Toyota sweeps qualifying for Super GT Fuji 3 Hours

Toyota has locked out the front row for Monday’s Super GT Fuji 3 Hours, with TGR Team Rookie Racing driver Nirei Fukuzumi capturing the pole in qualifying on Sunday.

Fukuzumi and co-driver Kazuya Oshima’s No. 14 Toyota GR Supra GT500 will share the front row with championship leaders Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, who’ll line up second in the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota.

RACER Network and RACER+ will have live coverage of the Autobacs Super GT Series’ annual Golden Week holiday special, with coverage starting Monday 12:50am ET / Sunday 9:50pm PT, anchored by commentators Jonathan Green and Jon Massengale.

When the checkered flag dropped at the end of GT500’s Q2 session, Rookie Racing’s ace driver Fukuzumi put together a lap of 1m26.254s to take his eighth career GT500 pole position. His time was half a second away from Yamashita’s 2021 qualifying lap record at Fuji. Yamashita, meanwhile, took the checkers right behind him, setting a 1m26.418s.

A potential Toyota 1-2-3 was broken up by the No. 23 NISMO Nissan Z of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi, which qualified third ahead of the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota of Toshiki Oyu and Rikuto Kobayashi. TGR Team Cerumo won last year’s Fuji 3 Hours, and Kobayashi was the quickest driver in Q1.

All five Honda HRC Prelude-GTs advance to Q2, but in a surprise, the top-qualifying Honda was the No. 64 Nakajima Racing Prelude-GT of Riki Okusa and Igor Fraga. The only GT500 car on Dunlop tires qualified sixth, ahead of the Bridgestone-clad No. 8 Team HRC ARTA Mugen Honda of Kakunoshin Ohta and Hiroki Otsu in sixth.

The No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda, the No. 16 ARTA Mugen Honda, the No. 17 Real Racing Honda, and the No. 12 Team Impul Nissan completed the top ten grid positions in the premier class.

GT500 RESULTS

In GT300, the flat-six powered No. 61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ put in an awe-inspiring run to pole position, headlined by a new class course record set by driver Hideki Yamauchi.

Yamauchi broke his own course record established in 2021, setting a 1m34.314s, to take his record-extending 17th career GT300 pole position. Co-driver Takuto Iguchi did his part as well, setting the fastest time in his Q1 group.

The Japanese-built GTA-GT300 cars occupy the first two rows, with the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka/Miki Koyama/Charlie Wurz) starting second, ahead of the No. 52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Seita Nonaka) in third, and the No. 11 Gainer Nissan Fairlady Z (Ryuichiro Tomita/Kazuki Oki) in fourth.

Fastest of the GT3 cars were reigning champions Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami in the No. 65 K2 R&D Leon Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in fifth, sharing row three with the No. 56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Jõao Paulo de Oliveira/Iori Kimura).

Okayama winners Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg start 11th in the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. And last year’s Fuji 3 Hours-winning car, the No. 6 Velorex Ferrari 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Niklas Krütten), will have to come from deep in the field as it did last year, starting 21st after missing the cut in Q1.

GT300 RESULTS