Yuji Tachikawa scored tenth for the Zent Lexus
Qualifying second was the No. 1 ARTA NSX (Ralph Firman), which had held the fastest time until it was bettered by Quintarelli near the end of the session. Meanwhile, the 3rd position went to the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 driven by Bjorn Wirdheim, who bettered his time on the last timed lap to win the team its best grid position of the season. These results gave the GT-R, NSX and SC430 a place among the top three.
No.26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE
Nobuteru Taniguchi comes from behind to grab GT300 class pole
In the GT300 class, the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 drivers Manabu Orido and Tsubasa Abe both got their qualifying times in the morning session, with Orido recording the fastest time of the session at 1 min. 54.634 sec. However, a regulation violation was found in their car afterwards that disqualified that time and left the tem to start from the very back of the grid for tomorrow's race.
In this class, five machines were knocked out in the first session and ten machines in the second session based on lap times. The remaining ten machines then competed for grid position n the third session, where the No. 110 KUMHO BOXSTER-GT (Hidetoshi Mitsusada), the No. 66 triple a MURCIE RG-1 (Koji Yamanishi), the No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE (Nobuteru Taniguchi) and the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R (Haruki Kurosawa) bettered each other's times one after another. With a few minutes remaining in the session, the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden (Hiroki Kato) looked to have won the pole position until Taniguchi in car No. 26 ran a 1 min. 55.751 sec. lap to grab the lead away from No. 2. After that, Kato in No. 2 made another attempt and bettered his best time but still failed to better Taniguchi's time.
With this result, the class pole position went to the No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE. This will put No. 26 on the front row with a chance to take its second win in a row, after winning here at Motegi last year. Starting from 2nd position on the grid will be the No. 2 Privée KENZO Asset Shiden, wile the No. 62 WILLCOM ADVAN VEMAC408R starts from 3rd position.
Nobuteru Taniguchi scored pole for Taisan Porsche in GT300
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Naoki Yokomizo / Ronnie Quintarelli , Shinichi Yamaji / Nobuteru Taniguchi
GT500 Class | Pole PositionNo. 3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R
Ronnie Quintarelli
This really feels great! Our car has been performing fantastically from the Friday free practice sessions and thanks to that, I was able to get my first pole position. I want to say thanks to everyone on the team. Yesterday afternoon our car ran fast on used tires but it wasn't easy. So last night some more work was done on the machine in a number of areas and it was much better this morning. We were fastest in all the sessions today, so I'm full of confidence that we can win tomorrow (laughs). Me and Naoki (Yokomizo) and the team are all going to do our best to make sure we end up on the highest step of the podium tomorrow.
Naoki Yokomizo
The machine has been running very well from the beginning this week and we got the fastest time in all the sessions. I think the machine's performance gave Ronnie the confidence to go out and drive hard in the timed laps. For me too, I was able to go out and get the top time in the first Knock Out session while still managing to put as little wear as possible on the tires. In that sense I think I contributed toward winning this pole position, and that makes me very happy. The mood in the team has been Ok too, and we came here to Motegi thinking that we have got to win this round. If we are able to bring out the full potential of the machine in tomorrow's race, you should see us on the top rung of the podium. First of all, I want to avoid making any mistakes, so I can help reward the team for all the hard work they have done
GT300 Class | Pole Position
No. 26 YUNKER POWER TAISAN PORSCHE
Nobuteru Taniguchi
This was my first pole position and it makes me very happy. This course at Motegi is one where the Porsche has an advantage and the one in Japan where we have the best chance of winning. And, that is what we came here intending to do. In the Knock Out sessions, Yamaji san went out first and saved the best part of the tire for me so that I was able to run well in the second and third sessions. In the last timed lap I went out and pushed hard, not worrying about whether that would cause me to run off the track, but the Yokohama Rubber tires still maintained good grip when they were worn down considerably. So I was able to get a better time than I expected. In the race tomorrow I will be starting from the front position, so I want to keep that position so I can turn the machine over to Yamaji san with a lead. The aim is simply to run away
Shinichi Yamaji
I was thinking pragmatically that we would be doing well to finish about third in the qualifying. We owe this pole win to the strength of the Yokohama Rubber tire team and to Taniguchi san's fantastic last lap, which was made possible because the machine was running in what I feel to be exactly as you'd want it to. The machine's set-up has been constantly improving and it is getting faster, too. With Taniguchi san having won us the pole position like this, and with the team in the positive mindset it's in, we have to go out there and get a good result tomorrow. And for all the people we know are out there cheering for us, we are going to try to be on the TV screen [in the lead] as much as possible (laughs)