The FUJI GT SPRINT RACE, Round 4 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series took place on August 2nd at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563 m x 35 laps) in Shizuoka Prefecture. Although there were no real problems as feared due to the Typhoon No. 9 passing close, there were some sprinkles of rain near the end of the race, but the race successfully reached its goal. In the GT500 class, Sho Tsuboi in the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra who had finished 2nd in the qualifying, took the lead in the early going and appeared to be on the way to a perfect win. In the GT300 class, Charlie Fagg in the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 came up from 4th position on the starting grid to take a come-from-behind win. Tomorrow, August 3rd (Sun.) will see the holding of Race 2.
The FUJI GT SPRINT RACE, Round 4 of the 2025 SUPER GT series, is run as a two sprint races, with Saturday’ Race 1 and Sunday’s Race 2 and with a race format in which one driver each will run the qualifying and the race in the same day. The qualifying for Race 1 started at 12:30 in the afternoon. Here it was the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra（Sena Sakaguchi）, that took pole position by a small margin over the leaders in the series ranking, the No.1 au TOM’S GR Supra（Sho Tsuboi）.
Then, starting at 3:15 in the afternoon, came Race 1 as a 35-lap race. On the first lap, a collision occurred that caused the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra（Kazuya Oshima） to retire from the race. To clear the track, the Safety Car was brought out, but the race was able restart after six laps. With this, the car No. 1 in 2nd position mounted a fierce charge to overtake the leading car No. 19 and succeeded in taking the lead from it at the TGR Corner. After that, No. 1 was able to run on while holding off the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Toshiki Oyu) in 2nd position to reach the goal first with a lead of more than 2.5 sec. This gave the team their second win of the season, following the one at the opening round in Okayama.
Finishing in 2nd place was car No. 38. Third place went to the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra（Ukyo Sasahara）that had started the race from 11th position on the grid. With this the Toyota GR Supra swept the top five places on the TOYOTA home track.
The top finisher among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars was the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Bertrand Baguette) in 6th place. Among the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars, the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tadasuke Makino) was the top finisher in 7th place.
In the GT300 class, the pole-starting No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT (Hibiki Taira) ran in the lead until the middle stages of the race. However, at that point car No. 2 began to fall off the pace, and it was Charlie Fagg in the No. 777 D’station Vantage GT3 that had started the race from 4th position on the grid who moved up to take the lead. In the final stages of the race, closing in on No. 777 was the No. 4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) and the No. 65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou), but it was able to hold them off to take the win, its first victory since Round 3 at SUZUKA of last season and second win overall. Second and third places went to car No. 4 and the No. 65 Mercedes AMG GT3.
■Winner Comments
GT500 CLASS
No.1 au TOM’S GR Supra Sho Tsuboi “Rather than the race, I feel embarrassed about my mistake in the qualifying (wry laugh). So, I felt that it would be just too embarrassing if I didn’t win the race. I knew that I could run at a good pace in the race, but at the start I guess I was a little too cautious. With this race format, it is hard on the mechanics, still the team was able to set up the car perfectly, and so this win is also one that will also contribute to tomorrow’s Race 2. Also, since there was no Success Weight to deal with this time, we were able to race without any stress for the first time in a while.”
GT300 CLASS
No.777 D’station Vantage GT3 Charlie Fagg “I am very happy. Since I was starting from 4th position on the grid, I didn’t think I would be able to take the lead. But from the middle stages of the race the feeling of the car was very good, and although there was some light rainfall, that is what made me determined to go all out for the win. That’s why things worked out so well, I think. I just want to say thanks to everyone!”
