2024.06.01

Rd. 3 Qualifying　GT300: D'station Vantage GT3 team delights to its first class Pole! It also brings glowing smiles to the face of the Team Manager, former baseball Major Leaguer, Sasaki

Round 3 SUZUKA CIRCUIT : Qualifying GT300

　 The qualifying for the SUZUKA GT 300km RACE, Round 3 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place at Suzuka circuit (one lap: 5,807 m) in Mie Prefecture on June 1st (Sat). In the GT500 class, Sasahara got his first pole position since moving to the TOYOTA camp in the No. 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) and Alesi got his first-ever SUPER GT pole. In the GT300 class, the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charles Fagg) got its first class pole position for the drivers and the team. These two cars will start from the front grid positions in their respective classes in final race tomorrow on June 2nd.

 

　The Official Qualifying started at 3:00 in the afternoon. As a result of a lottery drawing held at the winners’ press conference at the previous round, Group B would run first in the GT300 class Q1 session.

As the 13 cars Group B started out, it was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi) that first recorded a time of 1’58.650 on its third lap on the track. Then the No. 31 apr LC500h GT (Kazuto Kotaka) came in with a time of 1’58.925. A big improvement on these times was recorded on the fourth lap by the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii). With its time of 1’57.894, No. 777 move up to the top spot in Group B. The 2nd position went to car No. 61, with No. 31 in 3rd position.

Meanwhile, the winner of Round 2 at Fuji, the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure), made a costly spin-out on the 130R curve. Also, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira) running just behind No. 88 was unable to make a time attack as a result.

After an 8-minute interval following the Group B session, the 14 cars of Group A took to the track. The first to record a time of 1’58.408 was the No. 20 SHADE RACING GR86 GT (Katsuyuki Hiranaka). This became the target time for the other cars, but none were able to beat it before the end of the session. With this result, car No. 20 took the top spot in Group A.

In close competition behind this, the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Roberto Merhi Muntan) recorded a time of 1’58.424 to take 2nd position. Following this, the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Hibiki Taira) succeeded in taking 3rd position despite carrying the largest load of 54 kg of Success Weight in the class.

 

 

 

 

 

　After the GT500 class Q1, the GT300 class Q2 started at 3:33 with Group 2 (Lower 17) running first. In this group, 11 cars ran, but the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Yuya Motojima) that had spun out in Q1 was unable to run as a result of damage to several of its tires. Also, the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) had to return to the pit after initially starting the session, apparently due to machine trouble.

In this session, the top time was recorded by the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou) with a lap of 1’59.187. The second fastest time of 1’59.735 was recorded by the No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Syun Koide), while 3rd position went to the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Shunsuke Kohno) with a time of 2’00.191.

In the GT300 class Group 1 (Upper 16) session of Q2 that started at 4:11, it was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Hideki Yamauchi) that ran an aggressive time attack to record the fastest time of all 16 cars in the group, at 1’58.193. This was followed in 2nd position by the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Charles Fagg) with a time of 1’58.296. In terms of combined times, whereas car No. 61’s combined time came to 3’56.843, when Fagg’s time was added to the team’s time that had been fastest of all in Q1, the team’s combined time came to 3’56.190, thus giving pole position to the No. 777 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charles Fagg). For the D'station Racing team this was their first class pole position, and in addition to being a first pole for Fagg, who is competing in GT300 for the first time this season, it is surprisingly also the first pole position for the veteran Fujii, who has won eight races until now in GT300. And in the interview held in front of the team’s pit, the joy of this success could be seen in the beaming smile on the face of the team’s General Manager, Kazuhiro Sasaki, a former star player in Major League baseball.

Finishing the qualifying in 2nd position was the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi). Third position went to the No. 2 muta Racing GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira) that had recorded the third fastest time in Q2. Also, as a result of the “switch” rule applied in Q2, the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara/Haruki Kurosawa*), No. 18 UPGARAGE NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide/Yusuke Mitsui*) and the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) cars from Group 2 were moved up to finish the overall qualifying in 13th to 15th positions.

* Drivers that didn’t run in the qualifying.

 

 

 

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