GT300 Champion Motojima Joins 5ZIGEN for Suzuka 1000km

Reigning SUPER GT GT300 champion Yuya Motojima has been added to the lineup for 5ZIGEN for next month’s Suzuka 1000km, filling the final open seat available for the revived Intercontinental GT Challenge fixture.

Motojima will share 5ZIGEN’s Silver class-entered No. 500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 with fellow SUPER GT racer Takayuki Aoki and team regular Yu Kanamaru.

It gives the team, which is a full-time GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS competitor, an all-Pro lineup, although all three drivers are Silver-graded by the FIA.

Motojima races for JLOC in SUPER GT, winning last year’s GT300 title alongside Takashi Kogure, and was part of the team’s lineups for the Suzuka 10 Hours in both 2018 and ’19, scoring a best finish of 16th in the latter year.

The news follows JLOC’s decision to sit out the Suzuka 1000km this year amid a difficult GT300 title defense.

5ZIGEN is one of just three teams registered in the Silver class alongside Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom and Vollgas Motorsports among a grid of 33 cars.

The team (pronounced ‘Go-Zigen’), which has a long history in formula racing in Japan before relaunching as a GT-focused outfit in recent years, scored an outright win in GTWC Asia last year at Suzuka with Kanamaru and gentleman racer ‘Hirobon’.

So far in 2025 its best results are a trio of sixth-place finishes in the two Buriram races and the first race at Fuji Speedway last month.