Okusa puts Nakajima Racing on pole for first Motegi Super GT race

Nakajima Racing's Riki Okusa has emerged as a real star in qualifying to close out the 2026 Autobacs Super GT Series. On Saturday morning, Okusa put the Dunlop-clad No. 64 Honda HRC Prelude-GT on pole for the first Motegi GT 250km Race of the weekend, which starts this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. JST (local time).

RACER Network and RACER+ will have live English-language coverage of today’s 53-lap race from Mobility Resort Motegi, starting at 11:50 p.m. ET / 8:50 p.m. PT.

Okusa’s pole is the third consecutive pole position for team and driver, and the fifth consecutive pole – and front-row sweep – for Honda since the end of the summer break.

Okusa set a 1m36.572s to win the pole by over three-tenths from the No. 16 ARTA Mugen Honda of Tomoki Nojiri in second with a 1m36.917s. Both drivers set their fastest times at the very end of the 15-minute qualifying session – with this weekend’s two-race format, qualifying for both classes was consolidated to one session each, with no knockout format.

Behind the two leading Hondas, two Toyota GR Supra GT500s locked out the second row, led by Nirei Fukuzumi in the No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota (1m36.942s) ahead of the Yokohama-shod No. 19 TGR Team Bandoh GR Supra of Sena Sakaguchi (1m37.009s).

And then two Nissan Z NISMO GT500s will start on row three – Atsushi Miyake in the No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan (1m37.097s), next to Bertrand Baguette in the No. 12 Team Impul Nissan (1m37.242s).

Championship co-leader Kenta Yamashita qualified seventh in the No. 36 TGR Team TOM'S GR Supra (1m37.404s), one spot ahead of Tadasuke Makino and the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda (1m37.418s), Makino and co-driver Naoki Yamamoto enter today's race three points behind Yamashita and Sho Tsuboi.

Rounding out the top ten in GT500 were Toshiki Oyu (No. 38 TGR Team Cerumo Toyota) and Sacha Fenestraz (No. 39 TGR Team SARD Toyota) in ninth and 10th.

But the tough-luck loser of GT500 qualifying was rookie Yuto Nomura, who had set outright best first and second sectors on his flying lap before a puncture in the final sector forced him to abort the lap. Instead, the No. 17 Real Racing Prelude-GT will start 14th and last in today's race.

The 20-minute GT300 qualifying session produced a surprising pole winner: Veteran driver Ryuichiro Tomita put the No. 11 Gainer Nissan Fairlady Z on top in the session, giving Gainer its first Super GT pole position since 2022, and the first for both the driver and the GTA-GT300-spec Nissan Z-car.

Tomita's 1m45.418s on his last flying lap put him nearly four-tenths up on Autopolis 3 Hour winner Shinichi Takagi and the No. 96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 (1m45.786s) in second place.

The No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Takashi Kogure, 1m45.809s) will line up third, next to the No. 61 R&D Sport Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Hideki Yamauchi, 1m45.857s) in fourth, and ahead of the No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h (Kazuto Kotaka, 1m45.890s) in fifth.

Five teams in GT300 still stand within 25 points of championship leader João Paulo de Oliveira, who qualified 17th in the No. 56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R GT3 (1m46.905s). The best of those title contenders was Charlie Fagg in the No. 777 D'station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (1m46.188s) in eighth, and the returning Ritomo Miyata, who qualified ninth in the No. 7 CarGuy MKS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (1m46.290s).

However, the No. 2 INGING Motorsport Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi, 1m46.986s) and the No. 65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Togo Suganami, 1m47.009s) will have a long way to climb to get in contention after qualifying 21st and 22nd respectively.

On the last row, the No. 32 Rookie Racing GR GT3 Concept qualified 27th for its worldwide motorsports debut. Hiroaki Ishiura's best time of 1m48.105s was 2.7 seconds slower than the pole, and now all efforts will turn towards running a trouble-free debut race this afternoon.

Full results to follow.