In Saturday’s first race of the 2025 Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone, the #26 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 of Ryuichiro Otsuka, Ryuichiro Tomita, Takuro Shinohara, and Seiji Ara led a historic 1-2 finish, the first in global competition for Nissan’s customer GT4 race car.
The GT4 and TCR cars of the ST-Z and ST-TCR classes headlined the first race of the weekend. It was the first of two races this weekend for the ST-Z teams, as well as the teams in the production ST-4 class. This was also the first race since ST-5 was split into categories for front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars, ST-5F and ST-5R.
Qualifying started at 8:00 AM local time, with the first session reserved for each team’s amateur ‘A’ driver, and the second session featuring more professional and experienced ‘B’ drivers. Manabu Yamazaki and Hiroki Yoshida won the pole in Race 1 for reigning ST-Z Champions, Saitama Green Brave, in their brand-new #52 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. The #97 M&K Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR (FL5) of Mitsuhiro Endo and Shinji Nakano won the ST-TCR pole by a whopping 3.822-second margin, very impressive even with the aggregate format!
Other pole sitters included: The #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 of Masahiko Kageyama and Eijiro Shimizu (ST-4), the #67 Team Yamato Honda Fit3 RS of Ryohei Yasui and Shinya Uchiyama (ST-5F), and the #88 Murakami Motors Mazda Roadster ND of Hiroyuki Murakami and Tatsuya Ota (ST-5R).
40 cars took the green flag for Saturday’s four-hour enduro, including the #20 Team Impul Nissan, which had to be repaired in just a few short hours after a crash during the pre-race warm-up. Yoshida led the field to green in his #52 GR Supra, but after just a handful of laps, the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z of Teppei Natori took the overall lead. Tomita in the #26 ZeroOne Z would then battle Yoshida for second place and got through to make it a Nissan 1-2 at the front.
The two red Nissans remained in the lead after the first round of pit stops, and after making an early first pit stop, the #22 Porsche Team EBI Cayman GT4 was up to third place. But just before half-distance, the #22 Porsche caught fire in the pit lane and was forced to retire from the race. Simultaneously, Otsuka in the #26 ZeroOne Z overtook team-mate Tadao Uematsu for the lead for the first time.
After both cars came in with about an hour and 40 minutes left, they split strategies and swapped the lead. Tomita brought the #26 in with 78 minutes left after a very short second stint, and after escaping damage in a collision with the #430 Audi Team Show Apex RS3 TCR, Tsugio Matsuda pitted from the lead in the #25 with less than 50 minutes left. Takuro Shinohara, last year’s SUPER GT GT300 Championship runner-up who’s been left out of a full-time seat in 2025, took the chequered flag and led home a Team ZeroOne and Nissan 1-2 finish in Race 1, ahead of the #25 of Uematsu, Matsuda, Natori, and Kimiya Sato.
Only nine out of 114 laps were led by a car other than the two ZeroOne Z GT4s. Despite losing its rear bumper in a collision during the second half of the race, the #52 Green Brave GR Supra of Yamazaki, Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, and Seita Nonaka would hold on to finish third, followed by the #885 SHADE Racing GR Supra EVO2 (Hiro Hayashi/Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Yuji Kunimoto/Yuki Sano) in fourth, and the top non-Japanese car, the #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Daisuke Yamawaki/Sean Walkinshaw/Alessandro Bressan/Max Salo) in fifth.
The #20 Team Impul Z GT4 (Takashi Matsumoto/Kazuki Hiramine/Kazuki Oki/Jules Treluyer) took sixth place to reward its crew after the morning accident, ahead of the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Yuki Fujii/Riki Okusa/Hironobu Yasuda/Masaki Kano) in seventh.
M&K Racing’s two Honda Civic TCRs battled for the class lead in the first hour, but mechanical issues sent the #96 Civic (Osamu Kondo/Koji Yamanishi/Yosuke Yamaki) out of the fight and cleared the lane for the #97 M&K Civic TCR to take the win. Mitsuhiro Endo and Shinji Nakano were joined by English JAS Motorsport works driver Jack Young, and single-seater prospect Kento Omiya, who contributed to an eighth-place overall finish.
Second in class and ninth overall was the #19 Birth Racing Project Cupra TCR (Takashi Kochiya/Takeshi Suehiro/Jiei Okuzumi/Takahisa Ohno), which finished just 2.9 seconds ahead of the new #98 Waimarama Racing Hyundai Elantra N TCR (Shigeru ‘Kizuna’ Sato/Katsumasa Chiyo/Lee Jung-Woo).
The SHADE Racing team took a come-from-behind win in ST-4 as the #884 Toyota GR86 of Kageyama, Shimizu, and Shinnosuke Yamada prevailed in a close fight over the #41 Tracy Sports with Delta GR86 of Hirotaka Ishii, Yusuke Tomibayashi, and Shunsuke Ozaki. Despite having to pit with less than 20 minutes to go, Tomibayashi chased down Shimizu in the final minutes, and finished just 0.522 seconds off the win!
Also on the last lap, the #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kyosuke Inomata/Kohei Tokumasu/Yuta Fujiwara/Ryohei Yamaichi) stopped on course on the final lap, and handed the final podium position to the #3 Endless Sports GR86 (Hiroyuki Saka/Togo Suganami/Ryo Ogawa).
Team NOPRO’s NC-generation #37 Mazda Roadster finished sixth in class in its 2025 debut, while AutoLabo Racing’s new #290 Suzuki Swift was the final classified finisher in 33rd overall.
ST-5R honours went to the #88 Muramo Roadster of Murakami, Ota, Sena Kuronuma and Soichiro Yoshida, which held firm control of the field all day, taking the win by a lap over the #27 Maple Hiroshima Racing Team Roadster (Haruhiko Sugino/Yuga Furutani/Takafumi Katsuki) in second, and the new #610 Koshido Racing Roadster (Motoharu Sato/Yusaku Shibata/Yasuji Asai) in third.
With the Roadsters in their own category, the front-wheel drive hatches could fight amongst themselves in ST-5F – but Team Yamato, the oldest team on the Super Taikyu grid, dominated with their silver #67 Honda Fit3 RS driven by Yasui, Uchiyama, Ryo Mukumoto and Yoshihiko Nakamura. They won by over 30 seconds from the #4 Team Bride Fit3 RS (Yuya Ohta ‘Snr’/Kaoru Arai/Takao Seto/Kuniyuki Haga). Reigning ST-5 champions Team NOPRO finished third with the #37 Mazda2 Diesel Turbo (Yoshihiro Kato/Hiroaki Yamamoto/Misaki Konishi/Suguru Kawana).
Images © STMO
