 sec. behind, it was a clear defeat. Still, everything has been going very well for our team. In fact, we have not done well at Motegi until now. We have been driving on V-Mac tires here and the combination has not been good. But, this time Yokohama Rubber brought us some new tires and they have been perfect for this track. I guess our success this time goes to these new tires. In tomorrow's race, I definitely want to go out there with Haruki and win.