The Eneos Super Taikyu Series is in action this weekend at historic Suzuka Circuit, where 56 cars across eight classes are entered.
Last round at Motegi, the #81 Daishin Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 won from the pole, giving GTNET MotorSports its first Super Taikyu premier class win since 2022. Nobuhiro Imada, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Natsu Sakaguchi fended off the challenge from the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG GT3, which had a chance to win the race but was given a drive-through penalty for speeding during a Full Course Yellow.
Despite finishing second, TKRI comes into the five-hour race at Suzuka with an 18-point lead in the ST-X Class Championship over GTNET. And this week, the ST-X field gets a big boost as the #1 Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing Mercedes-AMG returns for the first time since winning the Fuji 24 Hours. Even after missing two races, the ROOKIE Racing AMG only trails by 28 points, and will join the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 and #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG in the fight for overall honours.
In ST-Z, 13 cars have entered. 2W Zoomies/GR Garage Yamaguchi-Shunan’s Thai-Japanese entry returns for the first time since the Fuji 24H, as does the #555 AutoFactory Mercedes-AMG GT4.
At Motegi, the Nissan Z NISMO GT4 finally took its first class win on Japanese soil; the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan of Tadao Uematsu, Tsugio Matsuda, Kimiya Sato and Teppei Natori took the victory while the rebuilt #20 Naniwa Denso Team Impul Nissan finished third after starting from pole position, behind the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4.
Despite finishing off the podium for the first time since entering ST-Z, Saitama Green Brave still has a 30.5 point lead over second-placed SHADE Racing in the series championship – but it’s a very close fight for third place, as just 18.5 points separate Team ZeroOne’s cars in third and tenth!
Sami-Matti Trogen’s last-minute entry at Buzz Progress Racing at Motegi brought another international driver to the grid, and the Finnish driver will be back this time to partner his countryman Max Salo.
ROOKIE Racing and Mazda Spirit Racing have each returned for this weekend’s race, fielding their two ST-Q entries. This time, the #32 car anchored by Akio “Morizo” Toyoda will be the Toyota GR Yaris DAT Concept rather than the GR Corolla H2 Concept, but otherwise, there are no changes in the field. Souta Arao should make his first start in the #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R CNF-R after being scratched from Motegi in favour of fellow HFDP stablemate Yusuke Mitsui
Other class winners at Motegi were the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS 3 LMS (ST-TCR), the #16 Okabe Jidosha Motorsport Nissan Fairlady Z34 (ST-3), the #3 Endless Sports Toyota GR86 (ST-4), and the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster (ST-5). ST-2 will replace ST-4 in this round, and that class will feature eight entries including the most recent debutant from HCM Uchino Racing.
Endless Sports’ #13 Toyota GR Yaris leads the ST-2 standings by 7.5 points over the #225 KTMS GR Yaris after three races. In ST-3, the two Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350s are 1-2 in the standings, separated by 6.5 points. And in ST-5, Murakami Motors’ ace car leads the #17 Team NOPRO Mazda2 Diesel Turbo by just a point and a half.
