Revived Sepang Round Likely to Be Night Race

SUPER GT organizers have clarified that the revived Sepang fixture that was announced last week as part of the 2025 calendar is likely to be a night race.

It was confirmed ahead of last weekend’s fourth round of the season at Fuji Speedway that the series is to hold its first race outside of Japan since 2019, with Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia returning to the schedule after a 12-year absence.

The date given for the Sepang round, the third of the provisional 2025 calendar, is June 27-28, which unusually falls on Friday and Saturday, instead of Saturday and Sunday.

A GTA spokesperson told Sportscar365 there is broad agreement that the race should be held at night under floodlights owing to the high temperatures at the Malaysian venue during the day, with Sunday left clear to allow the paddock to return to Japan.

However, GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh stated in his regular press conference that a final decision has yet to be made owing to concerns from race director Naoki Hattori about being able to accurately judge who is responsible for collisions in a night race.

Night sessions under the floodlights were held during SUPER GT manufacturer testing at Sepang in January 2020, ahead of that year’s planned return to the circuit for a night race, which was scrapped amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A final decision on whether the Sepang event will be held as a night race is set to be communicated at the next round on Suzuka on August 31-Sep. 1, where a signing ceremony is also set to be held with a representative from the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture once the contract is finalized.

On Sepang’s return to the calendar, Bandoh said: “In 2020, we had decided upon the Malaysia race being revived and we planned on hosting two overseas races [the other being at Thailand’s Buriram Circuit], and we even made it as far as receiving the deposit, but then the pandemic hit.

“Since the pandemic ended, we’ve constantly been looking at how to bring back [an overseas race], as establishing a marketing and sales strategy in Asia is important to the Japanese car manufacturers and helps them be able to participate.”

Bandoh also reiterated a desire to add more races in the region to the schedule in future, including plans for a ‘winter series’ comprising multiple rounds.

While the Sepang race will be held in June, Bandoh said it could be moved to the regular off-season between November and March in future if more Asian races join the calendar, but that it didn’t make sense to host it as a standalone race in the winter.