Round 2 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “FUJI GT 3 Hours RACE GW Special” was held on May 4th (Sun./Holiday) at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m × 3 hours) in Shizuoka Prefecture. In fair weather with a clear view of Mt. Fuji, the GT500 class pole-starting No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura/ Toshiki Oyu) completed the 3-hour race without ever giving up the provisional lead to take a pole-to-finish win for the first time six years. In the GT300 class, when machine trouble struck the lead car on the last lap of the race, the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/ Roberto Merhi Muntan) that had managed to move up to 2nd position in an unbelievable climb from a 28th position start won a dramatic first victory.
For this 2025 season Round 2 race at Fuji, some 49,200 spectators turned out to watch the heated battles that unfolded in this long 3-hour race. In the GT500 class, Toshiki Oyu started from pole position in the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra to pull away strongly in the lead, and in two consecutive stints, he opened up a lead of more than 23 second by the 71st lap of the race when he turned over the wheel to teammate Hiroaki Ishiura to run on to the goal. Ishiura also ran strongly at a steady pace without giving the competitors a chance to close the gap and finally completed 116 laps of the 3-hour race to give the team its first win of the season. For Oyu, it was his second win in the GT500 class, and a gratifying first win driving for a TOYOTA team. For Ishiura and the TGR TEAM KeePer CERUMO, it was the first win since May 2019 in the 500 km race at FUJI, and this first victory in no less than six years would bring tears to the eyes of both drivers.
Finishing in 2nd place was the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) that had won the previous round. Starting from 7th position on the grid, the team had continued to pass the cars in front until it climbed to 3rd position by passing car No. 19 on the 36th lap and then going on to move up into 2nd place in the final stages of the race. This gave the team its second consecutive podium finish following its win in the opening round.
The 3rd place went to the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) that had started the race from 13th position. Until the middle stages of the race it had been hard going for the team, but from there it steadily worked its way up to a well-earned 3rd place finish. Among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars, the Nissan Z NISMO GT50 that started from 12th position and gradually moved up to finish the race in 4th position.
In the GT300 class, the race developed into a battle for the top two positions between the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii/Charlie Fagg) and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi). However, in the final stages of the race car No. 777 twice suffered from machine trouble, which left car No. 61 in the lead, but only to have No. 61 suffer machine trouble itself. As a result, the No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi Muntan) that had started the race from 27th position and climbed up through the pack to 2nd place at an amazing pace final took a dramatic come-from-behind win. With this, 2nd and 3rd places went to the car No. 777 and the No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT (Yuui Tsutsumi /Hibiki Taira /Kazuhisa Urabe).
■Spectators: May 4th (race day/clear) 49,200 / May 3rd (qualifying day/clear) 33,300
■Winner Comments
GT500 CLASS
No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra Hiroaki Ishiura: “I want to thank everyone! This victory is one we owe to the team and to my teammate Oyu who got us into a run-away lead from the start. In the second half of the race, all I had to do was to drive while keeping an eye on the cars behind me. Still, there has never been such a rewarding win as this for me. After I got out of the car at the end and saw the tears in Oyu’s eyes, I started crying as well (wry smile).” Toshiki Oyu: “We owe this win to the team crew for working hard to repair the car (after the crash in the last race). Because I was running in the lead, I had a good view of the fans and the KeePer cheering section waving their flags, which gave me the strength to carry on. I am so glad that we were able to win here at FUJI.”
GT300 CLASS
No. 6 UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI Yoshiaki Katayama: “In my stint I was able to move us up through the pack to some degree, but we owe a lot to the way Roberto moved us up to fast in the early stages. I thought we had the potential to win, and I didn’t want us to settle for 2nd or 3rd place, because we had suffered a lot up until now. I am simply very glad that we were able to get this long-awaited win.” Roberto Merhi Muntan: “After starting from 27th position, I thought it would be good if we could get up to 10th place or so, but I still wanted to try for more than that. Once I started driving, the car ran so well, but the SUBARU and the Astin Marten were also very fast. I didn’t want to give up, so I kept pushing and was able to pass car No. 61 when it suffered machine trouble. Today is Mother’s Day in Spain, so I want to dedicate this win to myself and Yoshiaki’s mother.”