| Class | No. | Team | Drivers | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST-X (GT3) | 1 | Zhongsheng ROOKIE Racing | Ryuta Ukai Giuliano Alesi 🇫🇷 Naoya Gamou Tatsuya Kataoka | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| ST-X (GT3) | 23 | TKRI | Daisuke (Matsunaga) Yuya Motojima Yuhki Nakayama | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| ST-X (GT3) | 31 | apr | Hiroaki Nagai Kazuto Kotaka Miki Koyama ♀️ Koki Saga | Lexus RC F GT3 |
| ST-X (GT3) | 33 | Craft-Bamboo Racing | Jeffrey Lee 🇹🇼 Kakunoshin Ohta Dean Chen 🇨🇦 Liang Jiatong 🇨🇳 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| ST-X (GT3) | 81 | GTNET MotorSports | Nobuhiro Imada Kiyoto Fujinami Natsu Sakaguchi | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 5 | Team Noah | Kazuya Shimogaki Yu Kanamaru Kokoro Morita Aruga Tomita | Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 19 | Birth Racing Project[BRP] | Kenji Suzuki Takeshi Suehiro Anna Inotsume ♀️ Kazuya Oshima (Neyagawa) | Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 20 | Team Impul | Yuki Tanaka Kazuki Hiramine Kazuki Oki | Nissan Z NISMO GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 21 | Hitotsuyama Racing | Daisuke Yamawaki Sean Walkinshaw 🇬🇧 James Pull 🇬🇧 Shintaro Kawabata | Mercedes-AMG GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 22 | Porsche Team EBI | Shota Kitazono Rintaro Kubo Naoya Yamano Yugo Iwasawa | Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 25 | Team ZeroOne | Tadao Uematsu Tsugio Matsuda Kimiya Sato Teppei Natori | Nissan Z NISMO GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 26 | Team ZeroOne | Ryuichiro Otsuka Ryuichiro Tomita Takuro Shinohara Seiji Ara | Nissan Z NISMO GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 34 | Techno First | Masaki Kano Ryoma Henzan Hironobu Yasuda Riki Okusa | Audi R8 LMS GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 52 | Saitama Green Brave | Manabu Yamazaki Hiroki Yoshida Naoki Hattori Seita Nonaka | Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 59 | 2W Zoomies x GR Garage Yamaguchi-Shunan | Kachorn Chiaravanont 🇹🇭 Kazuhisa Urabe Yuji Tachikawa Nanin Indra-Payoong 🇹🇭 | Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 111 | Buzz Progress Racing | Ryosuke Moroi Max Yuki Salo 🇫🇮 Sami-Matti Trogen 🇫🇮 Taiga Imoto | Mercedes-AMG GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 555 | AutoFactory | Kazutaka Tokufuji Jun Tashiro Shigehiro Ikemoto Go Nagata | Mercedes-AMG GT4 |
| ST-Z (GT4) | 885 | SHADE Racing | Hiro Hayashi Katsuyuki Hiranaka Eijiro Shimizu | Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo |
| ST-TCR | 97 | M&K Racing | Mitsuhiro Endo Shinji Nakano Shion Tsujimoto ♀️ Ryusuke Masumoto | Honda Civic Type R TCR (FL5) |
| ST-TCR | 98 | M&K Racing | Kizuna (Shigeru Sato) Lee Jung Woo 🇰🇷 Sena Yamamoto | Honda Civic Type R TCR (FL5) |
| ST-TCR | 430 | Audi Team Show Apex | Yoshinari Fujiwara Shigetomo Shimono Genki Nishimura Shozo Tagahara | Audi RS 3 LMS |
| ST-Q | 12 | Mazda Spirit Racing | Hiroshi Kawata Ryohei Sakaguchi Yuui Tsutsumi | Mazda Roadster CNF Concept |
| ST-Q | 28 | ORC ROOKIE Racing | Eisuke Sasaki Sho Tsuboi Kazuya Oshima (Tomioka) Daisuke Toyoda | Toyota GR86 CNF Concept |
| ST-Q | 32 | ORC ROOKIE Racing | Morizo (Akio Toyoda) Masahiro Sasaki Hiroaki Ishiura Yasuhiro Ogura | Toyota GR Yaris DAT Concept |
| ST-Q | 55 | Mazda Spirit Racing | Kazuhiro Terakawa Yutaka Seki Kaoru Ijiri Ikuo Maeda | Mazda Mazda3 Bio Concept |
| ST-Q | 61 | Team SDA Engineering | Kazuhiro Ito Hideki Yamauchi Takuto Iguchi Masafumi Hanazawa | Subaru High Performance X Future Concept |
| ST-Q | 92 | GR Team Spirit | Keizo Kato Shunsuke Kohno Takamitsu Matsui Kenta Yamashita | Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept |
