Round 4 FUJI SPEEDWAY : Qualifying GT300

Official Qualifying for the FUJI 350km RACE, Round 4 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on August 3rd at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 m) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In the mid-summer heat of early August, the air temperature rose to 33 degrees Celsius just before the start of the qualifying. In these conditions, the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) took its first pole position of the season. In the GT300 class, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa) won its second class pole of the series, following the one in the season opener. These two teams will start from the front of their respective class grids in tomorrow’s race on August 4th.

　Because of the need to clean up spilled oil on the track that occurred in the FIA-F4 Rd. 5 support race just before the start of the Official Qualifying, the qualifying started five minutes behind schedule at 2:30 in the afternoon. Furthermore, in special consideration for the change in the track condition, the qualifying for the GT300 class that was run in two separate groups was held in the same format as with a WET Declaration. This resulted in a division into two groups for Q2 based on the results of Q1 and the decision to have the qualifying order based entirely on the results of Q2. Despite this measure, the special Switch Rule normally applied for the Q2 Group 1 (Upper 16) and the Group 2 (lower 17) was eliminated.

For Q1 the first group to run, based on a lottery held at the previous round, Group B ran first. The 10-minute session began at 2:30 in the afternoon. Under very hot conditions with the Air temperature at 33℃ and the Track temperature at 54℃, the 13 cars of Group B started their Q1 session. Most of the cars recorded their best lap times on the fourth or fifth lap on the track. Here, it was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) that recorded the top time of 1’38.195, which advanced it to a position in Group 1 for the Q2 session. Finishing Q1 in 2nd and 3rd positions respectively came the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Takuro Shinohara) and the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) that had finished fastest in the official practice in the morning.

At 2:48 in the afternoon it was Group A’s turn to run their Q1 session, and here again the cars recorded their fastest laps one after another on their fourth or fifth lap. Here it was the winner of Round 3 at Suzuka, the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii) that recorded a of 1’38.125. In the morning’s official practice, the team was only able to finish in 23rd position, but after some effective setting adjustments and some skillful use of the slipstream of other cars, it made a big recovery. Coming next in 2nd position was the No. 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO (Kiyoto Fujinami) with a time of 1’38.230, while 3rd position went to the No. 7 Studie BMW M4 (Niklas Krütten).

　After the GT500 class Q1, the 11 cars of Group 2 (Lower17) began their Q2 session at 3:23 in the afternoon. Here, the No. 20 SHADE RACING GR86 GT (Eijiro Shimizu) was struck with machine trouble. It returned to the pit for repairs but was eventually unable to return to the qualifying. In Group 2, it was the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Syun Koide) that recorded a top time of 1’38.517, which gave it 17th position in the Qualifying. As for 2nd and 3rd positions, they went to the 1st and 2nd ranked cars in the Drivers’ standing, namely the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi) and the No. 52 Green Brave GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida).

The Group 1 Q2 session began at 3:41 in the afternoon. The top qualifier in the Group A Q1 session, the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Charlie Fagg) set a target time of 1’38.101 on its third lap. On the 4th lap, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou) ran a lap of 1’37.764 that beat the time of car No. 777 to take the top position. Meanwhile, a close race for 2nd position was heating up. Then the No. 87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 (Natsu Sakaguchi) that was using the same HURACAN GT3 EVO2 machine as car No. 88 for this Round 4 competition recorded a time of 1’37.815 to take 2nd position. Finally, it was the GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) that took 3rd position with a time of 1’38.093. As for No. 777, it finished in 4th position.

With these Q2 results, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara) won its second Pole Position of the season, following its one in the opening round at Okayama. And lining up together with No. 65 at the front of the starting grid for race on Aug. 4th will be the No. 87 HURACAN GT3 EVO2. Behind them in the second row will be the No. 4 AMG G3 and the No. 777 Vantage GT3.