Super Taikyu Launches 2025 Season At Motegi

Back for its 35th season, the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone starts this weekend at Mobility Resort Motegi, the first of a seven-round championship featuring stops at all six of Japan’s major motor racing circuits.

Motegi will host a double-header of four-hour endurance races, one on Saturday 22 March, and the other on Sunday 23 March, with qualifying for each race held on the same day. This kickstarts a season that will continue on 27 April with a five-hour race at Suzuka Circuit.

The tenth annual Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours (and the eighth edition since its revival in 2018) will run from 31 May to 1 June, with all classes participating. After that, the series returns on 5/6 July for another doubleheader round at Sportsland Sugo, with four-hour races on each day, then makes the long haul to Autopolis on 27 July for a five-hour race.

Okayama International Circuit will host a pair of three-hour races on 26 October, before the season ends on 16 November with the final four-hour race at Fuji Speedway, which will award the same number of points as a five-hour race.

2025 Super Taikyu Series Calendar

Test 1: Mobility Resort Motegi, 2/3 March
Round 1: Mobility Resort Motegi, 22/23 March (4 Hours x 2)
Round 2: Suzuka Circuit, 27 April (5 Hours)
Test 2: Fuji Speedway, 8 May
Round 3: Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour Race, 31 May—1 June (24 Hours)
Round 4: Sportsland Sugo, 5/6 July (4 Hours x 2)
Round 5: Autopolis, 27 July (5 Hours)
Round 6: Okayama International Circuit, 26 October (3 Hours x 2)
Round 7: Fuji Speedway, 16 November (4 Hours)

Super Taikyu events will continue to be headlined by the FIA GT3 cars of the ST-X class, and the manufacturer-developed concept cars competing in the ST-Q exhibition category.

At least seven cars are committed to the ST-Q class for the season, five of which will run at Motegi. ROOKIE Racing wound down its ST-X programme after two seasons, two Fuji 24 Hour wins, and two championships.

TKRI will enter the only Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in ST-X this year, with a retooled line-up in the #23. After driving and managing ROOKIE Racing’s ST-X team over the last two years, Tatsuya Kataoka is now available to join his private-label team as a driver, sharing the cockpit with the returning Daisuke (Matsunaga) and Yuhki Nakayama, and newcomer Shunji Okumoto.

Another ROOKIE Racing alum, Naoya Gamou, has joined apr in the #31 Lexus RC F GT3 – as has Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) prospect and Gran Turismo World Series alum, Rikuto Kobayashi. They’ll be joined by Hiroaki Nagai and Koki Saga, returning from last season’s effort.

Hitotsuyama Racing won the very first (abbreviated) ST-X Championship in 2011 with an Audi R8 LMS GT3, and in 2025, they’ll bring the latest-generation R8 LMS GT3 Evo II back to Super Taikyu. The #101 Audi will feature a new mix of drivers – one of them being Anglo-Malaysian driver James Pull, who has previous experience with the Audi R8 GT3. He’ll be joined by Kenji Suzuki, 2023 Formula Regional Japanese Champion Sota Ogawa, and 2023 TCR Japan Champion Anna Inotsume.

The fast-rising seven x seven Racing team also brings its new #666 Porsche 911 GT3 R to the mix, with its quartet of ‘Bankcy’ (Hiroyuki Ogawa), Kiyoto Fujinami, Tsubasa Kondo, and Taichi Watarai. Fujinami and Kondo will lead the team’s first campaign in SUPER GT later this year.

Finally, D’station Racing returns to the Super Taikyu Series in 2025 with a new look – in red, instead of its traditional green. Leading a dual-class entry is the #777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 ‘EVO’ which makes its Super Taikyu debut.

Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii will drive together this season as they’ve done for several years in Super Taikyu, WEC, and the Asian Le Mans Series. Charlie Fagg was announced as their co-driver for 2025, but at Motegi, he’ll be replaced by Yuta Kamimura, the 2023 SRO Japan Cup GT3 Champion.

