Yamashita Tops Final Pre-Season Test for TOM’S
Toyota completes sweep of all off-season GT500 testing at Okayama and Fuji ahead of new season...
Photo: SUPER GT
Kenta Yamashita topped the final SUPER GT test of the pre-season at Fuji Speedway, completing a clean sweep of fastest times for Toyota in domestic running this winter.
The driver of the No. 1 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra set the fastest time across the two-day test, a 1:27.125, on the morning session of Sunday’s second day of running.
That was enough to narrowly edge out the best of the Honda runners, the No. 8 ARTA Civic Type R-GT in which Tomoki Nojiri set the best time, by just 0.044 seconds.
Two more Honda teams finished within two tenths of the pace, the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu car of Tadasuke Makino and the No. 16 ARTA machine of Ren Sato.
Like the previous official test at Okayama, the Fuji test was impacted by bad weather and unseasonably cold conditions, with the first day featuring only wet running, leading to an additional 30 minutes of running being added to Sunday’s schedule.
GT500 rookie Shun Koide set the pace that day for Real Racing with a best time of 1:35.740 as the conditions improved somewhat in the afternoon session, leading a Honda 1-2 ahead of Makino, with Sho Tsuboi third in the No. 1 TOM’S car.
Toyota swept the board on Sunday as Nirei Fukuzumi was fastest in the afternoon session on a 1:27.343, good for fifth overall across the two days.
Tsuboi was second-fastest in that session, followed by Sena Sakaguchi, whose improvement in the Yokohama-shod No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota put that car sixth overall and best of the non-Bridgestone runners.
Best of the Nissan Z NISMOs was the No. 23 works machine, with Katsumasa Chiyo setting that car’s best time of 1:27.654 in the morning session.
The Impul Nissan caused a red flag at the very end of the morning session as it ran out of fuel on its way back to the pits.
This was one of only two interruptions during the day, the other being caused by a stoppage for the Anest Iwata Racing Lexus RC F GT3 in the afternoon.
The No. 26 Lexus had come to a stop on-track earlier in the day during full-course yellow practice at the end of the morning session.
In the GT300 class, the No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was again the car to beat, topping both of the dry-weather sessions on Sunday.
Yuya Motojima set the class benchmark of 1:35.614 in the afternoon, marginally improving his chart-topping effort from the morning, beating the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Naoya Gamou by a scant 0.053 seconds.
The top five was completed by the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG of Tatsuya Kataoka, Roberto Merhi in the renamed Velorex (formerly Team LeMans) Ferrari 296 GT3 and the Team UpGarage Mercedes-AMG of Takashi Kobayashi.
A wet opening day was topped by the Velorex Ferrari, with Yoshiaki Katayama setting the day’s best time of 1:44.115 ahead of Seven x Seven Racing Porsche driver Harry King.
The new CarGuy MKS Racing Ferrari made its first appearance at Fuji, having missed the Okayama test, and was an impressive fourth in Sunday’s afternoon session in the hands of newcomer Zak O’Sullivan, ending up eighth overall.
SUPER GT’s curtain-raising 300km race will be held at Okayama on April 12-13.
