The 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT season will begin in less than one month. The other day, this year’s first SUPER GT Official Tests were held at the Okayama International Circuit, where the opening round of the season will be held (April 12th, 13th), and at the tests we interviewed seven drivers who are the focus of particular attention in the GT500 class. Here we introduce their comments, as they look forward to the opening round. The fifth driver we interviewed was Mitsunori Takaboshi, who will driving this year for the NISMO No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z team that will be a leading presence among the NISSAN teams. *The contents are mainly from the interview after the first day of tests.
Mitsunori Takaboshi No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z
−−As for your move to the NISMO No. 23 team, has it changed your outlook any? The fact that I was moved to car No. 23 was due to the retirement as a SUPER GT driver by Ronnie Quintarelli, who has contributed so much to NISSAN until now. But I don’t feel that this has really changed anything significantly for me. −−The Official Tests at Okayama were held under unfortunate conditions, so what kinds of test did you do? I think the tires we brought to the Okayama tests would have performed well if the temperature was that of Friday (when the weather was good), but then on Saturday the air temperature dropped about ten degrees Celsius. So, naturally the tires did not fit the conditions very well, but it was just as bad for everyone (the other teams), and it made things difficult for us, too. So, rather than looking at (evaluating) the tire performance. the feeling was that we shifted the focus of our tests to other things. −−Now will you tell us about your expectations for the opening round. As for the opening round at Okayama, at this point I can’t say that we are in good enough condition to aim for a win there. First of all, I want to see us try to get as many series points as we can, even if it is just one more. Our ultimate goal is to win the championship, but for now I think the goal is above all just to get as many series points as possible. If we have the potential we will be trying for the championship title, but looking at things objectively, I feel that now we don’t have that much potential. So, at the coming tests at Fuji Speedway and in the opening round we need to work to raise our potential substantially.
In the next interview, we will talk with Sacha Fenestraz, who participated in the GT500 class until 2022, after which he competed in series overseas. This season he returns to SUPER GT where he is now a member of the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra team. We hope you will look forward to it.
