The STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT takes a big come-from-behind victory.
Three CIVIC cars sweep the podium. In the GT300 race the seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R team comes from behind in the final stages to take its first win!
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.
＜GT500＞
This Round 7, the second 3-hour race of the season, saw one reversal in the order after another worthy of such a long race, as battle after battle played out at points all around the track, including some that resulted in FCY (Full Course Yellow) calls twice and that brought out the Safety Car to control the race. The result was an exciting race that glued the spectators eyes to the action for the full 3 hours.
In the GT500 class race, the No. 3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Daiki Sasaki / Atsushi Miyake) that started the race from pole position and ran strongly in the lead in the early stages came under attack by the No. 37 Deloitte TOM'S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara / Giuliano Alesi) that had started from 6th position on the grid, and after the Safety Car run it managed to take the lead. However, in the latter stages after most of the cars finished their two required pit stops, the car that emerged in the lead was the No.100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT（Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino）that had started the race from 12th position.
In car No. 100, the driver Yamamoto held off longer than other cars to make his pit stop after the 40th lap of the race. Then he turned that car to his teammate Makino, who proceeded to charge to the front at a strong pace to move into 2nd place by the 59th lap. When car No. 37 made its second pit stop on the 61st lap, No. 100 moved into the lead and held on to it after its next pit stop as well. After that it continued to widen its lead over the pursuing pack as it finished the 3-hour race (102 laps), taking its first win of the season with a lead of some 26 seconds over the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT（Takuya Izawa / Riki Okusa）finishing in 2nd place. With this the Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT managed sweep the winners podium in this 7th round of the season.
Finishing in 4th place came the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra (Hiroaki Ishiura / Toshiki Oyu). The top finisher among the Nissan Z NISMO GT500 cars was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi) in 6th place. As for the No. 1 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi / Kenta Yamashita), it retired from the race with machine trouble but still managed to retain its lead in the series point ranking. The final race of the season at Motegi (Nov. 1st and 2nd) will see the top six cars behind car No. 1 in the standing battling for the series title.
＜GT300>
In the early stages of the GT300 class race, the pole-starting No. 7 CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3 (Zak O'Sullivan / Rikuto Kobayashi) battled for the lead with the 2nd place grid starter, the No. 0 VENTENY Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Yuya Motojima) into the middle stages of the race. However, both cars were given penalties for passing other cars in the Yellow flag zone where passing is prohibited. Despite this, car No. 7 still had sufficient margin of lead to remain in 1st place, and it looked as if it was on the way to victory. However, No. 7 was in danger of running out of gasoline in the last 10 minutes, so it quickly made a pit stop to refuel. This lost time allowed the No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (Harry King / Kiyoto Fujinami Tsubasa Kondo) that had started the race in 5th position to take a felicitous win for the first time in this, its first season of GT300 competition. Finishing the race in 2nd and 3rd places respectively were cars No. 7 and No. 0.
*Spectators: Oct. 19th (Race day / rain to cloudy) 16,000 / Oct 18th (Qualifying day / clear to rain) 10,000
Winner Comments
No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT [GT500]
Naoki Yamamoto: "I suffered a big injury before and this is my first win since that time, and even more than that, this has been one of the last two races for the CIVIC TYPE R-GT, so we came into this race really wanting to get a win with our own hands. For that reason, I am truly glad that we got this win. When I was running for more than an hour in the first stint, I was thinking all the time about what I could do to get it ready to hand over to my teammate Makino for his stint, and it turned out that today this was truly his race. Also, I want to express my gratitude for the hard work that the Honda people did in difficult conditions with the engine development."
Tadasuke Makino: "Thank you all! Through this season of difficult times, we finally put together a race we can be proud of. I am very happy. It has been great."
No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R [GT300]
Harry King: "Arigato! I am very pleased with this result. I didn't expect us to be able to win, and we were hindered by Success Weight and BoP. But the team staff did a great job of setting up the car, so I am so happy that we got this result. Also, it has been so good for me to be able to work with Fujinami-san and Kondo-san."
Kiyoto Fujinami: "We did it! I want to thank everyone. Has this been the first win since 2022? A lot has happened since then, and I want to thank all the fans that have continued to cheer us on. This year we returned to SUPER GT with a new team and I am glad to have been able to give back something to by working with the team staff, the owner and the tire maker to get this win. Especially, Harry（King） is really a fast driver, and（Kondo）Tsubasa-san joined as our third driver for me, and in the last race he got 3rd place for us. With everyone playing a part, it is great that we got this win."
Tsubasa Kondo: "Watching the race I was impressed by the speed of both of our drivers. But, I think it is quite a feat to have the team win in this first year of participation. I am very glad that I was allowed to be involved with this team." (Kondo did drive in the race).
