The qualifying for the FUJIMAKI GROUP FUJI GT 300km RACE the, 8th and final round of the 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture on November 27 (Sat). In the GT500 class, the pole position Yamashita in the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/ /Kenta Yamashita) won his first pole position of the season by beating his own course record. In the GT300 class, Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) also won the class pole with a course record.
This qualifying day at Fuji Speedway saw clear skies and a low air temperature of 9 degrees C. when the GT500 class Q1 session began at 3:03 in the afternoon and the cars took to the track earlier than usual to begin warming up their tires. After this their times began to come down in the final stages of the session. It was here that the current ranking leader, the No.1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) suddenly set a new course record with a time of 1’26.011. Then the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO GR Supra and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra also came in with times faster than the old course record but failed to beat the time of car No. 1. On the next lap, car No. 1 improved on its time once again with a lap of 1’26.000 to finish the Q1 session with the top time. Of the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars, the No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R Katsumasa Chiyo) was the fastest in 6th place.
The GT500 class Q2 session began at 3:41. Here again, the teams’ serious time attacks began with about three minutes remaining in the session. The first to break into the 1’ 25 range was the top finisher in Q1, the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) with a time of 1‘25.867. After that, the No. 37 KeePer TOM’S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa) also recorded a time in the 1’ 25 range but failed to beat Yamamoto’s time. With this it looked as if car No.1 would gain the upper hand in its attempt to take a second straight win by winning pole position. But in the final lap of the session, Yamashita in the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) came in with another course record time of 1’25.764. With this, Yamashita beat his own course record that he set at the final round of the series here at Fuji last year. This PP gives the team an important additional series point as they go into tomorrow’s race. Although they failed to take pole position, the No. 1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) will still go into the final race as the ranking leaders. As for the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) that are chasing No. 1 in the title race, they finished 6th in the qualifying. In tomorrow’s race, which will be the final race for the current NISSAN GT-R, the only car to qualify on to Q2 was No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate) finished in 8th position.
The GT300 class Q1 was run in two separate groups (A and B), in which the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida) was fastest in group A and the No.88 JLOC LAMBORGHINIGT3 (Yuya Motojima) fastest in group B. The following 10-minute Q2 session was competed by the top eight qualifiers from the A and B groups. In the final lap of this session, Yamauchi in the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT beat the former course record (1’34.665) with a time of 1’34.395 to win the team’s fourth pole position of the season. For car No. 61, which now stands at the top of the class ranking, this puts SUBARU in good position for their long-awaited championship title in the GT300 class. Qualifying 2nd in class came the No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT. Third position went to the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT.
Pole Position winner comments
GT500 class
No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra
Kenta Yamashita
“Today, things were going well from the morning practice sessions, and then, thanks to Oshima-san’s attacks in the Q1 session we had really good settings for me to go into Q2 with. I can’t say that my time attacks in Q2 were perfect, but the car was in such good condition that I was able to get pole position. Since our current point standing makes a shot at the championship difficult, I was not thinking about that, but I really wanted to get pole position and I am very glad that I was able to beat my course record time from last year.”
GT300 class
No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT
Hideki Yamauchi
“I owe this to the fact that everyone on the team worked so hard. Since I wanted to get this one point toward our first season title with this pole position, I think it is important and makes me want to strive even harder, so I think I did a very good job in that sense. I owe so much of this to Iguchi-san who gave me good advice after his run in Q1. This all makes me so happy, more than just winning pole position. But we still have tomorrow’s race, and as a team we all want to get a win that will make all of our fans glad they cheered for us!”
Source. Super GT
Comments
