2022.08.06

Rd. 4 Qualifying GT500: WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra wins third straight Pole Position! In a follow-up to Round 2, Sakaguchi is fastest again at Fuji Speedway

Round 4 Fuji Speedway : Qualifying GT500

Official Qualifying for the FUJIMAKI GROUP FUJI GT 100 Lap RACE, Round 4 of the 2022 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on August 6th at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 m) in Shizuoka Prefecture. The GT500 class Pole Position was won by Sakaguchi in the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) for the second straight time at Fuji since Round 2 and its 3rd consecutive time this season. The GT300 class pole was taken by Gamou in the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara). These two teams will start from the front of their respective class grids in tomorrow’s race on August 7th.

 

 

 

In contrast to the previous weeks scorching heat, qualifying day for Rd. 4 of the season at Fuji Speedway was blessed with relatively cool air temperatures for early August. When the GT500 class Q1 qualifying session began at 3:00 in the afternoon, the air temperature stood at 22℃.

Normally, at the start of their 10-minute Q1 session, the GT500 teams will wait in their pits for the first two or three minutes. But on this day, they began taking to the track almost as soon as the session began. This is believed to be the result of the fact that the ideal track temperature for the tires the teams had prepared for this weekend was higher than the actual track temperature this day. So, the drivers would need at least three laps to properly warm up their tires to the best temperature. The first car to begin its time attacks was the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima), currently 2nd in the series ranking (but with equal points with the ranking leader). Carrying 52 kg of Success Weights, recorded a lap time of 1’27.706 to move to top position on the time board. But that position was taken from it immediately when the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) ran a time of 1’27.362.

With less than three minutes remaining in the session, the competition for the top spot intensified among the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 car, for whom Fuji Speedway is their home track. Among them, it was the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura) that emerged on top with a lap of 1’27.095 run during the checkered flag lap. Amazingly, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi) ran a lap just after this in exactly the same time, but according to the race regulation, No. 38 retained top position for the Q1 session having recorded the time first.

This gave the first two places in the Q1 session to cars No. 38 and No. 36 respectively. They were followed by the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto) and the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz) to give the GR Supra cars a sweep of the top four places. Finishing Q1 in 5th position was the only Honda NSX-GT team to make it through to Q2, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi). Filling out the top eight in 6th to 8th positions were three Nissan Z GT500 cars, led by the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki).

 

 

 

 

　At 4:13 in the afternoon, the GT500 class Q2 session began with roughly the same air　temperature and track temperature as in Q1. As with Q1, the eight participating teams took to the track as soon as possible to begin warming up their tires. And they began to make their timed attacks with about three minutes remaining in the 10-minute session. First it was the top qualifier from Q1, car No. 38, driven this time by Yuji Tachikawa, who ran a personal best time of 1’27.074, which became the target time. After that the competition times dipped into the 1’26 sec. range.

The first of these was a 1’26.813 lap by car No. 24 (Kohei Hirate). Then, another car on Yokohama tires, No. 19 (Sena Sakaguchi) ran an amazing time of 1’26.178 to grab the top spot. Furthermore, on the final lap with the Checkered flag shown, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ritomo Miyata) also broke the 1’27 sec. barrier to move into 3rd position with a time of 1’26.994.

With this, the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) won pole position. This gave TGR TEAM WedsSport BANDOH its third consecutive pole position of the series. While for Sakaguchi, it was a follow-up on his pole win at Fuji Speedway in Round 2 this season, and his third personal pole position.

Qualifying 2nd came the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate), scoring the best showing in the qualifying this season by a Nissan Z GT500. Third and fourth positions went to the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz/Ritomo Miyata) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) respectively. Qualifying 5th was the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi), making it the fastest qualifier among the NSX-GT cars.

 

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