SARD Toyota Fastest in Okayama GT500 Test

Toyota team SARD set the fastest time across two-days of GT500 testing at Okayama International Circuit, marking the first SUPER GT running on Japanese soil this year.

Yuhi Sekiguchi was at the wheel of the No. 39 Toyota GR Supra he shares with Sacha Fenestraz when the car set the quickest time in the afternoon session on the opening day on Tuesday, which proved the fastest time across the two days.

Sekiguchi’s effort of 1:16.122 eclipsed the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda HRC Prelude-GT by 0.094 seconds, set in the same session by Tadasuke Makino.

Third-overall, and fastest on Wednesday, was Sho Tsuboi in the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota with a best time of 1:16.208, 0.038 seconds clear of the No. 14 Rookie Racing GR Supra.

A total of nine GT500s ran at Okayama in cool conditions over the two days, with the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota making it four Toyotas in attendance alongside three Preludes, including the No. 16 ARTA and No. 17 Real Racing cars, and two Nissan Z NISMOs, the No. 23 NISMO car and the No. 24 Kondo Racing machine.

As well as the regular drivers of each car, Kaku Ohta is also understood to have turned laps in the ARTA Prelude having been forced to skip the previous GT500 test at Sepang last month owing to a clash with the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

ARTA was fifth overall with the third-best time on the opening day in the hands of Ren Sato, 0.162s off the pace of Sekiguchi, followed by the Cerumo Toyota.

The quickest time set by either of the Nissans was a 1:16.366 from Katsumasa Chiyo in the flagship No. 23 machine on the opening day, putting the car seventh.

Rounding out the order were the Kondo Nissan, running on Bridgestone tires for the first time, with a time just eight thousandths off the NISMO car, and the Real Racing Honda, which set a best time just over half a second off the pace.

The Real Prelude did however top a rain-impacted morning session on Wednesday, in which only the three Hondas and the Kondo Nissan opted to run.

Yokohama was not represented at the test, with the Racing Project Bandoh GR Supra now the only GT500 car yet to have tested this year, while the Dunlop-shod Nakajima Honda was absent due to being shipped back from the Sepang test that it topped.

That car is due to reappear when GT500 testing continues for another two days of running on Feb. 19-20 at Fuji Speedway, immediately following a two-day GT Entrants’ Association (GTE) test for GT300s at the same track.