Round 5 SUZUKA CIRCUIT : Qualifying GT300

　The official qualifying for the SUZUKA GT 300km RACE Grand Final, Round 5 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place at Suzuka circuit (1 lap 5,807m) in Mie Prefecture on December 7th (Sat.). In the GT500 class, the leaders of the Drivers standing, the No 36 au TOM'S GR Supra（Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita）won pole position to take the 2024 GT500 class Title before the race would be run. In the GT300 class, the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3（Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima）won the class pole position, from which it will attempt to take a come-from-behind title win from its current 2nd position in the point standings.

　This season brought a change in the formant of the GT300 class Official Qualifying from Round 5 (August 31), but due to the postponement of Round 5 the change was scheduled to take place from Round 6, but for that round and the following two, the Qualifying had to be held in rainy conditions. Because of this, the new qualifying format would not be used until this Round 5 held in December as the final race of the season. In this new format, all of the cars (27 cars) would run together in Q1, while Q2 would be run in two separate sessions, with the top 14 cars from Q1 competing as Group 1 (Upper 14) and the cars from 15th downward competing in Q2 Group 2 (Lower 15). Because this final round was to be held in December with its expected low air temperatures, the length of each of the Q1 and Q2 sessions would be lengthened by 5 minutes in consideration for the added time needed to warm up the tires. For this reason, the Q1 session would run for 25 minutes. Also, for this round, the order of the running of the qualifying for the two classes was reversed to have the GT500 class qualifying run first.

The GT300 class Q1 was started at 2:13 in the afternoon, and since it would be the first qualifying to be held with dry track conditions since the change in format, the teams adopted different strategies regarding whether to take to the track as soon as it opened or to wait for a while before going out on the track.

Midway through the Q1 session, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) was the first to move into the top position with a time of 1’55.547. This was followed by the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Jin Nakamura) with a time of 1’55.894 and the leader of the series point ranking, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou).

Then, after the time remaining in the session reached the 5-minute mark, a big change in positions began. The first to beat car No. 61’s top time was the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure), that was eyeing a come-from-behind shot at the championship. Running a time of 1’55.132 that beat the standing GT300 class SUZUKA course record (1’55.531), No. 88 moved into the top position.

Meanwhile, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Hibiki Taira), which needed to finish in the top three in the qualifying in order to keep alive hopes for a come-from-behind championship win, suddenly ran off the track at the Degner Curve. Still, Taira was able to get back on the track with 3 minutes remaining in the session in time to run a lap of 1’55.740 to move into 4th position. This got it a place in the Q2 Group 1 and a chance to keep its championship title hopes alive.

In the end, the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure) finished Q1 in the top spot. The No. 87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 (Natsu Sakaguchi) finished in 2nd position with a time of 1’55.420. Finishing in 3rd and 4th positions respectively were the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) and the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT to finish out the top four.

　After the end of the GT500 class Q2 session, the GT300 class Q2 started at 3:11 in the afternoon with Group 2 (Lower15), but just after the course opened, the No. 22 R'Qs AMG GT3 (Hisashi Wada) came to a stop just outside the pit exit. This brought out a Red Flag to stop the session. Fortunately, No. 22 was able to restart and run under its own power for one lap to return to the pit. With this, the session was restarted at 3:18 in the afternoon.

Then, it was the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Shinichi Takagi) that ran a time of 1’55.285 to move into the top spot in Group 2. Finishing in 2nd position was the No. 50 ANEST IWATA Racing RC F GT3 (Yuga Furutani). Finishing in 3rd position was Reimei Ito in the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT, who was running in his first qualifying attacks ever in the SUPER GT.

With these results, the No. 96 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) qualified in 15th position with its Combined Time from Q1 and Q2 and was followed by the No. 50 (Igor Omura Fraga/Yuga Furutani), the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide/Yusuke Mitsui※), and the No. 60 (Hiroki Yoshimoto※/Shunsuke Kohno/Reimei Ito).

Starting six minutes later than originally scheduled, the Group 1 (Upper14) session began at 3:40 in the afternoon, to begin its 15-minute session of time attacks as the sun dropped considerably in the west. The No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) was the first to post a time of 1’55.249. With this it moved to the top of the Combined Times standing.

However, with 3 minutes remaining in the session, the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Yuya Motojima) recorded a time of 1’55.570. Then, on the next lap it ran a time of 1’55.206 to beat the time of No. 61 and move into the top spot. Then, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi) that had finished 4th in Q1 came in with a time of 1’55.326 to move into 5th position in the session and 3rd position in the Combined Time standings. Also, Oliveira in the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki/Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira) ran the top time in Group 1 of 1’55.092, which was faster than No. 88’s record in Q1.

With these results, the No. 88 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) won Pole Position. With the 3 points this gave the team for winning pole position in the qualifying, No. 88 closed to within 8 points of the point leader in the Drivers ranking, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara), which this time had finished 10th in the qualifying (thus winning no points). Qualifying 2nd came the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi), while 3rd position went to the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira), which also moved it to within 19 points of No. 65.