On September 14th (Sun.), the 49th SUZUKA 1000km race, Round 4 of the 2025 Intercontinental GT Challenge was held at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, and in it the SUPER GT GT300 class team GOODSMILE RACING & Team UKYO entered with its GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG machine and battled through this long race to finish in 16th place.

Due to a special agreement between GT Association (GTA) and the organizer of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the SRO Motortsport Group, to enable a GT300 class car of the GOODSMILE RACING team to participate in this SUZUKA 1000km race. And on September 13th (Sat.), it competed in the qualifying with its regular SUPER GT driver pair of Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka, and with Kamui Kobayashi as the third driver. They finished with their average time in 14th position. However. due in part to time deletions due to failure to decelerate during the Red Flag period, the team’s final ranking was 24th overall.

In the final race on September 14th (Sun.), the race began at 12:50 in the afternoon in front of a gallery of some 16,000 spectators gathered despite extremely hot and humid conditions. The team’s starting driver was Kataoka, who immediately moved up to 16th position and, with eyes fixed on the top ten cars, continued to battle on amid rivals from Japan and top-class drivers from overseas.

In the middle stages of the race, while changing drivers from Kataoka to Taniguchi over two stints, they continued to race on in 14th or 15th position. After the middle stages, there were a number of collisions between cars at different places around the track, which led to things like Full Course Yellow (FCY) calls and Safety Car interventions, during which the GOODSMILE RACING also suffered some damage but still battled on steadily while holding its place by narrow margins.

In the final stages of the race, Kamui Kobayashi was at the wheel, and as the night grew dark he held on to 15th position. Finally, after a collision on the final lap, he managed to finish the race in 16th place. The GOODSMILE RACING team will repair the damage to the car as it goes into the sixth round of the regular SUPER GT season, the SUGO GT 300km RACE at Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture on September 20th (Sat.) and 21st (Sun.)

On Race Day, the GTA President & CEO Masaaki Bandoh visited Suzuka Circuit and had a meeting with CEO and Founder Stephane Ratel of SRO Motortsport Group, which has a cooperative relationship with GTA in the area of GT300 class BoP, etc., and the two also had their picture taken together on the starting grid.

＞ Race Results (PDF)