On March 7th the 2026 AUTOBACS SUPER GT the second day (final day) of Official Tests at Okayama were run. Unlike on the first day the venue was open to the public. Filling the Okayama International Circuit this day were GT fans anxiously awaiting the opening round of the season to be held here at Okayama approximately one month later (April 11th, 12th). In this interval would be held Pit Viewing enabling the crowds of fans to view the season’s new cars close at hand on the Pit Road
◎First run (Session 3 Morning of Day 2) 9:00 – 11:20 (11:20 – 11:35 led by the Safety Car simulation) Weather: Clear / Track surface: Wet to Dry Air temperature: 8℃ – 11℃ / Track surface temp.: 10℃ – 21℃
◎Second Session (Session 4: Afternoon of Day 2) 14:00 – 16:05 (Starting practice from 13:45, 5 minutes added) Weather: Cloudy to Rain, clear at times / Track surface: Dry Air temperature: 12℃ – 9℃ / Track surface temp.: 21℃ – 13℃
■With portions of the track wet from the rain that had continued from the previous night to the early morning、the au TOM’S GR Supra ran the Top time! Following it came the STANLEY HRC PRELUDE -GT
In the Official Tests Okayama Day 2, in the morning session the air temperature failed to reach 10℃ by the start of Session 3. There were patches of rain on the track from the previous night’s rain and the Track Condition was declared Wet. However, there wasn’t enough water to cause a spray when passing through it, and it gradually dried out as the session continued. Considering the track condition at the start of the session, about 20 cars went out on the track and started running laps, but then the GT500 class rookie Kobayashi in the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra （Toshiki Oyu / Rikuto Kobayashi） crashed on the back stretch. This brought out the Red Flag for the first time of the day.
It took about ten minutes to recover the car and then the session was restarted, and after about one hour most of the cars were out running on the course. As the track became completely dry the teams began improving their best times. Then it was the No. 18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 （Takashi Kobayashi / Kotaro Shimbara） that overshot the Hairpin Turn and came to a stop, bringing out the Red Flag for the second time. With its tires sunk deep in the gravel, it took time to recover the car, and it was about 30 minutes before the session was restarted. That cause the session to be extended for an extra 20 minutes.
During this time, the Top Time remained the 1’18.009 sec. recorded by Tsuboi in the No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra （Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita） in the early stages. This was followed by the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra （Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi） with the second fastest time.
With about 15 minutes remaining in the session, Makino in the No. 100 STANLEY HRC PRELUDE -GT （Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino） recorded a 1’18.049 sec. This beat the time of the No. 37 GT Supra to move No. 100 up into 2nd position. After this there were no big changes in the order, thus giving car No. 36 the Top Time for the third successive session since Day 1. The top five places were filled out by the No. 100 PRELUDE-GT, the No. 37 GR Supra, and the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z （Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette） and the No.1 6 #16 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE -GT （Tomoki Nojiri / Ren Sato）.
■The afternoon sees the weather change rapidly from cloudy to sleet and then sunshine. As the ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra sets the fastest time! 2nd and 3rd fastest times go to the REALIZE CORPORATION Z and the TRS IMPUL with SDG Z.
After the morning Session 3, the sun returned to the sky over the circuit. Although the air remained cold, the sunlight gave some feeling of warmth to the air. When the Pit Viewing began at 1:00 in the afternoon, SUPER GT fans swarmed onto the circuit. Next came the Traffic Safety Promotion Parade Lap by the Okayama Prefectural Police, and although this time it was just a practice run, it still had the look of the real thing.
Then, at 1:45 in the afternoon the start simulation was held, with the cars from each class lining up on the track. The No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra and the GT300 class No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 G that had finished on top in the respective classes on the Day 1 tests took their places in their class pole positions. Then, led by the Safety Car, they ran a formation lap and then made their starts, with that constituting the start of Session 4.
Following this, there were sudden changes in the weather, with light rain beginning to fall from the heavy cloud cover over head. As with the morning’s Session 3, the tack condition was declared Wet as the cars began to run their laps seriously.
