The greatest dynasty in Autobacs SUPER GT Series history has been cemented. Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita only needed to finish second to win the 2025 GT500 Championship for TGR Team au TOM’S, but a win in the season-ending Motegi GT 300km Race: Grand Final was more than enough for the #1 au TOM’S Toyota GR Supra to win an unbelievable fourth GT500 title in five years.
It’s a record-tying fourth GT500 Drivers’ Championship for Tsuboi, matching the record originally set in 2015 by Nissan legend Ronnie Quintarelli. Tsuboi also became the first driver in history to win three consecutive GT500 championships.
Yamashita, meanwhile, joins the elite company of only five other drivers to win at least three GT500 championships in his career, including Tsuboi, Quintarelli, as well as Satoshi Motoyama, Juichi Wakisaka, and Yuji Tachikawa.
Tsuboi grabbed the lead on the opening lap by overtaking polesitter Hiroaki Ishiura (#38 KeePer Cerumo GR Supra) with a textbook crossover pass in turns three and four. Tsuboi led the first 23 laps before he came into the pits. Yamashita was at risk of being undercut by the #38 KeePer GR Supra of Toshiki Oyu, but Oyu ran off course on his outlap, going through the gravel at the 90º Corner, a critical blow to TGR Team KeePer Cerumo’s title hopes. Ishiura and Oyu would eventually finish seventh.
In the final laps, Yamashita then had to withstand the pressure applied by a pair of Nissan Z NISMO GT500s, the #12 TRS Impul with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) and the #23 Motul Autech Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi). Yamashita withstood multiple attempts from Hiramine to take the race lead, and then a final lap attack from the blue Impul Z.
But Yamashita held off Hiramine by just 0.254 seconds, securing the title with a win in the final race. Nissan initially had two cars on the podium, however, the #12 TRS Impul Z was disqualified from the race for excessive skid block wear. That gave the #23 Motul Z second place.
The #100 Stanley Honda Civic Type R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) mortgaged their championship hopes on a brave fuel-only pit strategy, but while Makino left the pits with the net lead, he rapidly fell into the clutches of Yamashita and was swiftly overtaken for the lead.
Makino was able to hold onto fourth place towards the end of the race, which later became third, helping to secure second in the GT500 Championship for Stanley Team Kunimitsu, in the Civic Type R-GT’s final SUPER GT race. The #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) charged to fourth place, finishing just behind the Stanley Civic, with the #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) completing the top five.
After 22 years of SUPER GT racing, Team Mach finally took its first GT300 win, with the long-serving #5 Mach Syaken/Air Buster MC86 of Yusuke Shiotsu and Iori Kimura driving to a stunning victory after pitting at the very first opportunity in the race. Tetsuji Tamanaka’s privateer team had scored five podiums since it debuted in 2003, but the Mach 5-liveried car had never reached the top step, until today.
But the GT300 Championship went to K2 R&D LEON Racing’s Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami, who finished sixth in their #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3. It’s LEON Racing and ace driver Gamou’s second GT300 Championships, and for Suganami, who rejoined the team this off-season, it’s his first.
They hung on to win the title by just one point over Kondo Racing’s Kohei Hirate, who finished fourth alongside co-driver João Paulo de Oliveira in the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R NISMO GT3. Oliveira battled the #666 seven x seven Porsche 911 GT3 R (Harry King/Kiyoto Fujinami) for the final podium place and what would have been the championship-winning pass, but King was able to box out Oliveira’s last overtaking attempt and hold onto the final podium place.
Finishing second was the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi), which led the opening stint before conceding the top spot to the Mach MC86, whose aggressive undercut strategy put Kimura into the net lead. It’s a podium finish in the BRZ’s final race powered by the EJ20 flat-4 engine that has powered every Subaru GT300 car since 1998.
More to follow!
Images © GTA