The Latest Breaking News from Arta

The #16 ARTA car of Fukuzumi and Otsu took advantage of a well-timed first pitstop under full-course yellow to cement their early lead, ultimately beating NISMO pair Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli to victory by just over 10 seconds.

Fukuzumi delighted with first pole for two years

A total of 42 cars, 15 in GT500 and 27 in GT300, are entered for Sunday's 450km (100 lap) race.

For next weekend's fourth round of the season at Fuji, the pit window will open at the end of the fifth lap, meaning that a car cannot complete either of its two mandatory refuelling stops before this time.

Kimura has been named as the third driver for the #8 ARTA Honda NSX-GT alongside Tomoki Nojiri and Oyu for the fourth round of the season on August 6.

After winning the second round of the season at Fuji, TOM’S duo Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata talked down their prospects of doing the same in the following race at Suzuka. That’s to be expected; cars rarely win races carrying 40kg of success ballast, after all.

The saga surrounding which team won the red-flagged race, curtailed by a huge crash involving NISMO Nissan driver Tsugio Matsuda on lap 59 of 77, rumbled on for a week until the release of the official results last Monday.

With zero success ballast on board, the #24 Nissan Z shared by Hirate and Daiki Sasaki looked like a contender for pole from the start of the weekend, with Sasaki setting the pace in Saturday morning practice.

After qualifying for last week’s Golden Week classic, there would have been short odds on a Honda victory, with NSX-GT crews starting first and third. Without a power steering issue for the #8 ARTA car, it might have been three Bridgestone Honda squads starting ahead of the #36 TOM’S Toyota…