The first pole position for the Civic Type R-GT is won by Astemo! In GT300, the JLOC Lamborghini GT3 pair also get their first class pole

The Official Qualifying for the FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE, Round 2 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, took place on May 3rd (Friday/national holiday) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 m) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In fine weather with a clear view of Mt. Fuji, the GT500 class Pole Position was won by the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Kakunoshin Ohta), giving the CIVIC TYPE R-GT that debuted this season its first pole position. The GT300 class pole was taken by the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3, and for the drivers Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima it was their rewarding first pole in the class. These two cars will start from the front of their respective class grids in tomorrow’s race on May 4th.

Being the first of the four consecutive holidays of the second half of Japan’s “Golden Week” national holidays, many fans turned out to see the Official Qualifying of the second round of the season. In the GT500 class Q1 qualifying session, the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Kakunoshin Ohta) that had recorded the fastest time in the Official Practice again ran fast laps of 1’26.737 and 1’26.70 in succession to take the top time. Following in 2nd position was the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri) with a time of 1’26.825 and the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu) with a time of 1’26.944 in 3rd position. This gave the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT that has debuted this season a sweep of the top three position in Q1 in the second round of the season. But close behind them came them in 4th position came the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi) and in 5th position the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi), showing that the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 and the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 were not far behind.

In Q2, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo) recorded a top time of 1’27.077. Atsushi Miyake in car No. 3 followed in 2nd position with a time of 1’27.205 to give the NISSAN Z NISMO GT500 a 1-2 finish in Q2. However, when Koudai Tsukakoshi ran a time of 1’27.222 to take 3rd position, this gave the car No. 17 drivers a combined time of 2’53.931 that put them in the top position. For Ohta and the CIVIC TYPE R-GT this was their first pole position. Finishing the Qualifying in 2nd and 3rd positions came the No. 3 and No. 23 Nissan Z teams. As for the GR Supra teams, car No. 14 was fastest in 7th position.

The GT300 class Q1 session was run in two groups (A and B) based on the team standings as of the previous round, and in Group A the fastest time was recorded by the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Yuya Motojima), while in Group B the fastest was run by the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNEMIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka). For Q2, the 16 cars that finished in the top eight of the two Q1 groups ran as Group 1, and the remaining teams ran as Group 2. In this Q2 session, Takashi Kogure ran a time faster than his teammate in Q1 to give the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 pair the top position in combined time and bring them what was an unexpected first pole position in the GT300 class.

■ Pole Position Driver Comments

No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT [GT500] Koudai Tsukakoshi: “This was my first pole position in a while, and I regret that I wasn’t able to take the top position in Q2. Since Ohta-san ran a fast time to take top position in Q1, I became the fortunate recipient of that. In tomorrow’s race, I want to make up for that debt. But because I went into Q2 with the pressure of us having the fastest time in Q1, I thought I was going to be sick in my stomach (wry laugh). In tomorrow’s race I want to finish in this same top position.” Kakunoshin Ohta: “Because I took the top position in Q1, Team manager Kaneishi got mad at me for putting so much pressure (on Tsukakoshi) (wry laugh). But I am really glad that we got pole position,”

No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 [GT300] Takashi Kogure: “This is my first pole position in the GT300 class, and I am really glad about this. I want to thank everyone on the team and Motojima-san. Thank you so much! This time Motojima-san was really fast, so I felt a lot of pressure as a result (wry laugh), and I was stressed out all the time I was driving in Q2. But since we finally got pole position, I am very happy. Tomorrow, I want to go for the same kind of good result.”

Yuya Motojima: “It took a long time to get this first pole position. The condition of the car was good, and I knew that Kogure-san would be fast, but with the new qualifying format I knew that I also had to drive fast in order for us to get pole position, so I felt the pressure before Q1. But I am glad that we were both able to drive fast and get pole position.”