On March 29th (Sat.), the first day of the 2025 Official Tests at Fuji Speedway was held. This day was unfortunately one of continuous rain, but with the opening round of the season at Okayama fast approaching (April 12/13) and considering the fact that the second round of the series is scheduled to be held here at this same Fuji Speedway circuit (May 3/4), these tests offered a precious opportunity for the teams. For this reason, while being cautious of the wet track conditions and at times choosing to wait patiently in their pits, all the teams ran the schedule of tests that were possible, such as working on their settings in the wet conditions and verifying their tires’ performance.
◎First test runs (Session 1: morning of Day One) 10:00 – 11:30 (shortened 30 minutes due to bad weather) Weather: Rain / Track: Wet Air temperature: 7℃ – 7℃ / Track surface temperature: 11℃ – 10℃
◎Second test runs (Session 2: afternoon of the first day) 14:00 – 16:00 (last class separate 10 min. x 2) Weather: Rain / Track surface: Wet Air temperature: 5℃ – 3℃ / Track surface temperature: 9℃ – 8℃
■In the GT500 class morning session’s bad conditions, the Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra gets the best time
On March 29th, two weeks after the Official Tests at Okayama, the second Official Tests of the season took place at Fuji Speedway. With continuous rain falling from morning on the first day, both the morning’s Session 1 and the afternoon’s Session 2 were held with Wet track conditions. The start of the morning session was delayed 30 minutes from the originally scheduled 9:30 to 10:00, and the running time was reduced to 90 minutes.
As soon as the course was opened, the GT500 class cars began their runs, with all the cars throwing up copious sprays of water from the track. The first car to record a top time of 1’37.758 on his ninth lap on the track was Sasahara in the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi), but then, 25 minutes into the session, the Red Flag was shown to stop the session temporarily to allow for debris to be cleared from the main straight. The session was restarted 3 minutes later, but after leaving their pits momentarily, the cars returned to their pits soon after, where all of them would wait for the track conditions to improve.
With 20 minutes remaining in the session, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Daiki Sasaki/Atsushi Miyake) started its run again, but none of the other cars follows suit. That car No. 3 would eventually return to its pit with three minutes remaining in the session. At this point the session ended. As a result, the best time of the session remained the time set by car No. 37 on its ninth lap.
■Times improve significantly in the GT500 class-specific session! Car No. 17’s Koide surprises with his speed
In the afternoon the rain continued to fall. Nonetheless, the course opened for the afternoon session on schedule at 2:00. With no sign of the rain letting up, many of the teams took to the track as soon as it opened, but from about 15 minutes into the session, they were seen returning to their pits for a while. In the early stages of the session, the fastest time was that of the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra, with a lap of 1’39.783.
As the rain began to lighten after that, although the air temperature and track surface temperature remained quite low, the teams continued to put in laps while returning to their pits from time to time. In the process, the teams continued to improve on their lap times. It was near the end of the joint session with the GT300 class cars that the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) brought its time down to 1’36.583, making it the fastest time of the session.
Entering the following class-specific session, a fierce competition of timed attacks in the 1’35 range broke out, and it was near the end of the session that the GT500 rookie, Koide, of the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide), recorded a time of 1’35.740, which gave car No. 17 the fastest time of Session 2 and the overall fastest of the day. Finishing 2nd fastest overall was the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) with a time of 1’35.926, while 3rd fastest was the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) with a time of 1’35.998.
■In the GT300 class the two FERRARI 296 cars No. 45 and No. 6 show their speed
Many of the GT300 class cars decided not to run in the morning’s Session 1, and among those that did, the top time went to Cozzolino in the No. 45 PONOS FERRARI 296 (Kei Cozzolino/Lilou Wadoux) with a 1’47.232 lap.
In the afternoon’s Session 2, nearing the end of the joint class session, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi/Shunji Okumoto) picked up the pace as the rain lightened and recorded a top time of 1’47.419. However, just after that on the second half of its lap, No. 61 slowed down and came to a stop at the side of the track. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the action until the car could be cleared from the course. After the restart, the two FERRARI 296 GT3 cars showed their speed in the rain as they had in the Official Tests at Okayama. Of them, car No. 45 brought its time down to record the fastest lap of 1’48.413 to take the top spot on the timing monitor.
Then, during the GT300 class-specific session, the track condition got better, and the times of the cars drew closer together. It was here that Katayama in the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) recorded a time of 1’44.115 that would become the top time of this session as well as the top overall time of the day. Finishing with the 2nd fastest time of 1’44.556 was the No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (Kiyoto Fujinami/Tsubasa Kondo/Harry King) that has made its debut this season, which showed clearly that the Porsche cars that are making their return to SUPER GT this season remain strong competitors in the rain. Scoring the 3rd fastest time of 1’44.642 was the No. 87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi), thus proving that the FIA GT3 cars are also not far behind at all.
Finishing Session 2 with the 4th fastest time overall for the day was Suganami in the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami/Haruki Kurosawa). Having also driven car No. 65 in 2021, Suginami has returned to the team for the first time in four years, and he commented that because there are few teams that can achieve such good results as this, he was grateful to be able to accept the offer to return. He added that because it has been a while since has been able to get a win, he wants to first of all work hard to get to the point where he is competitive again.
Also, Yuto Nomura, who won the FIA-F4 championship title last year, will compete in the GT300 class for the No. 18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Yuto Nomura) team. Nomura commented that other fellow Honda-trained drivers have moved up to the top categories after competing for this team and have been successful. Looking to the future, Nomura added that while he was competing in FIA-F4, he saw Koide get a number of wins driving for this UPGARAGE team, so he wants to do the same.
GT500 class – Day 1 overall top time
Syun Koide（No.17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT）
Because of the great risk involved during Session 1 (in the morning), the team decided to limit its running time. So, I didn’t drive at all. From the afternoon, as the rain let up considerably, I am very grateful that the team gave me a lot of running time. The feeling of the car was very good, and I got a clear sense that I could drive it well. Therefore, I felt very positive about the driving I was able to do today, and since that has given me confidence, I feel that I will be able to take that confidence into the second day’s sessions.
GT300 class – Day 1 overall top time
Yoshiaki Katayama（No.6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI）
As for running in the rain, I felt that the car setup was very good. and I felt that it was very easy to drive for both of us drivers. I don’t know if the car will be able to run as well on a dry track as it has on the wet track, but I want to work hard to help us get the top time again tomorrow. However, since we have always been testing in rainy conditions until now, I want to do well in this kind of testing. But rather than chasing top times, I now want to have a chance to do some long runs.
