Fukuzumi Leads All-Toyota Front Row for Fuji Golden Week Race

Nirei Fukuzumi put the Rookie Racing Toyota on pole for SUPER GT’s traditional Golden Week fixture at Fuji Speedway, beating TOM’S driver Kenta Yamashita as GR Supra squads locked out the front row on the marque’s home turf.

In the No. 14 Toyota GR Supra he shares with Kazuya Oshima, Fukuzumi posted a 1:26.254 to beat Yamashita’s No. 36 car by 0.164 seconds at the end of a Q2 shootout that took place in windy conditions, with light rain reported in the closing moments.

It marks Fukuzumi’s eighth career GT500 pole position, making him the active driver in the top class with the most poles — one clear of Tomoki Nojiri.

Third-fastest was the factory No. 23 Nissan Z NISMO of Katsumasa Chiyo, 0.328 seconds off the top spot, after abandoning his final flying lap.

GT500 rookie Rikuto Kobayashi was fastest in Q1 aboard the Cerumo Toyota, beating Yamashita’s co-driver Sho Tsuboi, but come Q2 Okayama polesitter Toshiki Oyu could only manage the fourth-fastest time, 0.360 seconds down on Fukuzumi.

Best of the new Honda HRC Prelude-GTs was the Dunlop-shod Nakajima Racing car of Riki Okusa in fifth, with the four Bridgestone-shod cars occupying the next four positions, led by the No. 8 ARTA machine of series returnee Kaku Ohta.

Rounding out the Q2 order was Kazuki Hiramine’s Team Impul Nissan.

Failing to advance from Q1 were the Kondo Racing Z as well as the remaining Toyotas, with the SARD GR Supra lining up 12th ahead of the No. 37 TOM’S car and the sole Yokohama-equipped GT500 car of Racing Project Bandoh.

Yamauchi Breaks Own Record for Subaru GT300 Pole

In the GT300 class, Hideki Yamauchi broke his own track record to grab pole aboard the No. 61 Subaru BRZ by a massive seven tenths of a second.

Yamauchi headed into the 18-car Q2 shootout as clear favorite for pole after topping practice on Sunday morning, before co-driver Takuto Iguchi topped his Q1 group with a time of 1:35.285, almost half a second clear of the field.

Come Q2, Yamauchi improved on Iguchi’s time by nearly a full second with a 1:34.314, fractionally faster than his own track record set back in 2021.

The apr Lexus LC500h GT was Subaru’s nearest rival in both sessions, with Kazuto Kotaka qualifying second in Q2, 0.748 seconds off the pace, ahead of the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT in which Seita Nonaka was at the wheel.

Kazuki Oki was an impressive fourth in the refreshed Gainer Nissan Z, beating Naoya Gamou in the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by a thousandth of a second and Joao Paulo de Oliveira’s Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 by 0.002 seconds.

With a 52 kg success handicap, Tomonobu Fujii was 11th-fastest aboard the Okayama-winning D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Behind him were two ex-Formula 1 drivers, with Daniil Kvyat 12th in the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and late stand-in Kamui Kobayashi qualifying the Rookie Racing Mercedes-AMG 14th after passing his rookie test in practice.

CarGuy MKS Racing’s low-key start to the year continued as Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki qualified only 11th in his group, leaving the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which stopped on-track in practice after running out of fuel, 23rd on the grid.

Pacific Racing’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO was moved to the rear for the use of illegal fuel.

The Fuji 3 Hours is slated to begin Monday at 2 p.m. local time (1 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: GT500/GT300 (1-18)/GT300 (19-29)