The FUJI GT SPRINT RACE, Round 4 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place on August 2nd at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 m x 35 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture. Although there were no real problems as feared due to the Typhoon No. 9 passing close, there were some sprinkles of rain near the end of the race, but the race successfully reached its goal. In the GT500 class, Sho Tsuboi in the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra who had finished 2nd in the qualifying, took the lead in the early going and appeared to be on the way to a perfect win. In the GT300 class, Charlie Fagg in the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 came up from 4th position on the starting grid to take a come-from-behind win. Tomorrow, August 3rd (Sun.) will see the holding of Race 2.
□Official Qualifying Weather: clear｜Track: dry ｜ Air temperature/Track surface temperature at start of GT300 Qualifying：33℃/54℃, at finish of GT300 Qualifying: 34℃/59℃.
The 20-minute GT300 class Official Qualifying started at 11:40 in the morning. With the Air temperature at a summer-hot 33℃. The session got off to a comparatively quiet start with four cars entering the track as soon as it opened, four more cars going out by 6 minutes into the session and nine more cars by 10 minutes after the session start.
The reasons why the cars did not all start out onto the track all at once as usual were the concern for tire wear since the designated tires could not be changed during the qualifying and the traffic (congestion) on the track, which probably led the teams to plan their strategies based on the qualifying track conditions and timing.
With 10 minutes remaining in the session, the teams that had been waiting to start their runs finally took to the track one after another. After entering the track, the cars spent the first four or five laps before starting their flying laps and improving on their best lap times from the 1’38 sec. range to the 1’37 sec. range.
With 3 min. remaining in the session, it was Hibiki Taira in the No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT who chose his timing to record a lap of 1’37.184 to take the top spot.
Following this, the No. 7 CARGUY Ferrari 296 GT3 (Rikuto Kobayashi) that had taken 2nd position in the official practice recorded a time of 1’37.341. And the was followed by the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 (Charlie Fagg) with a time of 1’37.373.
Just before this, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) had moved into 2nd position with a time of 1’37.314. With this, the leading car No. 2 further improved on its best time with a lap of 1’37.094.
This gave Hibiki Taira in the No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT pole position for Race 1. Despite being a driver known for his speed, this was surprisingly Taira’s first personal pole position.
Finishing in 2nd and 3rd position the qualifying were the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) and the No. 7 CARGUY Ferrari 296 GT3 (Rikuto Kobayashi) respectively. Finishing 4th and 5th in the qualifying were the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 (Charlie Fagg) and No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka).
Saturday’s Race 1 was run as a joint race with the two classes running together, starting from 3:15 in the afternoon.
