Cerumo Toyota Fastest In Cold, Wet Okayama Official Test

Photo: SUPER GT

Toshiki Oyu put Toyota outfit Cerumo at the head of the times in SUPER GT’s Okayama official test, which was impacted by cold conditions and rain.

Oyu, who shares the No. 38 Toyota GR Supra with Hiroaki Ishiura, recorded the fastest time at the end of Saturday’s afternoon session, setting a best lap of 1:17.456.

Ren Sato was second-quickest in the No. 16 ARTA Honda Civic Type R-GT, which features a radical new color scheme this year, 0.147 seconds behind Oyu, while Ukyo Sasahara was third in the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota, 0.176 seconds off the pace.

The top three times all came in the 10-minute period reserved for GT500 cars that brought Saturday’s running to a close, after the track had dried following earlier rain.

Conversely, the morning’s session was held entirely in dry conditions, and was topped by Sho Tsuboi aboard the No. 1 TOM’S Toyota with a 1:17.833.

That time was good enough for fourth overall ahead of two more cars that set their best times in the GT500-only running, Riki Okusa’s Dunlop-shod Nakajima Racing Honda, and the best of the Nissan Z NISMOs, the No. 12 Team Impul example of Kazuki Hiramine.

Second-quickest in the morning was the Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi, which was seventh overall, while the top three for that session and the top eight overall was completed by the second of the ARTA Hondas driven by Tomoki Nojiri.

Yuhi Sekiguchi suffered an off during the morning session in the SARD Toyota, causing one of eight red flags during the day, but the car escaped major damage and ended up 12th overall in the hands of Sekiguchi’s teammate Sacha Fenestraz.

Tires not matching the cold conditions, which stayed below 10 degrees Celsius throughout, were a contributing factor behind the relatively slow lap times, with the top time from last month’s private test at Okayama being 1.5 seconds faster.

Worsening rain on Sunday meant that the times from Saturday were never threatened, with a further seven stoppages bringing the total for the test up to 15.

The morning session was topped by Kenta Yamashita in the No. 1 Toyota with a best time of 1:32.306, while Tadasuke Makino was fastest in the final session aboard the Team Kunimitsu Honda with a benchmark of 1:28.768.

In GT300, the newly-renumbered No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 set the pace with a best time of 1:25.475 from Yuya Motojima on Saturday morning.

It followed a last-minute decision by the team to exercise the right to use the number reserved for the reigning champions of the lower category, instead of the usual No. 88 with which the car had originally been registered.

Second-quickest was the No. 6 Velorex (formerly Team LeMans) Ferrari 296 GT3 of Roberto Merhi, who caused the sixth and final red flag in Saturday morning’s opening session with a harmless off, just 0.011 seconds behind Motojima.

Two Mercedes-AMG teams, Goodsmile Racing and LEON Racing were up next, followed by Toyota GR86 squads Shade Racing and Inging, with all but one of the 26 cars present setting their best times of the test in the opening session.

The No. 2 Inging Toyota suffered an off at Turn 1 early in the afternoon in the hands of Hibiki Taira, and the damage meant the car was withdrawn from Sunday’s running.

Merhi topped the second day with a best time of 1:35.809, with the Velorex Ferrari leading the PONOS Racing example that was being driven solo by Kei Cozzolino during the test with Lilou Wadoux away on Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring duty.

RESULTS: Day 1 (GT500), Day 1 (GT300), Day 2 (GT500), Day 2 (GT300)

MKS Racing Reveals Toyota-Influenced Driver Lineup

On Sunday morning, MKS Racing formally revealed its plans for the upcoming season in the wake of the news of its tie-up with Ferrari squad CarGuy Racing.

The team’s No. 7 Ferrari 296 GT3 will be shared by Zak O’Sullivan, who races in Super Formula for the Toyota-aligned Kondo Racing team, and Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi.

It means Kobayashi will be embarking on a triple program this year, as he is racing in Super Formula Lights for TOM’S and Super Taikyu at the wheel of apr’s Lexus RC F GT3.

The team’s two primary drivers will be supported by CarGuy boss Takeshi Kimura, who will miss several races due to overlapping commitments in the European Le Mans Series, and ex-FIA World Endurance Championship racer Keita Sawa.

Yokohama will supply tires for the Misato Haga-led outfit, which will receive maintenance support from Servus Japan, while Kunihiro Nakai will serve as chief engineer.

MKS plans to join the rest of the SUPER GT field along with aitama Green Brave, which sat out the Okayama test due to the late arrival of new parts for its Toyota GR Supra, when the paddock reconvenes for the official Fuji test on March 29-30.

Image: MKS Racing