| ST-Q | 271 | Team HRC | Hiroki Otsu Souta Arao Shinichi Katsura | Honda Civic Type R CNF-R |
| ST-1 | 2 | K's Frontier KTM Cars | Taiyo Ida Hiroki Katoh Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Yoshimoto | KTM X-Bow GTX |
| ST-2 | 6 | Shinryo Racing Team | Tomohiro Tomimasu Yasushi Kikuchi Masazumi Ohashi | Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X |
| ST-2 | 7 | Shinryo Racing Team | Hitoshi Gotoh Keisuke Anzai Kazunari Yoshioka Hisahiko Usui | Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X |
| ST-2 | 13 | Endless Sports | Masaya Hanazato Mizuki Ishizaka Reimei Ito Hitoshi Okada | Toyota GR Yaris |
| ST-2 | 36 | HCM Uchino Racing | Koichi Iwama Noriaki Uchino Toshijiro Akutsu Jun Doi | Honda Civic Type R |
| ST-2 | 72 | Nihon Automobile College | Makoto Kanai Tetsuya Yamano Toshiya Nojima | Honda Civic Type R |
| ST-2 | 95 | Team Spoon | Eiji Yamada Syun Koide Piston (Ken) Nishizawa Yusuke Mitsui | Honda Civic Type R |
| ST-2 | 225 | KTMS | Kengo Ichijo Shunji Okumoto Rikuto Kobayashi | Toyota GR Yaris |
| ST-2 | 743 | Honda R&D Challenge | Hiroki Ishigaki Akira Bitoh Junichi Kidachi | Honda Civic Type R |
| ST-3 | 15 | Okabe Jidosha Motorsport | Shuji Maejima Masaaki Nagashima Tsubasa Mekaru Seiya Motojima | Nissan Fairlady Z34 |
| ST-3 | 16 | Okabe Jidosha Motorsport | Kazuomi Komatsu Toru Tanaka Tetsuya Tanaka Masaya Kohno | Nissan Fairlady Z34 |
| ST-3 | 38 | Tracy Sports with Delta | Toshiki Komura Toshiki Ishimori Yuma Shoji Takumi Sanada | Lexus RC 350 |
| ST-3 | 39 | Tracy Sports with Delta | Shinya Fujita Takashi Ito Dai Mizuno Yusuke Tomibayashi | Lexus RC 350 |
| ST-5 | 4 | Team Bride | Yuya Ohta Kaoru Arai Takao Seto Hiroshi Ito | Honda Fit4 RS (GS4) |
| ST-5 | 11 | D.R.C EZO | Hajime Omono Ryohei Oshima Ryoji Tashiro Motoharu Sato | Honda Fit3 RS (GK5) |
| ST-5 | 17 | Team NOPRO | Hideyoshi Nishizawa Tobio Otani Misaki Konishi Toshihiko Nogami | Mazda Mazda2 Diesel Turbo (DJ5FS) |
| ST-5 | 27 | Maple Hiroshima Racing Team | Haruhiko Sugino Yuga Furutani Noriyuki Higuchi | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 37 | Team NOPRO | Johnny (Toru) Ogura Suguru Kawana Yoshihiro Kato Tatsuya Tanigawa | Mazda Demio (DE5FS) |
| ST-5 | 50 | LoveDrive Racing | Junko Fujii ♀️ Shui Sato Yoshikazu Sobu | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 65 | Over Drive | Tatsuya Ota Shuichiro Hokazono Sena Kuronuma Takuma Ikeda | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 67 | Team Yamato | Shinya Uchiyama Ryohei Yasui Ryo Mukumoto Yoshihiko Nakamura | Honda Fit3 RS (GK5) |
| ST-5 | 76 | Buzz Progress Racing | Masaki Ano Junpei Kato Hitoshi Sakai Takashi Nara | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 88 | Murakami Motors | Hiroyuki Murakami Daichi Okamoto Soichiro Yoshida Ryohei Arioka | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 89 | Murakami Motors | Shinichi Uemura Takeshi Wakitani Ryotaro Sawai Marie Iwaoka ♀️ | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 110 | Access Racing Team | Toshiyuki Matsuda Shingo Wada Takahisa Ohno Akita | Toyota Vitz (NCP131) |
| ST-5 | 120 | Mazda Spirit Racing | Junji Ueda Tatsuya Minowa Shohei Oda Taisei Matsubara | Mazda Roadster |
| ST-5 | 222 | Honda Cars Tokai | Toshiki Takeuchi Masayuki Sumi Masaki Nishihata | Honda Fit4 RS (GS4) |
| ST-5 | 290 | AutoLabo | Yuichi Yokoo Yuuma Murata Takeshi Kitagawa Natsuki Obi | Toyota Yaris (MXPA10) |
Live coverage of the Suzuka S-Tai is available (with Japanese commentary) this Sunday on the official Super Taikyu YouTube channel (S-Tai TV) starting at 10:30 AM JST; the green flag is scheduled for 11:45 JST.
Images © STO