TOM’S Toyota Clinches Title in Thrilling Motegi Decider

TOM’S Toyota drivers Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita secured the team’s third consecutive SUPER GT title triumph after scoring a narrow victory ahead of the Team Impul Nissan in a thrilling conclusion to the season at Motegi.

Starting from second on the grid, Tsuboi wasted no time in seizing the lead from the pole-winning Cerumo Toyota of Hiroaki Ishiura, taking advantage of his superior tire warm-up to take the lead as early as the exit of Turn 4 on the first lap.

Tsuboi then led for the remainder of the opening stint as Bertrand Baguette also passed Ishiura for second, with the TOM’S Toyota maintaining the advantage when Tsuboi pitted to hand over to Yamashita on lap 23 of 63.

While it initially looked as if it would be a straightforward run for Yamashita and Tsuboi, Honda threw the strategic dice in a last-gasp bid to wrest the title from Toyota by not changing tires when the Team Kunimitsu car pitted the following lap.

Tadasuke Makino emerged with a lead of around 11 seconds over Yamashita in the No. 100 Honda Civic Type R-GT, but with old tires he was soon caught by the Toyota driver, who breezed around the outside of Makino at Turn 3 on lap 29.

One lap later, Makino lost a further place to the Impul Nissan, now with Kazuki Hiramine at the wheel, with a fierce battle between Yamashita and Hiramine that would last all the way to the checkered flag beginning soon after.

That allowed Katsumasa Chiyo in the No. 23 NISMO Nissan, who passed Makino for third on lap 33, to close in, leading to a nail-biting three way fight for the closing laps.

However, despite Hiramine making a couple of efforts to pass Yamashita at the downhill Turn 11 right-hander, the leading three cars would finish in that order, with just 0.264 seconds splitting Yamashita and Hiramine at the finish.

It meant TOM’S became the first GT500 team to score three consecutive titles, with Tsuboi bagging his fourth crown and Yamashita his third.

Chiyo was just 1.015 seconds behind at the finish in the No. 23 Nissan started by Mitsunori Takaboshi, with Makino clinging on to fourth place on his old tires despite coming under late pressure from the recovering SARD Toyota of Sacha Fenestraz.

After taking over the Cerumo Toyota from Ishiura, Toshiki Oyu suffered an off-track moment at Turn 11 on his out lap, and his subsequent lack of pace meant a large train of cars formed behind him in the second half of the race.

Oyu was passed late on by the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota of Giuliano Alesi, which left he and Ishiura third in the final GT500 standings behind Yamamoto and Makino.

Dropping from second to fourth in the final standings were Rookie Toyota pair Nirei Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima, who finished out of the points after Oshima earned a 40-second penalty for rear-ending Ren Sato’s ARTA Honda.

UPDATE: The Team Impul Nissan was later disqualified from second place for excess skid plank wear, promoting the NISMO car shared by Chiyo and Takaboshi to second behind the TOM’S Toyota of Tsuboi and Yamashita.

The Team Kunimitsu Honda of Makino and Yamamoto was promoted to third.

Team Mach Takes First GT300 Win as LEON Racing Takes Title

In GT300, victory went to the Team Mach Toyota 86 Mother Chassis of Iori Kimura and Yusuke Shiotsu, who scored the team’s first win in 22 years of trying.

But the championship was won by LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG drivers Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami, who finished sixth to seal the team’s first title since 2018 by a single point from Kondo Racing Nissan driver Kohei Hirate.

Shiotsu took the start in the No. 5 Team Mach car from second on the grid and maintained position as Takuto Iguchi pulled away to the tune of nine seconds at the head of the field in the polesitting Subaru BRZ.

However, Shiotsu lost places to the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT of Seita Nonaka and the Kondo Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Hirate before pitting on lap 19 of an eventual 59 to hand over to Kimura, with Team Mach opting for a no tire change strategy.

That ultimately put Kimura back in the lead once all the mandatory stops were completed, with the former Honda driver going on to take the checkered flag by 9.2 seconds ahead of the Subaru of Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi.

But all eyes were on the title battle in the closing stages, as Joao Paulo de Oliveira — ineligible to win the title himself after missing two races this year — aimed to wrest the title away from LEON pair Gamou and Suganami on behalf of his co-driver Hirate.

With the Subaru struggling for pace late on, the battle for second was fought between Yamauchi and the Green Brave Toyota of Hiroki Yoshida, with Harry King in the Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and de Oliveira both closing in.

However, with Gamou running behind this pack in sixth aboard the LEON Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, de Oliveira needed to finish third to clinch the title for Hirate.

On the penultimate lap, both King and de Oliveira were able to force their way ahead of Yoshida to take third and fourth places, but on the last lap there was nothing de Oliveira could do to deny King and Kiyoto Fujinami the final spot on the podium.

CarGuy Racing MKS duo Rikuto Kobayashi and Zak O’Sullivan finished seventh in their Ferrari 296 GT3, falling short of the title by 2.5 points.

The Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG lost out on the teams’ title with an eighth-place finish, with that prize going to LEON Racing — which tied on points with Kondo Racing and won on countback due to its victory in the Okayama opener.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300