The SUGO GT 300km RACE, Round 6 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at Sportsland SUGO (one lap: 3,586 m x 84 laps) in Miyagi Prefecture on September 21st (Sun.). Both classes saw intense competition continue until the final stages, with the GT500 class race seeing Natori in the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z / Nissan Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) take a come-from-behind victory on the final lap to take his first win since November of 2016. Also, in the GT300 class race, the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno) that started the race from 2nd position on the grid held off fierce pressure from behind to also take its first win since November of 2021.
＜GT500＞ The SUGO GT 300KM RACE, Round 6 of the 2025 season, was held in fine autumn weather, but the track was full of close back and forth battles in the early going that resulted in two Full Course Yellow (FCY) calls and then a crash by several cars that resulted in a Red Flag stoppage in the middle stage of the race to further disrupt the race’s progress.
In the GT500 class race, the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) that started the race from pole position was caught and passed on the sixth lap by the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) the started from 2nd position on the grid to take the lead. At one point No. 39 was passed by Matsuda in the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) that had moved up from 5th position at the start, but No. 39 was able to re-take the lead and continue to hold the provisional lead after the require pit stop.
However, on the 48th lap of the race there was a crash on the straight by two GT300 class cars, as well as an accident that involved the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa). This resulted in a Red Flag stoppage of the race.
The three drivers involved were not injured and after the track was cleared the race was restarted from 4:00 in the afternoon. When it started again, Natori in car No. 24 that had been running in 3rd position began to pick up at a fast pace. At the first corner of the 60th lap Natori passed car No. 17 running in 2nd position and then went on move up on the tail of the leading car No. 39, in what turned into a fierce battle between the three cars. Although No. 39 was able to skillfully block No. 24, at the Umanose Corner of the 70th lap No. 24 pulled up on its out-side and skillfully took the lead at the next corner.
Just after that, the race reached the determined maximum extension time of 4:30 and the checkered flag was waved, enabling the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori) to take its first win since November of 2016 at the Round 3 Race held at Motegi (due to a rescheduling after postponement of the Autopolis Round 3 as a result of the Kumamoto Earthquake). This win extended Matsuda’s record for most wins to 25, while also giving Natori a felicitous first victory. Finishing the race in 2nd place was the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz), while 3rd place went to the No.17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide), which gave each of the three makers one car on the podium.
＜GT300＞ The early stages of the GT300 class race, saw O’Sullivan in the pole-starting No. 7 CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3 (Zak O’Sullivan/Rikuto Kobayashi) being chased by the 2nd grid position starting Hiroki Yoshimoto in the No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT until he was able to pass the leader on the 7th lap to give car No. 60 the lead. After this, the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNEMIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Kohei Hirate) used their strong pace to give chase and close in, but after the race’s restart, car No. 60 with Shunsuke Kohno now at the wheel managed to hold off car No. 56 and go on to give his team its first win since 2011. Finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively were car No. 56 and the No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (Tsubasa Kondo/Harry King).
*Spectators: September 21st (race day / cloudy to clear skies): 17,200 / 20th (qualifying day / rain to cloudy): 9,700.
■Winner Comments
GT500 CLASS
No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z Tsugio Matsuda:“This 25th victory and a victory since coming to this team certainly was a long time coming. And watching Teppei (Natori in the late stages) was a thrill for me. When I was driving in the first half, I definitely had a feeling that we had a chance to win (moving up to the lead from 5th position). Working with Manager Kondo to build this team took two years, and I’m so glad that we were able to get this win. We also got a lot of help from the people at Yokohama Tires, so I am so grateful to the people that worked on the tire development. Most of all I wanted to give our Manager Kondo a win and I’m glad it finally happened.”
Teppei Natori:“After such a tough battle, my throat is worn out. With these members and as a team it has been a long struggle (since 2016) to get this win, and the fact that Tsugio (Matsuda) san has extended his number of victories to 25 is also great, and I am glad to have been part of it. （As for passing car No. 39?） I thought that was the only place it was possible. Since as a racing driver you can’t go on the defensive but have to be aggressive, there is always risk involved, but the fact that I was finally able to overtake it was good. (As for the cheering from the spectators?) I was really in an uproar of excitement myself when the overtake succeeded (laughs).”
GT300 CLASS
No. 60 Syntium LMcorsa LC500 GT Hiroki Yoshimoto:“After changing to the LC500 this year with its high potential, it was still a struggle to bring that potential out with good result. When we finally thought we had a good result, it turned out that we were still 800 grams short (of the minimum car weight) and got disqualified. That was a big disappointment for the whole team. For that reason, we were determined to finally get this win at SUGO. Especially, the tires that the people at Dunlop prepared for us were truly outstanding. So when everything came together in a good matching, we got 2nd position in the qualifying and I was able to take the lead early in the race, but the pace of the cars behind me was also fast. And added to all this the driving of Shunsuke (Kohno) in the second half was really cool, and he did a great job of holding the lead for us (laughs). It was really great!”
Shunsuke Kohno:“I’m exhausted (wry smile). I knew that car No. 56 that was coming up on us at the end was fast, but then the Safety Car run reduced the gap even more. But I’m glad that the drivers weren’t injured in that accident, and I’m grateful for the fact that the officials cleared the course so quickly. In the final 30 minutes, I kept my faith in the performance of the Dunlop tires, so I kept pushing even harder than in mt qualifying time attacks. This time it was the new tires that the people at Dunlop made for us, the pit work strategy of the team and the good set-up of the car that gave us this first win in four years that I am so happy about.”
