Qualifying #1  Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 23°C | Track Temp. 30°C

The first qualifying session began at 10:30, 10 minutes later than scheduled. The weather was fair and thee track was dry. The temperature at the start of the session was 23 degrees C. and the track surface temperature was 30 degrees.

The first 20 minutes was for the GT300 class. The early leaders with lap times in the low 1 min. 50 sec. range were the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa) and the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh). They were followed by the No. 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA (Tetsuya Yamano) and the No. 7 RE AMEMIYA ADVAN RX-7 (Hiroyuki Iiri). With three minutes remaining in the GT300 session, the Fairlady Z machines began making their timed laps one after another. The No. 46 houzan DUNLOP Z (Kota Sasaki) was the only machine to dip under 1 min. 50. sec. with a record time of 1 min. 49.557 sec. to take the lead. The No. 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z (Masami Kageyama) then bettered the time of No. 2 to move into 3rd position. Just before the start of the GT500 session, the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi) jumped up to 5th position. The No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S (Kazuya Oshima) also ran a personal best but it was only enough to claim 11th position, which meant that it was not eligible for the Super Lap at this point.

The next 20 minutes were for the GT500 class. The first to post a fast time was the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Andre Couto) at 1 min. 40.900 sec. The other teams didn't begin their serious timed laps until the last 6 or 7 minutes of the period. As one machine after another turned in times in the 1 min. 40 sec range, the No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) ran a record time of 1 min. 40.201 sec. Other machines also broke the record, and finally, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa) became the first to dip under 1 min. 40 sec. with a 1 min. 39.961 sec. lap.

This session was followed by a 20 minute mixed class session. Here the teams that had not qualified in the top ten in their class tried to make the Super Lap using their second set of tires. Having qualified 9th in the class session, Yamano drove the No. 77 machine to a best time in the mixed session but ran off the track shortly afterward. This prevented the other driver, Takayuki Aoki from making a qualifying run. As a result, Aoki was unable to get a qualifying time, which meant that the team was disqualified from the Super Lap. Also, the No. 23 XANAVI NISMO Z (Richard Lyons) was unable to qualify any better than 12th and was thus unable to compete in the Super Lap. There was another change in order when it was decided that No. 62 had passed another machine in a yellow flag zone, which disqualified its best time. This moved it down in qualifying order from 2nd to 6th.

Qualifying #2/Super Lap  Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 22° | Track Temp. 28°

The second qualifying session began at 14:30. Shortly after noon the sky had become increasingly cloudy and the temperature dropped to 22 degrees C. with a 28-degree track temperature. First there was a 15-minute session for all entrants of the GT300 and GT500 classes in that order. Here the No. 118 Nobel Biocare Special Olympics GT3 (Takashi Miyamoto), which had failed to ge a qualifying time in the first session succeeded in upping its time. Meanwhile, the No. 77 CUSCO DUNLOP SUBARU IMPREZA team was unable to repair the machine damage sustained when it ran off the track in the morning session and could not run a timed lap. The No. 71 NOMAD GAIKOKUYA GT3-RS (Yoshimi Ishibashi) also fell 0.079 sec. short of qualifying. The official decision as to whether these two teams can compete in Sunday's final was let to the results of their morning free session run on Sunday.

Next began the Super Lap session of the GT300 class by the top ten class qualifiers. From the time the first runner, the No. 4 EBBRO 350R (Tetsuya Tanaka), went out for its run, the clouds had grown heavy and a few raindrops began to fall. A "Wet" track notice went out and teams were allowed to change to wet tires. Eventually, the rain did not fall with any strength and all the teams were able to make their runs with dry tires.
The first machine to run a time in the 1 min. 49 sec. range was the No. 19 WedsSport Celica (Yuhi Sekiguchi). This was followed by a 1 min. 49.525 sec. lap by the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa) that bettered the record set by the No. 46 houzan DUNLOP Z (Kota Sasaki) in the morning session. Then the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Katoh) also ran a 1 min. 49 sec. time that moved it ahead of No.19 but still behind No. 62. The No. 13 ENDLESS ADVAN SENZAIKAKUMEI Z (Masami Kageyama) also ran a time that placed it between No. 2 and No. 19. That brought up the final runner, Kota Sasaki in No. 46. Sasaki ran each section of the course with commanding speed to record a lap of 1 min. 48.847 sec. and win the class pole with a margin of 0.678 sec. over the 2nd place qualifier.
The current season ranking leader, No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden, qualified 3rd, while the 2nd ranking No. 101 TOY STORY Racing apr MR-S will have to start from the 11th position in the GT300 grip for the final race. The 3rd ranker, No. 43 ARTA Garaiya, will be starting from 7th position on the class grid.

Next came the GT500 Super Lap. Although the wet notice was still out, the track remained dry to the end. The track surface temperature was also down, making for good conditions to run fast lap times. Under these conditions the contestants were able to improve on their morning lap times, and an especially big gain was made by the No. 17 REAL NSX (Toshihiro Kaneishi). Although the machines tires didn't seem to be fully warmed up through the first two sections of the course and some big slips were seen, Kaneishi ran very fast over the third section and finished with a time of 1 min. 39.830 sec. that beat the morning record No. 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa).
When it came time for Yuji Tachikawa in No. 38 to make his run as the final runner, he used his speed on the straight to improve on No. 17's time by 0.1 sec. in the first sector alone. He then continued to open the gap over the second and third sectors and finished the lap with a time of 1 min. 39.424 sec. and win the pole position a full 0.4 sec. faster than No. 17. This gives the ZENT CERUMO a big advantage in its attempt for a come-from-behind title win, which will only be possible with a win in tomorrow's race.
Behind No. 17, the 2nd through 6th positions were taken by the NSX machines. The ranking leader, No. 8 ARTA NSX (Daisuke Ito) was able to run a 1 min. 40.074 sec. time and qualify 3rd despite carrying the full limit of handicap weights. The No. 18 TAKATA DOME NSX (Takashi Kogure) was able to qualify 5th carrying 90 kg of weights. Among the Fairlady Z machines, No. 22 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Michael Krumm) was the fastest, qualifying 7th.