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.

The Round 5 SUZUKA Race got underway at 3:30 in the afternoon with a Traffic Safety Awareness Activities Parade Lap led by seven police motorcycles and three patrol cars of the Mie Prefectural Police, including one Honda NSX. This was followed by one formation lap before the 52-lap race began.

Taking the lead at the start was the pole-starting No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu / Ren Sato), while following close in 2nd position came Takaboshi in the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi). Behind them also came the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Daiki Sasaki / Atsushi Miyake) and in 4th position the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda / Teppei Natori), all in their qualifying order, making for a quiet start.

However, at the 130R curve of the 2nd lap, car No. 24 running in 4th position overran and went off the track, which immediately dropped it back to 14th position. What’s more, on the first corner of the 4th lap No. 24 managed to pass the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Syun Koide) from the out-side to regain one position. But just before the chicane of the same lap, No. 24 collided with car No. 17 while trying to pass it from the out-side. This caused No. 17 to run off the track and crash on the out-side of the track. This accident brought out the Safety Car on the 5th lap to control the race.

After the car was retrieved and the track cleared, the Safety Car left the track on the 9th lap. From the 10th lap, when passing was once again permitted, the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Nirei Fukuzumi) that had started the race from 7th position on the grid passed the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa) on the in-side after passing though the S-Curve to move up into 5th position on the same lap.

Meanwhile, the leading car No. 16 had built up a margin of lead of 1.67 sec. by the 11th lap, but from there, car No. 23 began to close the gap, and by the 13th lap it had closed to within just 0.217 sec. And then, at the first corner of the 14th lap it started to pull up alongside No. 16 on the out-side. However, No. 16 desperately held on to its lead with determination. From there on it continued to run laps with its narrow lead until both cars made their pit stop on the 18th lap.

Here, the NISMO team demonstrated its famed speed in their pit work. With it they succeeded in getting No. 23 out of the pit and onto the track in front of the No. 16 ARTA. This effectively gave No. 23 the provisional lead.

Next, on the 19th lap, car No. 3 made its pit stop and got to work quickly to also get its car back into the race in front of No. 16. With its tires already warmed up, No. 16 moved up rapidly on car No. 3, which had just changed to fresh tires, but Miyake in car No. 3 kept his cool and managed to hold No. 16 off and maintain his position skillfully.

Then, on the 20th lap, the leading four cars made their pit stops in succession and performed their pit work, and it was here that car No. 14, which had maintained its provisional lead, would make its pit stop. This time, No. 14 team’s pit work was quick, and they managed to get back on the track ahead of No. 3, effectively moving up to provisional second position.

With this, car No. 23 held the lead over the cars that had finished their pit stops. This meant that the 2nd and 3rd positions went to cars No. 14 and No. 3 respectively. The No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra that had stayed out on the track the longest finally made its pit stop on the 32nd lap, which put No. 23 solidly in the lead. The lead it held at the end of 38th lap was just under 2 sec., but after the 40th lap its margin of lead over No. 14 began to shrink gradually, until by the 43rd lap it was down to about 1 sec.

But, from here No. 23 began to pick up the pace, and by the 47th lap its lead was up to 2.4 sec. What’s more, upon entering the 48th lap, one of the GT300 cars suffered a tire burst that brought on a FCY (Full Course Yellow) call, and when the FCY was withdrawn, car No. 14, which had been trapped behind back markers, fell far behind while No. 23 extended its lead greatly.

In the end, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) finished the 52nd lap of the race to claim its first victory of the season with a 5.768 sec. lead over car No. 14. For the NISMO car No. 23 this was its first win since Round 1 at Okayama in the 2023 season, making this its first win in two years and four months. Also, in the 2025 season thus far TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars had won all the races up to Round 4, and this win by the No. 23 NISSAN Z NISMO GT500 put an end to this TOYOTA winning streak.

Finishing the race in 2nd position was the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima / Nirei Fukuzumi). In 3rd position came the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Daiki Sasaki / Atsushi Miyake), while the poll-starting No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu / Ren Sato) finished in 4th position as the best finisher among the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars.

　As for the Drivers Standing, the leading No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita) managed to finish in 9th position despite carrying 100 kg of Success Weight, which gave the driver pair of Tsuboi and Yamashita an additional 2 points to maintain their lead in the ranking. By finishing the race in 2nd place, the No. 14 driver pair of Oshima and Fukuzumi succeeded in rising to 2nd place in the standing, while also closing the gap to the leader Tsuboi and Yamashita.