Toyota Teams Dominate Okayama Official Testing

Toyota dominated the first official SUPER GT pre-season test at Okayama International Circuit, as Nirei Fukuzumi set the pace in the No. 14 Rookie Racing GR Supra.

Fukuzumi recorded the best time across the two-day test during the afternoon session on Saturday, a 1:17.317, during a ‘mock’ qualifying simulation designed to allow teams and drivers to familiarize themselves with the new-for-2024 aggregate times system.

All bar three of the 15 GT500 cars present at Okayama set their best times of the test during this simulation, the majority doing so in Q1 as this year’s rules require the same set of tires to be re-used in Q2, and then again for the first stint of the race.

Second-quickest was Kenta Yamashita in the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota with a 1:17.409, 0.092 seconds slower than Fukuzumi.

The No. 14 and No. 36 cars locked out the top two positions in all three dry sessions across the weekend, with Fukuzumi topping Saturday morning’s opening session with a 1:17.591 and Yamashita pacing Sunday morning’s running with a 1:17.418.

However, it was the TOM’S machine of Yamashita and Sho Tsuboi that earned ‘pole’ in qualifying by virtue of their aggregrated time of 2:34.953, which was 0.237 seconds faster than Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima’s combined efforts.

Toyota squad SARD made it a clean sweep of the top three for GR Supra crews, with Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama collectively posting a 2:35.630.

That was 0.023 seconds quicker than the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda Civic Type R-GT, in which Naoki Yamamoto drove in both Q1 and Q2 in the absence of his regular teammate Tadasuke Makino due to illness.

Yamamoto’s individual best time of 1:17.695 however was the third-fastest of the test overall, marginally eclipsing Nakayama’s 1:17.771.

On Sunday, Red Bull junior and Super Formula racer Ayumu Iwasa was parachuted in to join Yamamoto in the No. 100 car, although the GT500 rookie was only able to register a best time of 1:22.720 as rain fell midway through the morning session.

The final session of the weekend took place entirely in wet conditions, allowing Nissan to break the Toyota monopoly as Tsugio Matsuda posted the best time of 1:25.063 in the No. 24 Kondo Racing Z on Yokohama tires.

Nissan’s best car overall and in the mock qualifying was the No. 23 NISMO machine, in which Katsumasa Chiyo posted the best time of 1:17.786 to go fifth-fastest.

Best of the non-Bridgestone cars was the Yokohama-shod No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota in sixth, with Sena Sakaguchi at the wheel, followed by Atsushi Miyake’s No. 3 NISMO Nissan and Koudai Tsukakoshi in the No. 17 Real Racing Honda.

Toshiki Oyu set the third-best time of Sunday morning’s session to put the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota ninth overall ahead of the No. 37 TOM’S GR Supra of Ukyo Sasahara.

JLOC Lamborghini Sets GT300 Pace

Lamborghini squad JLOC was the fastest among 25 GT300 runners, as Takashi Kogure set the best time of 1:25.826 in the No. 88 Huracan GT3 EVO2 in the opening session of the weekend.

Second-fastest was the Shade Racing Toyota GR Supra, but Eijiro Shimizu’s best lap of 1:25.851 was set in Q2 of the mock qualifying on Saturday afternoon using fresh tires, after the team sat out Q1 due to an unspecified car issue.

Hibiki Taira put the Inging GR Supra third overall with the second-fastest time of the opening session, a 1:25.870, while Roberto Merhi was fastest on Sunday morning with a 1:25.964 in the Team LeMans Ferrari 296 GT3 to go fourth overall.

The mock qualifying was topped by the apr Lexus LC500h shared by Kazuto Kotaka and Jin Nakamura, with Kotaka’s best individual time putting the squad sixth overall behind the Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 of Takashi Kobayashi.

Second on combined times was the reigning title-winning Green Brave GR Supra, in which Hiroki Yoshida is joined by Seita Nonaka this year, while third was the PONOS Ferrari in which Kei Cozzolino was driving solo in the absence of Lilou Wadoux.

The final session in wet conditions was topped by Bruno Spengler in the Team Studie BMW M4 GT3 on a 1:31.622.