The JOY TAI, which was first held in 2001, celebrated its 19th edition in 2019, transitioning from the Heisei era to the Reiwa era. Although there had been relatively little rain since the start of the rainy season, it rained on June 15 (Sat), the day of the official qualifying, leading to wet conditions from the special sports driving session in the morning. Each team checked the wet settings and the track conditions in preparation for the qualifying session in the afternoon.

As scheduled, the time attack for A Driver Group A (Class-1, 2, 3, FIT 1.5) will begin at 13:10. First, in the second lap of measurement, last year's winner, Yosuke Morishita in car #6 Versus FIT, marked a time of 2 minutes 28.954 seconds, taking the top spot on the leaderboard. In second place, car #60 G/M'SSR☆WM☆FIT followed with a time of 2 minutes 31.654 seconds, with the top positions occupied by the FIT 1.5 class. Several machines were seen going off course early on, but all of them managed to restart.

The rain continued to fall, and in the A Driver B Group (Class-4･5･6･7･8･9) session, Yuya Nakajima from #246 Yuki & Obocchama's DC5 took the top spot with a time of 2 minutes 26.137 seconds. In second place was Manabu Ohsawa from #57 Towa Intec Racing DC5 with a time of 2 minutes 26.702 seconds, followed by Masatoshi Fujiwara from #75 ACELINES137EG in third place with a time of 2 minutes 27.660 seconds.

In the B Driver A Group session, Tsubasa Meikaru of #6 Versus FIT reduced the time to 2 minutes 27.854 seconds, marking the top time in the group. He also performed well overall, finishing in third place.

Then, the session for B Driver Group B begins. First, #2 Wako's ED Nils K Dental marks a time of 2 minutes 26.478 seconds on the second lap and takes the top position, which remains unchanged for a while. With 9 minutes remaining, Kazunori Nishimura of #82 Poor Man's R☆Lia☆DC5 sets a time of 2 minutes 25.451 and takes the lead, finishing the qualifying with a final attack that brings it down to 2 minutes 23.938, but due to a penalty, the best lap time is disqualified. Nevertheless, the second-best time is 2 minutes 24.118, securing the top position in this session.

At the end of the session, driver Daishi Yamada of BATTO, who was in 5th place with a time of 2 minutes 27.715 seconds, improved his time to 2 minutes 26.883 seconds and then to 2 minutes 25.526 seconds, rising to 2nd place. On the checker lap, he marked a time of 2 minutes 25.424 seconds, finishing the session in 2nd place for Group B of the B drivers. With a combined time of 4 minutes 53.084 seconds, BATTO took the top spot and impressively secured pole position in the wet condition qualifying.

"When I looked at the leaderboard towards the end of the session, I was in 5th or 6th place. Since Fujihara was in 3rd place, I thought I couldn't go home like this, so I attacked. Is it really okay for a car from 20 years ago to be at the top? (B Driver Yamada)" And when asked, "I thought it would be good to be within the top 10 in qualifying, so I was surprised to get pole position (laughs). In the final, we just need to execute our strategy without being distracted by the speed of those around us (A Driver Masatoshi Fujihara)"

#2 Wako's ED Nils K Dental finished in second place with a time of 4 minutes 56 seconds 560, #6 Versus FIT came in third with 4 minutes 56 seconds 808, #57 Towa Intec Racing DC5 was fourth with 4 minutes 56 seconds 841, and #82 Poor Man's R☆Lia☆DC5 followed closely in fifth place with 4 minutes 56 seconds 995.

By the time of the briefing for the final held at 5:15 PM, the rain had almost stopped, and the weather forecast for Sunday is also improving. It is said that the temperature will rise, so please be careful of heatstroke as you aim for the finish line 7 hours ahead. The 19th JOY TAI will start at 9:15 AM!