The 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT season will begin in less than one month. The other day, this year’s first SUPER GT Official Tests were held at the Okayama International Circuit, where the opening round of the season will be held (April 12th, 13th), and at the tests we interviewed seven drivers. Here we introduce their comments, as they look forward to the opening round. The first driver we interviewed was Sho Tsuboi, who won his third GT500 class Drivers championship title last year driving the au TOM’S GR Supra and will going for the first-ever third straight GT title this season.
Sho Tsuboi No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra（2024 GT500 class Champions）
— What was your impression coming off this year’s first Official Tests at Okayama? The first day of the tests was so cold that I think all of the competitors were running on tires that were out of their effective performance range. It was difficult to get the tires warmed up, and although the track condition was officially rated as dry, there were corners that were slippery, and since the tests were run together with the GT300 class, there was almost never a clear track ahead of me. So, the times we ran weren’t really any good for reference, but we were still able to get the fastest time (overall on the first day), which I was happy about. So far, we seem to be riding the same good wave as last year and things are going well, so I feel good about the way the tests are going. However, since it was colder than we expected, we weren’t able to evaluate the performance of the tires as well as we had hoped. Looking toward the opening round, since we got a win from pole position there last year, I want to see us get a win from pole position again this year. And since none of the teams will be carrying any Success Weight, it will be an even head-to-head fight for everyone. I think the opening round will be an important chance to get a good start going forward by demonstrating to the rivals that we are fast again this year. Also, because getting full points in the opener will be important in the season’s championship race as well, at Okayama I want to see us work to get another win from pole position. –This season offers a chance for you to get your fourth championship title, doesn’t it. Please tell us about your thoughts on that. Rather than my own fourth title, I am looking for us to get our third straight title as a team. A third straight title for a team will be the first ever in SUPER GT history, so it is a chance for us to have our names go down in history. And, although there may be some GT fans who see us win and say, “Oh no! Not au again?” (laughs), but that is what we want to do. If we can win our third straight title this year, for me it will automatically become the same fourth personal title as Ronnie Quintarelli’s four titles, so I want to make the third straight team title my top priority and work together with the whole team toward that.
In the next interview, we will talk with Kenta Yamashita, who will be driving together with Tsuboi to get that third straight championship title for the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra team.