We will also see two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s appear later in the season: The #81 Daishin GT-R from GTNET MotorSports, and the #30 from Team Handwork Challenge, which is supported by B-Max Engineering.

Only one ST-Q car is entered this weekend at Motegi – the #104 Toyota GR Yaris DAT Racing Concept from GR Team SPiRIT. Two-time SUPER GT GT500 Champion Kenta Yamashita will be behind the wheel of this machine, as will GT300 mainstays Takamitsu Matsui and Shunsuke Kohno, and Toyota employee driver Kazuhiko Omasa.

But throughout the season, the likes of Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Nissan, and Mazda will bring familiar and new concept cars to the ST-Q class.

Toyota Gazoo ROOKIE Racing has two ST-Q entries running three cars. The #28 will use the familiar Toyota GR86 Future FR Concept that now runs on conventional high-octane petrol.

The #32 entry will change between the Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept which uses liquid hydrogen fuel, and a new machine, the Toyota GR Yaris M Concept, which is a mid-engined car with a new turbocharged 2.0L 4-cylinder engine.

Subaru and Team SDA Engineering will run the WRX S4-based Subaru HighPerformanceX Future Concept for a full season this year. The all-wheel-drive “HiPerfX” features Subaru’s 2.4-litre FA24 boxer engine and runs on carbon-neutral synthetic fuel (CNF).

Mazda Spirit Racing will enter a CNF Roadster and a biodiesel-fuelled Mazda3 as in years past, but the cars will have new names in 2025: The #12 Mazda Spirit Racing Roadster Future Concept and #55 Mazda Spirit Racing 3 Future Concept, respectively.

NISMO is expected to return with a Nissan Z NISMO Racing Concept, a platform that has been used to develop future versions of the Nissan Z NISMO GT4 for customer racing – and served as a test bed for CNF-powered racing engines.

And finally, Honda will return with a to-be-revealed ST-Q entry from Team HRC. Honda has used a CNF variant of the newest Honda Civic Type R in recent years.

There are also 12 entries in the ST-Z class, for GT4 homologated race cars. 11 of those will be at Motegi, including defending champions Saitama Green Brave, one of four Toyota teams using the latest GR Supra GT4 ‘EVO2’ that launched this year – after being developed through racing as GR Team SPiRIT’s ‘GR Supra Racing Concept’ in 2024!

Toyota will also be represented by SHADE Racing, Birth Racing Project, and Team Noah at Motegi – plus a new team, Prime Racing, later in the year.

ST-Z features three Nissan Z NISMO GT4s – two from Team ZeroOne and one from Team Impul; two Mercedes-AMG GT4s – one each for Hitotsuyama Racing and Progress Racing, Porsche Team EBI’s 718 Cayman GT4, and one Audi R8 LMS GT4 for Techno First.

The unfortunate closure of the TCR Japan Series at the end of 2024 has led to an uptick in ST-TCR entries in Super Taikyu: Six cars committed for 2025, with five at Motegi. This includes the series debut of the Cupra TCR via Birth Racing Project, and a new full-season Hyundai Elantra N TCR from Waimarama Racing.

Super Taikyu also has two new classes this year: ST-5, the category for production cars with under 1,500cc of engine displacement, has been split into ST-5F and ST-5R. ST-5F will exclusively feature front-wheel drive cars such as the Honda Fit, Mazda2, and Toyota Vitz/Yaris, while the rear-wheel drive Mazda Roadster ND will now race in ST-5R.

ST-Z, ST-TCR, ST-4, and both ST-5F/ST-5R will race at Motegi on Saturday, beginning at 13:00 JST (local time). The remaining classes – ST-X, ST-Q, ST-1, ST-2, and ST-3, will race Sunday starting at 12:30 JST, and ST-Z will run the second race as well!

PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

Both races will stream live and free in their entirety on the official Super Taikyu TV YouTube Channel (in Japanese).