This past Saturday, 40 teams gathered for a full day of testing for the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series at Fuji Speedway, in preparation for not only the upcoming season which begins on April 1, but also for this June’s inaugural Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours. It was also the first day that the teams tested on the series’ new Pirelli tyres.

Out of the field in the premier ST-X class, it was the #24 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Kondo Racing, the 2016 series champions, that set a new class lap record around Fuji Speedway through the first three sessions of the test day.

Those three sessions were then followed by a night-time test – the first-ever at Fuji Speedway – to prepare teams and drivers for the 24 Hours on June 2-3.

This past weekend’s test day at Fuji was one of change. The biggest change for all the teams, of course, was the switch from Yokohama to Pirelli tyres for this season.

An overwhelming majority of the teams expressed praise for the durability of the new tyres, and while some teams initially struggled to adjust to the different characteristics of the new compounds – it didn’t take long for them to eventually come to grips.

There’s change in the class structure as well, involving the ST-2 Class – which will still feature all-wheel drive cars with 2001-3500 cc displacement, but also front-wheel drive cars with the same engine capacity, such as Team Nopro’s new Mazda Axela (Mazda3) that moves from ST-3.

The new ST-Z (FIA GT4) category wasn’t on display for the test, but unlike 2017 where there were no entries at all, it’s believed that there will be full-season entries in the category as GT4’s global expansion continues.

The ST-X Class will see a significant shakeup at the top of the order, with the off-season withdrawal of reigning champions ARN Racing. MAX Racing have purchased a new Lexus RC F GT3 to be driven by “Go Max”, Tetsuya Tanaka, and Kimiya Sato, and their car will be prepared by Takeshi Tsuchiya and Tsuchiya Engineering.

But the two-car challenge from Phoenix Racing Asia and their Audi R8 LMS GT3s could be the talk of the series in due course, one for Alex Au, Shawn Thong, and Alex Yoong, and the second for Keong Wee Lim, Marchy Lee, and Melvin Moh.

“Entering the Super Taikyu Series in Japan is another important step for Phoenix Racing Asia in the Asian market,” says Phoenix Racing Team Principal, Ernst Moser. “I can’t wait to get started and I’m sure that we have a great chance of success with our two-car team.”

The daytime tests saw three different teams atop the leaderboard. Leading the first session was the #3 Endless Sports Advan GT-R of Yukinori Taniguchi and Hideki Yamauchi, whose third driver for the season is to be determined.

In session 2, the #777 D’station Porsche 911 GT3-R of Satoshi Hoshino, Seiji Ara, and Tsubasa Kondo moved to the top of the leaderboard.

But in the 3rd and final daytime session, Tomonobu Fujii took the controls of the #24 Threebond Nissan Gakuen GT-R and laid down a lap of 1:39.365, the fastest time of the day, and an unofficial Super Taikyu lap record. Fujii will once again have gentleman driver Yuudai Uchida and Kazuki Hiramine as his co-drivers for 2018.

It’s more than 3 and a half seconds slower than the GT300 lap record at Fuji set in Super GT, but the difference in the control tyre formula of Super Taikyu and the open tyre war of Super GT must be accounted for.

Finishing 2nd in the third and final test was the #99 Y’s Distraction GTNET GT-R of Teruhiko Hamano, Kazuki Hoshino, Kiyoto Fujinami and Hironobu Yasuda – which was the only other car to lap under the 1 minute 40 mark, courtesy of Hoshino’s best time of a 1:39.755.

ST-1, which has struggled to get more than a single car to turn up for most races, will now have a proper battle between 2016 class champions D’station Racing, and 2017 champions apr Racing.

In this battle, the advantage went to the #47 D’station Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, driven by Manabu Orido, Tatsuya Hoshino, and Kenji Hama. Orido’s best time was a 1:44.031, putting the Carrera Cup cars just behind the GT3s in the running order.

ST-TCR saw a trio of Audi RS3 LMSes turn up, hoping to convert their one-lap pace from last year into a victory in 2018. Audi Team DreamDrive and Birth Racing Project (BRP) both returned with their cars from last season.

But it was a brand-new Audi RS3, the #75 Audi Team DreamDrive Noah RS3 of Toshiro Tsukada, Yoshikazu Sobu, and Yuji Kiyotaki, which set the benchmark for the day, courtesy of a lap of 1:51.203 from Sobu. Missing from the ST-TCR category, at least for the test, are the reigning champions from Modulo Dome Racing Project, and their Honda Civic TCRs.

Five-time and defending ST-2 champions TOWAINTEC Racing brought in Subaru Super GT ace Takuto Iguchi to partner Manabu Osawa and Hitoshi Goto, and their #59 DAMD Motul Subaru WRX STI once again proved the class of the four-car category as they were fastest by a significant margin over Shinryo Racing Team’s two Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, and by a lightyear over Team Nopro’s FWD Axela.

Two-time FIA F4 Japanese Champion Ritomo Miyata made his Super Taikyu test debut in ST-3, driving the #62 Lexus RC350 for the powerhouse Le Beausset Motorsports team alongside Kenta Yamashita and Koki Saga.

But it was another Lexus coupe, the #38 Tracy Sports IS350 – a second-generation XE20 model – of Makoto Hotta, Ryohei Sakaguchi and Morio Nitta, that led the way in the ST-3 class ahead of their more modern rivals.

In ST-4, an upset at the top with the #58 Kobayashi Motor Honda Integra Type-R of Koichi Kobayashi, Resshu Shioya, Takayuki Yamada, and Takao Seto pacing the field in their old yet reliable FWD challenger.

The formbooks do suggest that TOM’s Spirit and their #86 Toyota 86 of Takamitsu Matsui, Sho Tsuboi, Yuichi Nakayama, and Naoya Gamou will still have the edge over the rest of the field once the season starts.

And in ST-5, the #4 Bride Honda Fit 3 RS (Hidefumi Minami/Yuya Ota/Toshiya Ito/Carlos Honda) led the way in the flyweight class.

None of the three daytime sessions saw any red flags or much incident. But the night running would prove a unique challenge to many drivers, many of whom have never raced at night competitively.

Everything from the LED flag displays and traffic lights, to the illuminated strips to identify certain classes of cars, were put through their paces for Super Taikyu’s first 24 hour race in a decade – and for Fuji’s first race around the clock in 50 years.

The challenges of night-time mixed class driving were demonstrated in the first hour of the event, with a crash for the #78 Love Drive Racing Mazda Roadster bringing out the first of two red flags – however, the second hour of the night session went by smoothly, and drivers gave plenty of feedback to prepare the series and the circuit for their follow-up night test on May 8.

Phoenix Racing Asia ended the night session with the fastest time, courtesy of the potent #82 Audi R8 LMS of Au, Thong, and Yoong. Masataka Yanagida was a surprise late entry into the sister #83 car, also driven by Lim, Lee, and Moh.

Photos courtesy of the Super Taikyu Organisation