The official qualifying for the opening round of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE,” was held on April 12 at the Okayama International Circuit (one lap 3.703 km) in Okayama Prefecture. As with the 2023, this season’s qualifying is held in a knock-out format, and for both classes, the number of cars advancing to Q2 has been increased, making the qualifying even more exciting to watch. In the GT500 class, Fukuzumi in the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) won pole position with his performance in Q2. In the GT300 class, Kataoka in the No. 4 GOOD SMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG recorded the fastest time in the class. With this result, these two teams will start from front position on their respective class starting grids in tomorrow’s race on April 13.
□ The official qualifying Weather：Q1/Q2：cloudy | Track: dry | Air Temperature/Track Temperature GT500 Q1 at start： 23℃/30℃、GT500 at time of Q2： 22℃/29℃、at finish： 21℃/27℃。
This season brings the return of the knock-out format for the qualifying adopted until 2023. With this format, the finishing order in Q1 determines the starting grid order for 11th to 15th place, while the top ten cars progress to Q2 to battle for the pole position and the top spots on the grid. While this format is the same as in 2023, the number of cars progressing to Q2 has been increased from eight to ten cars. Also, the number of tire sets that can be used in the qualifying Q1 and Q2 sessions is limited to one set, and no tire changes are allowed during the sessions.
The 10-min. GT500 class Q1 session started at 2:33 in the afternoon. The cars started their runs soon after the course was opened. After their first lap on the track, the cars began to gradually improve on their lap times, and the first to record a timed lap of 1’17.767 on its fourth lap was the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara). Next, the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu) recorded a lap of 1’17.677 on its fifth lap, and beating the time of No. 37, the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoya Yamamoto) recorded a time of 1’17.369 also on its fourth lap.
After the 2024 champion car, the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Kenta Yamashita) recorded a time to take the top spot, Otsu in car No. 16 improved on his own time to move into 2nd position. What’s more, the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima) also improved its time to 1’17.227 to take 3rd position and secure a spot in Q2.
Also, among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars, the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine) took 7th position, leading all four Nissan cars to qualify on to Q2.
Eventually, the times for the cars from the top spot in Q1 down to the No. 24 REALIZE CORPOLATION ADVAN Z (Teppei Natori) in 10th position were all bunched withing the space of 0.529 sec. And the times down to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi) in 15th position all fell into a space of 0.733 sec., again showing the intensity of the competition.
In the GT500 class Q2 that started at 3:11 in the afternoon, the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi) was quick to record a time of 1’16.516 on its fourth lap. This time beat the standing course record of 1’16.602 set by Ronnie Quintarelli (MOTUL AUTECH GT-R) in Round 1 in April of the 2019 season. Next, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto) and the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tadasuke Makino) also came close with times in the 1’16 range but were unable to beat the time of car No. 1.
With this, it looked as if the car No. 1 driver pair of Tsuboi and Yamashita would take their second straight pole position after the one in the final round of last season, but at the very end of the session the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi) came in with a time of 1’16.441 to beat the time of car No. 1 with a new Okayama course record to take the top spot.
It was here that the checkered flag was shown, and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Nirei Fukuzumi) took the pole position for the season’s opening round. Although the TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE had re-organized under new management from the end of last season into this year’s season and there were fears that it might face difficulties, this Pole win gave proof that all of the team members had prepared well for the new season.
As for Fukuzumi, who took the pole position in course-record time, it was his sixth pole, which gave solid proof of his speed. Especially, that fact that this was his first pole position since moving to TGR TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE, it not only showed that his teammate Oshima and the rest of the team had supported him well but also brought the joy of getting his first pole after some time.
Finishing the qualifying in 2nd position was the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita). The qualifying’s 3rd position went to Tsugio Matsuda, who had delayed entering the track for a while after the start of Q2, and then went on to record a time of 1’16.619 in the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori). Also, among the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars, the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) qualified in 4th position.
In the end, the top four cars in the qualifying included two TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars, and one car each of the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 and the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT, and the difference in their times was very close, within no more than a span of 0.227 sec. In the final race to be held on the 13th there is sure to be hot competition from the very start, and the outcome will certainly be difficult to predict. The race will start at 1:10 in the afternoon on the 13th. Which team will be the first to complete the 82 laps of this roughly 300km race?
