The AUTOPOLIS GT 3 Hours RACE, Round 7 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit (one lap 4.674 km x 3 hrs.) in Oita Prefecture on October 19th (Sun.). In this 3-hour long-distance race, the latter half saw the battle for the lead changed dramatically in both classes. In the GT500 class the No.100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT（Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino） that started the race from 12th place on the grid worked its way up steadily throughout the full 3 hours of the race to take its first win of the season. In the GT300 class, the No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (Harry King / Kiyoto Fujinami Tsubasa Kondo) team that entered GT300 competition for the first time this season also managed to take the team’s first win.

　 The previous day’s the qualifying had been held at the mercy of the changing weather, and the morning’s FIA-F4 12th round support race on race day suffered from fog and slippery track conditions due to high humidity. But in the afternoon under cloudy skies with the air temperature at 23℃ the track condition was completely Dry. The 3-hours of race competition started at 1:16 in the afternoon.

The pole-sitting No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Daiki Sasaki / Atsushi Miyake) was the first to come through the first corner after the start. Behind it came the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) that had qualified in 2nd position, followed by the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima / Nirei Fukuzumi) that qualified in 3rd position and this began a battle for 2nd place in the race. Here it was car No. 3 that remained in the lead. Meanwhile, a collision occurred between the 4th position grid starter, the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura / Toshiki Oyu), and the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette). This resulted in car No. 38 spinning out and dropping back to the last position in the class. For this accident, car No. 12 was given a drive-through penalty, dropping back in the order as well.

By the 10th lap, car No. 3 held the lead with a margin of just over 2 seconds ahead of 2nd position. Behind the leaders, there was another collision between the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa / Riki Okusa) and the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Tsugio Matsuda / Teppei Natori) as they battled for 7th position at the 3rd corner on the 12th lap. The result of the collision saw the car No. 24 running on the out-side to be pushed off the track and crash into the barrier. Although No. 24 was able to return to the track temporarily under its own power, due to the serious damage to the left front of its chassis, it soon pulled off the track again, came to a stop and eventually retired from the race. This resulted in the calling of a FCY (Full course Yellow) on the 13th lap which was then changed to an intervention by the Safety Car (SC) on the 14th lap. Because of the SC run, the spaces between the cars were re-set and the margin of lead for car No. 3 was eliminated. Also, due to this accident car No. 64 was given a drive-through penalty.

The race was restarted from the 17th lap, and it was here that car No. 12 completed its drive-through penalty. With this, the new running order saw car No. 3 in the lead, with No. 23 in 2nd position and No. 14 in 3rd position, followed by the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi) advancing into 4th position.

From this point, car No. 37 began to move up through the order. By the 3rd corner of the 19th lap, No. 37 passed car No. 14 and then passed car No. 23 on the same corner of the 25th lap. And finally, on the first corner of the 27th lap it caught car No. 3 and passed it on the out-side to take the lead.

However, the order was to change again by the time all of the cars in the class had finished their first pit stop. The car No. 23 running in 3rd position made its pit stop on the 29th lap, while car No. 14 running in 4th position made its pit stop on the 33rd lap. The leading car No. 37 and the 2nd position car No. 3 both made their pit stops on the 35th lap and performed the required re-fueling, but this allowed four cars that had already finished their re-fueling, namely car No. 38, the No.19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Sena Sakaguchi Kazuto Kotaka), the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT # (Tomoki Nojiri / Nobuharu Matsushita), car No. 8 and the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Syun Koide), to all pass the two former leaders in the race order. Besides this, when No. 3 and No. 37 finally returned to the track, they were passed in succession on the 34th lap by the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita) on their first lap coming out of the pit, dropping them back one more place in the order.

Entering the middle stages of the race, car No. 37 once again picked up the pace to re-pass cars No. 3, No. 1 and No. 14 on the 38th lap, after which it went on to pass car No. 8 on the 40th lap and then began chasing car No. 19.

On this 40th lap of the race, the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino) finally finished its first pit stop and changed drivers from Naoki Yamamoto to Tadasuke Makino, at which point all the cars of the GT500 class had finally finished their first re-fueling. It was here the car No. 38 stood in the lead. In 2nd position came car No. 19, and in 3rd position stood car No. 37.

These top three car continued to lap the track closely with a total time gap of less than 0.5 sec., but still cars No. 19 and No. 37 proved unable to close the gap on car No. 38. In time, car No. 1 running in 4th position began to close in on the three cars in the lead, while car No. 100, which had dropped to 11th position after its first pit stop, also began to close in on this lead group, moving first into 9th position by the 51st lap, then to 8th position by the 55th lap.

Meanwhile, car No. 38 made its second pit stop after run 36 laps from the 22nd lap to the 58th lap of the race. This was followed in the same way by cars No. 3 and No. 64. During this time, Makino in car No. 100 caught and passed Tsuboi in car No. 1 to move into 2nd position behind car No. 37. Then, the trouble with cars in the GT300 class brought on the second FCY of the day on the 61st lap, and although it soon ended, it was at this time that car No. 100 passed the leading car No. 37 and the car No. 1 running in 3rd position. With this, car No. 100 now stood in the lead.

After having started the race in 12th position, the No. 100 team had adopted the strategy of first having Yamamoto concentrate on conserving fuel as he drove the first stint in order to shorten the time to the second re-fueling by delaying the first pit stop as long as possible. This strategy worked perfectly to enable Makino to move up to take the lead on his stint. After this, No. 100 made its second pit stop on the 64th lap. This time, no drive change was made, and by keeping Makino in the driver’s seat for another stint, the team gained another 10 sec. advantage over the other teams while also returning to the race with his lead intact.

What’s more, the cars No. 1 and No. 37 that had been battling each other in the top group would develop machine trouble one after the other in the second half of the race, after which they would both return to their garages and retire from the race. With this, the only rivals remaining for car No. 100 were its fellow Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars No. 16 and No. 64.

As for No. 16 and No. 64, they became involved in a fierce battle for 2nd place among themselves, during which time car No. 100 was able to increase its lead over the pack. In the end it would finish the 3-hour race by running a full 102 laps with a big margin of lead of nearly 26 sec., which gave the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino) team its first win of the season as well as top finishes for the other CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars.

　Finishing the race in 2nd position after passing car No. 16 on the 101st lap came the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa / Riki Okusa), while the No. 16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #16 (Hiroki Otsu / Ren Sato) went on to finish in 3rd place. After having gone through so much difficulty in the qualifying, the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars managed to finish the race with a sweep of all three places on the podium. Finishing in 4th place came the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura / Toshiki Oyu), while the top finisher among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) in 6th place.

　With these results, the car No. 1 driver pair of Tsuboi and Yamashita were able to retain their lead in the series point standing despite having failed to finish the race. The top six driver pairs, including the No. 14 pair of Oshima and Fukuzumi, the No.100 pair of Yamamoto and Makino, the No. 38 pair of Ishiura and Oyu and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra pair of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Sacha Fenestraz, will now be competing to improve their standings in the final round of the series to take place at MOTEGI (Nov. 1st and 2nd) in hopes of taking this season’s GT500 class title.