About ten minutes into the session, the No. 31 apr LC500h GT （Kazuto Kotaka / Miki Koyama / Charlie Wurz） ran of the track at the first corner and came to a stop and thus brought out the Red Flag to stop the session. When the session was restarted after about 10 minutes, the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra （Nirei Fukuzumi / Kazuya Oshima） took the lead with a lap of 1’18.076 sec. Then it was the No.16 #16 ARTA MUGEN HRC PRELUDE -GT that ran off the track at the same first corner, bringing out the Red Flag again. At that time, there were patches of oil stills on the track from a GT300 car, and with the time it took to clean up the oil spill, the stoppage time stretched out to some 30 minutes.
During this time light rain mixed with sleet fell for a while, which made the track slippery at the observation posts and forced the showing of the Oil Flag again. Due to the bad condition of the track surface, many of the cars waited out their time in the pits, but with 20 minutes remaining in the session the sun began to appear again, bring with it a slight feeling of warmth.
The track condition also improved to some degree; some cars began to post sector-best times. However, it was then that the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION Z （Teppei Natori / Atsushi Miyake）ran off the track at the Hairpin Corner. As it turned out, there were three Red Flags shown in this session to stop the action and the session was finally extended by 5 minutes. When the session was restarted with 11 minutes of running time remaining, Oyu in the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra and Baguette in the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z were able to improve on the teams’ best times. With this, the No. 12 Z moved up into 3rd position, but it wasn’t able to better Fukuzumi’s time in the No. 14 GR Supra. In the end, the ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra maintained the top time in the session. Also, on this day the overall top time was the one Tsuboi recorded in the morning in car No. 36.
■ In the GT300 class, the Green Brave GR Supra GT recorded the top Time in both sessions
In the GT300 class it was the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT （Hiroki Yoshida / Seita Nonaka）that recorded the top Time in both the morning and afternoon sessions. On this Day 2, the overall best time was the 1’25.125 sec. time recorded by Nonaka in car No. 52.
As for the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG （Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka）that had been plagued by minor trouble during the Day 1 tests, on this day it was able to make serious runs from the morning session. And for the No. 25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra GT（Takamitsu Matsui / Ryota Horachi）, which had refrained from running in the afternoon session on Day 1, it was also able to run this day for some 90 laps.
In the morning session, it was Ishiura in the No. 32 ENEOS X PRIME AMG GT3 （Hiroaki Ishiura / Tokiya Suzuki） that took the top position, but in the latter stages it was Nonaka in the Green Brave GR Supra GT that was able to better Ishiura’s time. What’s more, the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT （Hiroki Yoshimoto / Shunsuke Kohno） which had recorded the top time on Day 1 also beat Ishiura’s time to move into 2nd position.
In addition to the three Red Flags that were shown in the afternoon session, the conditions were poor due to successive changes in the weather. During the time when rain mixed with sleet was falling, many teams kept their cars in the pits. In the latter stages, there were times when some sun shined through, and a few teams were able to run their best times during it. It was Kvyat in the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 （Takashi Kogure / Daniil Kvyat） who ran all of the sessions by himself to get used to the car and the course, and in the latter stages he was able move into 5th position with a margin of just 0.5 sec.
In the end, there was no change in the top time, as it remained the time of 1’25.347 sec. set by Yoshida in the 16th lap driving the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT.
■GT500 class – Day 2 Overall Top Time
Sho Tsuboi （No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra）
“The best time I got was one that I ran when I was first trying to verify my car’s performance. Since it was run while I was in traffic and my impression was that there would still be room for improvement. Today we were working primarily on our long-run menu. Yesterday I was primarily watching the performance of our tires that looked good. Since it was a brand that we primarily chose for long two-hour runs (with the race in mind), and since there were Red Flags along the way and the engineers were very resourceful in the way they controlled them, we were able to run the menu as we wanted to, So I thought it a very good test. As for our choice of tires, we felt that we had found the best answer. We are now well prepared for the opening round.”
■GT300 class – Day 2 Overall Best Time
Seita Nonaka（No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT）
“During the off-season we had been updating our car, and this time was the first chance to see what we had. From the beginning we were running good times, but at this point yesterday we still thought there were things that might be problematic, so we wanted to make some more adjustments as we ran. This morning things went well, but in the afternoon, there were Red Flags, so to tell the truth we haven’t been able to complete our menu of things to do. Since I feel that the other competitors are also trying out things in the same way, we are not really concerned about where we stand in the order. Looking forward to race week, we have to keep thinking about things we can improve. Rather than being content with what we have now, I think we have to keep watching what changes are taking place in the competition and increase the number of resources available to us.”
