The SUZUKA GT 300km RACE, Round 5 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place in the afternoon of August 24th (Sun.) at Suzuka Circuit (1 lap 5,807m X 52 laps) in Mie Prefecture. This 300 km race took place with the air temperature a very hot 35 degrees Celsius and victory went to the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) that started the race from 2nd position on the grid in a come-from behind win that gave the driver pair its first win ever. Also, in the GT300 class, it was the No.7 CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3 (Zak O’Sullivan / Rikuto Kobayashi) that started from 2nd position on the grid and pushed forward to give the driver pair and the team its first victory.

Before the start of the Round 5 race a Traffic Safety Awareness Activities Parade Lap was held, led by six police motorcycles and three patrol cars of the Mie Prefectural Police, including one race car. Just before the start of the 52-lap race, the conditions were extremely difficult, with the air temperature up to 35℃ and the track temperature at 51℃. Then trouble occurred in the warm-up lap before the start of the race, when machine trouble unfortunately forced the No. 20 SHADE RACING GR86 GT to retire from the race, leaving 27 cars to compete.

The pole-starting No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) succeeded in building up an increasingly large lead and was followed closely by O’Sullivan in the No. 7 CARGUY Ferrari 296 GT3 (Zak O’Sullivan / Rikuto Kobayashi) that started from 2nd position on the grid, and by the No. 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO (Yusuke Shiotsu / Iori Kimura), the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto / Shunsuke Kohno) and the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii / Charlie Fagg), all in their qualifying order.

On the 4th lap of the race a GT500 class car crashed at the Astemo Chicane, bring out the Safety Car. The race was restarted on the 10th lap, after which the leaders continued to run in a tight group. After the 13th lap, the margin between the leading car No. 61 and the 2nd position No. 7 gradually began to close, but not enough to result in an overtake, leaving car No. 61 in the lead throughout the early stages.

Due in part to the high temperature of the track surface, cars in the GT300 class began to make their pit stops from the 15th lap. The first to make its pit stop was the No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi / Hibiki Taira) that had been running in 7th position in the early stages. Then car No. 7, which was running in 2nd position made its pit stop at the end of the 18th lap and changed drivers from O’Sullivan to Rikuto Kobayashi. Then, at the end of the 19th lap, car No. 5 running in 3rd position made its pit stop, followed by the 4th position car No. 60 on the 21st lap.

The leading car No. 61 made its pit stop at the end of the 22nd lap. Perhaps out of concern for pit work time and tactics involving undercutting, car No. 61 allowed cars that had already finished their pit stops to get ahead of it. As a result, No. 61 effectively dropped to 7th position.

When the leading cars had all finished their pit stops, it was car No. 60 that stood in the provisional lead. But the No. 7 car driven by Kobayashi was closing in fast. While there were still some cars that had not yet made their pit stops, the nose-to-tail race that developed between these two cars saw car No. 7 coming alongside it on the main straight repeatedly.

Although No. 60 had an advantage in speed on the straights, Kobayashi in car No. 7 managed to overtake it at the Spoon Curve on the 35th lap. Just before that the last car still out on the track in the GT300 class finally made its pit stop, which left No. 7 fully in the lead.

Once in the lead, No. 7’s pace didn’t slow, and it went on to pull away from the cars in 2nd position and downward. Then car No. 5 suddenly began to close in on car No. 60. Also, for a while the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama / Roberto Merhi Muntan) and car No. 61 that had fallen behind during its pit stop also began to close in as well.

In the late stages of the race, perhaps due to the high track surface temperature and pieces of cars scattered on the track, some of the cars began to suffer from tire problems. The 2nd ranked car No. 777 running in 7th position suffered damage to its left rear tire and car No. 6 running in 5th position suffered damage to its right rear tire, which forced both of them to slow down. What’s more, the No. 26 ANEST IWATA RC F GT3 (Igor Omura Fraga / Hironobu Yasuda) suffered from over-heating and came to a stop at trackside.

No. 61 took advantage of the timing of the withdrawing of the FCY (Full Course Yellow) called when machine trouble struck car No. 6 and passed car No. 5 as it was slow to accelerate. This enabled it to move up to 3rd position.

As for car No. 7, thanks to the well-tempered driving that seemed amazing for Kobayashi considering his young age of 20 years old, he was able to run on to the checkered flag and victory. With this, the No. 7 CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3 (Zak O’Sullivan / Rikuto Kobayashi) got its first win in this Round 5 race. For O’Sullivan, and for Kobayashi who newly joined the team as a regular driver this season, it was their first time standing on the top step of the winner’s podium.

As for the car No. 60 that finished the race in 2nd place, in the post-race inspections a violation of the regulations (minimum weight) was found that cause the car to be disqualified. With this, 2nd place went to the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) and 3rd place went to car No. 61 and 3rd place went to the No. 5 MACHSYAKEN AIR BUSTER MC86 MACH GO (Yusuke Shiotsu / Iori Kimura).