Honda Locks Out Podium in Stunning Autopolis Turnaround

Honda pulled off a stunning lockout of the podium places in Sunday’s penultimate round of the season at Autopolis, as Team Kunimitsu drivers Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto scored their first win in almost three years.

In a three-hour timed race that featured drama virtually throughout, Makino and Yamamoto came through from 12th on the grid to win by 25.9 seconds over the second-placed Nakajima Racing Honda of Riki Okusa and Takuya Izawa.

Third went to the No. 16 ARTA Honda of Ren Sato and Hiroki Otsu as Civic Type R-GT crews swept the top three in the car’s penultimate race.

Honda’s chances of a first victory in 2025 appeared slim early on as Nissan’s pair of works Z NISMOs converted their front row lockout into an early 1-2, with poleman Daiki Sasaki’s No. 3 car leading the sister No. 23 machine of Mitsunori Takaboshi.

There was drama as early as Turn 1 as Toshiki Oyu’s Cerumo Toyota dropped to last after being tipped into a spin by Bertrand Baguette’s Team Impul Nissan, an incident for which Baguette was handed a drive-through penalty.

A safety car was called when contact between Izawa’s Nakajima Honda and Tsugio Matsuda’s Kondo Nissan approaching Turn 3 led to a race-ending collision with the barrier for Matsuda, Izawa also earning a drive-through penalty.

When the race resumed, Sasaki maintained the lead from Takaboshi, with Ukyo Sasahara climbing from sixth on the grid to run third in the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota.

On lap 25, Sasahara passed Takaboshi for second, before the Toyota driver wrested the lead away from Sasaki heading into Turn 1 on lap 28, with Sasaki going on to lose time before pitting to hand over to Atsushi Miyake on lap 35 of an eventual 102.

After the first round of pit stops, Toyota looked to be in a strong position as an early stop for Oyu — who continued in 15th and last but caught up to the back of the pack after his Turn 1 spin — vaulted him into the lead ahead of the similarly-early stopping Racing Project Bandoh Toyota of Yuji Kunimoto and Sasahara.

It was an all-Toyota GR Supra top four at one stage as Sho Tsuboi made his way up to fourth in the No. 1 TOM’S car started by Kenta Yamashita, with Takaboshi having lost time before his stop going off at Turn 1 trying to pass a struggling Sasaki.

The Kunimitsu Honda meanwhile was the last car to make its first stop on lap 40, with Yamamoto handing over to Makino at this juncture.

A strong middle stint by Makino thrust the car firmly into contention, and as Kunimitsu’s rival teams began making their second and final mandatory stops from lap 55 onwards, Makino left his final trip to the pits until lap 64.

Rapid pitwork by the No. 100 crew put Makino out ahead of the ARTA Honda of Sato, who also enjoyed a strong middle portion of the race after taking over from Otsu on lap 36, and the Nakajima Honda of Okusa, who replaced Izawa one lap earlier.

All three Honda crews jumped ahead of the Cerumo Toyota when Oyu came in to hand over to Hiroaki Ishiura on lap 58, while Giuliano Alesi emerged fifth in the No. 37 TOM’S car when he took over from Sasahara on lap 61.

Both TOM’S cars then began to drop back through the order with apparent overheating issues, as both Alesi and Tsuboi made unscheduled third stops to have debris removed from their radiators before both coming in to retire.

Makino began to pull away from Sato in the closing stages, as Okusa — whose rapid progress made up for the delay of Izawa’s early penalty — piled the pressure on the ARTA driver for the closing half-hour of the race.

Sato finally succumbed on the penultimate lap at the long 100R left-hander as Okusa sealed Nakajima Racing and tire supplier Dunlop’s first podium for two years.

Behind the leading three Honda crews, Ishiura held on to fourth for Cerumo ahead of Sena Sakaguchi, who completed the top five in the Bandoh Toyota started by Kunimoto.

Nissan had to be content with sixth and seventh places for its two works cars, Takaboshi and Katsumasa Chiyo taking sixth ahead of Sasaki and Miyake in seventh.

Rookie Racing failed to capitalize on its strong grid slot as Kazuya Oshima and Nirei Fukuzumi could only manage two points for ninth, which means the pair trail the non-scoring Tsuboi and Yamashita by six points heading to Motegi.

Victory means Makino and Yamamoto have jumped up to third in the standings, 8.5 points off the lead with 21 up for grabs in the final weekend of the season.

Seven x Seven Racing Steals GT300 Win from CarGuy

In the GT300 class, Seven x Seven Racing scored its first win with Kiyoto Fujinami and Harry King shared driving duties, as late drama denied CarGuy MKS Racing.

The No. 666 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Fujinami and King (Tsubasa Kondo was registered as a third driver but didn’t take part in the race) won by a 32.1-second margin that didn’t do justice to a lead battle that featured multiple twists.

Rikuto Kobayashi built up an early cushion from pole in the No. 7 CarGuy Ferrari 296 GT3 ahead of the No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Yuya Motojima before handing over to co-driver Zak O’Sullivan on lap 28 of 95.

After the first round of stops it was Motojima that assumed the advantage, with the JLOC driver spending virtually the entire middle stint with O’Sullivan on his tail.

A full-course yellow — triggered by a stoppage for the Tomei Sports Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 — came at the perfect timing for JLOC as Motojima peeled into the pits for his second stop to allow Takashi Kogure to take over at the wheel on lap 56.

That gave JLOC an 11-second advantage, but this was wiped away when Kogure had to serve a drive-through penalty for speeding under full-course yellow.

With Kobayashi back at the wheel of the CarGuy Ferrari for the final stint, he and O’Sullivan looked set for a second win in three races, but there was further drama when both the No. 7 car and the No. 0 JLOC car were penalized for passing under yellows.

Kobayashi served the penalty and emerged from the pits just 1.4 seconds clear of King in the No. 666 Porsche, and had begun to stretch the advantage when he unexpectedly pitted again on lap 89 for a top-up of fuel, emerging second.

That gave King a lead he wouldn’t lose, with the Briton going to secure Porsche’s first victory in the GT300 class since 2012 and Fujinami’s first since 2022.

Despite its penalty dramas, the No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini completed the podium, while an entertaining battle for fourth was resolved in favor of the Kondo Racing Nissan of Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who passed Roberto Merhi’s Velorex Ferrari late on.

However, the Kondo car could have fought for a podium had Kohei Hirate not suffered a bizarre off at 100R while tailing the Inging Toyota GR86 GT, which was yet another car that was penalized for passing under yellows.

LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG pair Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami finished sixth, giving them a slender 1.5-point lead over Hirate heading to Motegi, with Kobayashi and O’Sullivan just 4.5 points behind after their second-place finish.

After its overnight engine change, Subaru’s works BRZ finished 24th and last after experiencing further mechanical dramas in the race, while the Gainer Nissan Z that was damaged in Kazuki Oki’s qualifying crash was a non-starter.

Apr’s No. 31 Lexus LC500h was disqualified from its 15th-place finish due to its on-board fire extinguisher containing insufficient fluid.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300