Nakajima Honda Scores Third Consecutive Pole at Motegi

Honda squad Nakajima Racing scored its third straight pole position in qualifying for Saturday’s penultimate SUPER GT race of the season at Motegi.

Riki Okusa took the No. 64 Honda HRC-Prelude GT, sporting a special livery to pay tribute to tire supplier Dunlop on the final weekend for the series’ long-running tire war, to the fastest time in the 15-minute session for GT500 cars, a 1:36.572.

That followed Okusa setting the fastest time in Friday’s sole practice session of the weekend, taking advantage of having previously tested at the newly-resurfaced track.

Making it another all-Honda front row as Tomoki Nojiri in the No. 16 ARTA Prelude, which was best of the Bridgestone-shod majority, 0.345 seconds behind Okusa.

Nirei Fukuzumi was third-fastest in the No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota GR Supra, just a further 0.025 seconds back, while Sena Sakaguchi was fourth-fastest in the Racing Project Bandoh Toyota that is the sole Yokohama tire user in the GT500 field.

Best of the Nissan Z NISMOs was Atsushi Miyake in fifth in the Kondo Racing example, one place ahead of Team Impul’s Bertrand Baguette.

The two main title-contending cars will lineup alongside each other on the fourth row, Kenta Yamashita bagging seventh in the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota after edging out Tadasuke Makino’s Team Kunimitsu Honda by a scant 0.014 seconds.

Yamashita and co-driver Sho Tsuboi hold a three-point lead over Makino and Naoki Yamamoto, with both cars carrying fuel flow restrictors for Saturday’s race.

Real Racing’s outside title hopes took a major blow when Yuto Nomura suffered a front-right tire blowout after a lockup during what looked like a lap good enough to challenge for pole, leaving he and co-driver Koudai Tsukakoshi 14th and last.

Katsumasa Chiyo also locked up and went off at Turn 11 on his best lap in the works NISMO Nissan, which ended up 12th.

Gainer Grabs First Pole With Nissan Z in GT300

In the GT300 class, Gainer scored a first pole position with its self-constructed Nissan Z courtesy of Ryuichiro Tomita, who likewise took his first pole.

Aboard the No. 11 car he shares with Kazuki Oki, Tomita set the pace in the 20-minute session with a best time of 1:45.418 to go 0.368 seconds clear of the field, and give the Kyoto Prefecture-based team its first pole since the 2022 season.

Shinichi Takagi left it late to bag a spot on the front row aboard the Autopolis-winning K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3 on the final weekend in SUPER GT for his co-driver Morio Nitta, who announced his retirement from the series earlier in the week.

Takashi Kogure was third in the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, followed by Hideki Yamauchi’s Subaru BRZ and Kazuto Kotaka’s No. 31 apr Lexus LC500h.

CarGuy MKS Racing’s star substitute Ritomo Miyata qualified ninth in his first competitive session at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, boosting his co-driver Kiyoshi Umegaki’s title chances as the rest of the major title contenders struggled.

Joao Paulo de Oliveira was 17th in championship-leading Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, Yuui Tsutsumi was 21st in the Inging Toyota GR86 GT, and Togo Suganami was 22nd aboard the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Rookie Racing’s Hiroaki Ishiura qualified the all-new GR GT3 concept 27th of 28 cars with a best time of 1:48.105, which was 2.687 seconds off the pace.

SUPER GT’s first of two 250km races at Motegi begins at 2 p.m. local time (12 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: GT500/GT300