Roughly one month before the opening round of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series is scheduled to be held (April 12/13), the first SUPER GT official tests of the year began at Okayama International Circuit on March 15th. Despite unfortunate weather conditions that saw sleet mixed with rain falling from morning until just past noon, with the track temperature also low in the single digits, being an important test opportunity that on the same Okayama International Circuit where the opening round of the season is to be held, the teams of all 41 participating cars were at work on their machine settings and selecting tires for the opening round, as well as giving their rookie drivers running time on the track.
◎First test runs (Session 1: morning of the first day) 9:30 – 12:00 (10 minutes added) Weather: Cloudy/rain / Track: Dry/wet Air temperature: 5℃ – 7℃ / Track surface temperature: 7℃ – 9℃
◎Second test runs (Session 2: afternoon of the first day) 14:00 – 16:40 (last 10 min. class separate) Weather: Rain/cloudy / Track: Wet/dry Air temperature: 6℃ – 6℃ / Track surface temperature: 9℃ – 8℃
■2024 champions au TOM’S GR Supra runs the fastest time, but CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars close in
From the morning of this first day of Official Tests, a heavy cloud layer filled the sky, and the temperature was winter cold. Nonetheless, many fans flocked to the stands and paddock from early morning. For the morning’s Session 1, the track was opened at 9:30. With rain forecasted for Sunday, the second day of the tests, this session was extended by 20 min. over the original schedule to a 2-hr. 20-min. length ending at 11:50. However, from the early going there were a succession of trouble and accidents on the track, with cars coming to a stop on the track or in the gravel, which brought out the Red Flag to stop the session a total of six times. In the GT500 class, the No. 30 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) ran off the track at the first corner to bring out the Red Flag for the second time. Fortunately for car No. 30 there was no serious damage, and it was able to continue running after that. Amid all this, in the early stages the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) recorded the top time of 1’18.126 on the 16th lap, but entering the final stages Tsuboi of the defending champions team, drove the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) to a top time of 1’17.83. Eventually, this would be the top time of the session. Recording the 2nd fastest time in the session was the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide), followed in 3rd position by another Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT, the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita). The fastest among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars was the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) in 8th position. In the final minutes of Session 1, at 11:48, a GT300 class car came to a stop at the Mike NIGHT Corner, which brought out the Red Flag again, and the session ended without a re-start. After the track was opened at 11:54, a test of Full Course Yellow procedure began immediately.
■The KeePer CERUMO GR Supra proves its speed in the GT500 class-specific session!
For the afternoon’s Session 2 a Wet track condition was declared when the track was opened at 2:00. However, the rain mixed with sleet that had begun to fall in the final stages of Session 1 continued to fall only intermittently, and by the second half of Session 2, the track condition had improved to basically dry. As with Session 1, 40 min. had been added to the length of Session 2, extending it to 4:20 for both classes followed by two 10 min. class-specific sessions for the GT300 and GT500 classes. However, just five minutes into the session, the GT300 class No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira/Kazuhisa Urabe) crashed at the first corner to bring on a Red Flag stoppage. After the car was cleared away the session was restarted, and with the improvement in the track condition the cars’ lap times were improving. It was then, with 15 minutes remaining in the joint-class session that Sato in the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) recorded a time of 1’18.533, close to the top time of car No. 1 in the morning Session 1. Then in the class-specific sessions that began at 4:31, it was Oyu in the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/Toshiki Oyu) who came in with a time of 1’17.456 to give him the fastest time of the day. As for the GT500 class rookie Koide in the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide), he made (a) time attack(s) but with one minute remaining in the session, he ran off the track and came to a stop in the gravel bed. This brought out the Yellow Flag and the session ended that way without a re-start. The driver Tsuboi, who drove this day in Session 1 in the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra, which won consecutive GT500 class championship in 2023 and 2024, eventually recorded the top time. As for Yamashita, who drove car No. 1 in Session 2, he finished in 5th position, just 0.445 sec. behind the top time. Tsuboi commented afterwards that since the day had been so cold, all of the teams were running on tires that were outside their functional range. He added that this made it difficult for the teams to warm up their tires, and as a result, today’s times don’t hold much meaning. Nonetheless, he also hinted that he gained some confidence from the overall results. As for Sacha Fenestraz (No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra), he said he was glad to have returned to Japan to participate for the first time since 2022, and he commented that the TGR TEAM SARD under the leadership of Manager Juichi Wakisaka is very professional. He added that he had teamed with his current teammate Yuhi Sekiguchi in the TOM’s car No. 36, but he also admitted that it was too early to talk about his expectations for the season. He showed his careful outlook by adding also that he would have to see how the team did tomorrow and how they did at the Official Test sessions to be held next at Fuji Speedway.
■In the GT300 morning session last year’s champions, the VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 shows its strength
In the GT300 class morning session (Session 1) last year’s champions, the No. 0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima), showed its speed, as Kogure ran a top time of 1’25.475 on the 11th lap. Eventually, no other team was able to match this time, giving No. 0 the top time for the session. However, very close behind it in 2nd and 3rd positions came the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) with a time of 1’25.486 and the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNEMIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka/Shunji Okumoto) with a time of 1’25.673. In the afternoon session (Session 2), the No. 9 PACIFIC IDOLMASTER NAC AMG (Ryohei Sakaguchi/Yusuke Tomibayashi/Yuta Fujiwara) recorded a top time of 1’27.712 on the 48th lap. However, with 3 min. remaining in the class-specific session, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX Z (Ryuichi Tomita/Kazuki Oki) ran off the track coming out of the first corner to bring out a second Red Flag stoppage and the session ended without a re-start. With this, the time of 1’25.475 run by car No. 0 in the morning session became the fastest time of the day. As for the car No. 2 that crashed in the early going of Session 2, it suffered considerable damage and was not only unable to run in that session but also withdrew from entering the second day’s tests.
GT500 class – Day 1 overall top time
Toshiki Oyu（No.38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra）
The tires that we brought in this day did not fit today’s weather conditions, and there were also big changes in the (track and other) conditions. So, we thought that we shouldn’t be misled by trying to base our decisions for the actual (Opening Round) race on what we found here and, instead, we decided to focus on working in the right direction in the tests themselves. But since we were able to get a good feeling from one time attack with a dry track condition, that gives us some confidence. Although we were able to get the fastest time, I believe we still have to work on improving the (overall) performance.
GT300 class – Day 1 overall top time
Takashi Kogure（VENTENY Lamborghini GT3）
It is an honor that we are able to use the “0”* race number, so I am happy about that. It is also encouraging that we were able to record the fastest time, even though it was just in the tests. However, because of the (low) temperatures, we couldn’t warm up the tires well, and the fact that we weren’t able to get any reliable data also makes things difficult. But, since the (settings) that we came here with were not bad, I believe that we can go into the opening round of the series with a good feeling. However, I also feel that the rivals are fast, which means we can’t let ourselves be overly optimistic at all. * The racing number “0” can only be used by previous year’s GT300 class champion car (however it is also possible to use the previous year’s race number).
