Nakajima Honda Takes Pole at Rain-Soaked Motegi

Nakajima Racing pair Takuya Izawa and Riki Okusa took a surprise pole position in a very wet qualifying session for this weekend’s Motegi SUPER GT round, giving the new Honda Civic Type R-GT its third pole of the season.

Izawa and Okusa’s combined effort at the wheel of the #64 Modulo Civic Type R-GT produced an aggregated time of 3:37.911, 0.381 seconds faster than the No. 8 ARTA Mugen Honda, giving Nakajima Racing its first pole position since 2021.

GT500 rookie Okusa has been fastest amid heavy rain in Q1, lapping Honda’s home track with a 1:49.255, while Tomoki Nojiri in the No. 8 car only managed the third-fastest time of the session behind the Rookie Racing Toyota GR Supra of Nirei Fukuzumi.

The rain had eased by the time of Q2, but Izawa only had to produce the third fastest time of the session with a 1:48.656 to seal the deal for the team owned by ex-Formula 1 driver Satoru Nakajima.

The fastest time of the day with 1:48.077 from Nobuharu Matsushita elevated the No. 8 ARTA car to second, making it an all-Honda front row for Sunday’s race.

Meanwhile, Kazuya Oshima couldn’t quite match the Q1 time of his teammate Fukuzumi, causing the No. 14 Toyota to slip to fifth behind the No. 36 TOM’S and Cerumo GR Supras.

TOM’S ace Sho Tsuboi visibly struggled with grip in Q1, only managing the eighth-fastest time. But with conditions improving, teammate Kenta Yamashita went 2.732 seconds faster to take third on the grid, resulting in a single bonus point.

This means that Tsuboi and Yamashita now lead the championship with three points ahead of the sister No. 37 TOM’S car, as Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi were only eighth on aggregate.

Honda’s main title contender, the Team Kunimitsu Civic of Tochigi Prefecture native Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino, could only manage ninth.

Nissan didn’t play much of a role in qualifying, as the title contenders Mitsunori Takaboshi and Atsushi Miyake in the No. 3 NISMO NDDP Z ended up 11th, one position behind the Impul Z of Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette.

Kotaka Delivers GT300 Pole for apr Lexus LC500h

In GT300, the apr Lexus LC500h GT took its maiden pole position courtesy of a 1:57.322 effort by Kazuto Kotaka, beating nearest rival Niklas Kruetten in the Team Studie BMW M4 GT3 by 0.157 seconds.

It was the first pole position for apr and a hybrid-powered car since 2021.

A wet qualifying meant that only the Q2 lap times counted for the grid, while Q1 determined which 14 cars were to fight for pole in the top group.

Heavy rain interrupted Q1 for several minutes, which was held as single group with all 27 cars for the first time, following the format changes announced back in August but were not implemented due to bad weather at Sugo and Autopolis.

The championship-leading LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Naoya Gamou and Takuro Shinohara missed out on a bonus point after Shinohara qualified fourth behind Shun Koide’s Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22.

Gamou and Shinohara’s biggest rivals in the championship, Inging Toyota GR86 GT pair Yuui Tsutsumi and Hibiki Taira missed out on the pole shootout, with second in the ‘Lower 15’ group leaving the pair 16th on the grid, one position ahead of No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 duo Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima.

The weather forecast predicts dry conditions for Sunday’s penultimate race of the season, which begins at 1 p.m. local time (12 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: GT500/GT300