25 years ago, the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) took its first groundbreaking trip to Malaysia, and the circuit that launched a renaissance of world-class racing in Southeast Asia: Sepang International Circuit, near the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
Two years later, Sepang became an official championship race. It was the start of the transformation from JGTC to the Autobacs SUPER GT Series that we know today. The crown jewel of Malaysian circuits remained a fixture of the SUPER GT calendar through 2013.
But as time passed, the hope remained that SUPER GT would return to Sepang as more than just a winter testing venue for the top GT500 teams.
This weekend, 12 years after the last SUPER GT race in Malaysia, and five years since an attempted return was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the series makes its long-awaited return to the Petronas Sepang International Circuit for the SUPER GT Malaysia Festival.
While it won’t be the true night race that was envisioned in 2020 when SUPER GT’s return to Sepang was first planned, a race from the late afternoon into sunset could allow for some reprieve from the usual blistering heat and oppressive humidity of the series’ visits to the region.
Lap records of a generation gone by are expected to be shattered during Qualifying on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s 55-lap, 300-kilometre race. It’ll be the first time that this modern breed of GT500 super silhouette racers runs at Sepang outside of private testing, after all.
In the time that’s passed, it’s safe to say the faces of the GT500 class have changed a lot over the years. Excluding testing and races in other championships, only ten active GT500 drivers have raced at Sepang in the past. And consider that of those ten drivers, only Tsugio Matsuda has won at Sepang before. The 46-year-old Nissan legend won the very first JGTC championship round at Sepang (in a Honda NSX) in 2002, and he won the most recent race in 2013 for Team Impul.
It would be a big upset for Matsuda, his current Kondo Racing team, and co-driver Teppei Natori. But not unprecedented, as the #24 team got its very first win in Sepang back in 2007 – then repeated in ’08, from 14th on the grid.
Historically, Honda and Nissan have been the manufacturers to beat in Sepang. Even including the first two non-championship races, Toyota has only won in Malaysia twice, and has been shut out since TGR Team SARD won in 2004.
But Toyota is the manufacturer to beat in today’s GT500. Including the most recent Fuji GT 3 Hours Race, the fleet of GR Supra GT500s has now combined to win the last six SUPER GT races, a streak which dates back to the second half of the 2024 season.
That’s tied the record for the most consecutive GT500 wins for a single manufacturer, established by Honda from 1998 to 1999. Could we see a new record set this weekend with a seventh straight Toyota victory? It’s unlikely to come from the #1 au TOM’S GR Supra of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, who will look to protect as much of its 14-point lead in the standings as possible while loaded down with Success Weight and the ‘Level 2’ fuel flow restrictor in its engine.
But it could, perhaps, come from the Bridgestone-shod #37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) or #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) – or even the Yokohama-clad #19 WedsSport Advan GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi).
Honda will look to this race as the chance to give the Civic Type R-GT its first win of 2025. The #100 Stanley Civic Type R-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino recorded the fastest time in the January private tests, and during Thursday’s first free practice session. It’s also a major opportunity for the #16 ARTA Mugen Civic (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato) to score its first points of the year, and with no Success Weight, they could be a factor for the win.
Over on the GT300 side, there is a reduced field of 19 cars, due to paddock space available and the costs of sending cars from Japan to Malaysia. As such, only 17 full-time GT300 teams from Japan made the trip, which they earned based on last year’s GT300 championship standings.
Who stands out as contenders among the teams that made the trip over? How about the defending champions, JLOC’s Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima? It’s been a tough start to 2025 for the red #0 Venteny Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 this year compared to last. But before they ever won a race together in GT300, Kogure, Motojima, and JLOC were successful in Malaysia: In February 2020, they won the wet and wild Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Sepang. That bodes well for their chances at a turnaround.
Kogure has also won at Sepang during his GT500 career with Honda, and there are a few active drivers with winning SUPER GT experience around Sepang on the grid: Veterans like D’station Racing’s Tomonobu Fujii, LM corsa’s Hiroki Yoshimoto, Team UPGarage’s Takashi Kobayashi, and of course, K-tunes Racing’s golden duo of Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi have won here before.
But three-time GT300 class winner Nobuteru Taniguchi is not in Sepang this weekend, and neither is his co-driver Tatsuya Kataoka. Racing at this weekend’s 24 Hours of Spa, Goodsmile Racing & TeamUKYO’s veteran duo are missing their first SUPER GT races since 2003. It’ll be up to Yuhki Nakayama, a former champion, and Shunji Okumoto, a rookie, to keep the #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 running at the front.
João Paulo de Oliveira, a three-time winner here in GT500, is also missing from the grid this weekend, due to his new racing priorities in Brazil. He will once again be replaced by Yu Kanamaru in the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R NISMO GT3, entered by Kondo Racing.
For the championship-leading #65 LEON Pyramid AMG of Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami, they’ll have to protect their 11-point lead as the first test case for SUPER GT’s new GT300 Success Weight system, which now includes added refuelling time as part of the equation.
Meanwhile, the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) would love nothing more than to avenge its bitter defeat at Fuji, in a race where the #6 Uni-Robo Bluegrass Ferrari 296 GT3 (Yoshiaki Katayama/Roberto Merhi) went from 27th to 1st to win on the final lap.
For Sepang, there are two wildcard Pro-Am entries from EBM Giga Racing (Earl Bamber Motorsport), representing two different manufacturers and tyre brands, and each with a local driver behind the wheel.
National racing hero Jazeman Jaafar, who’s won on the streets of Monaco and in the FIA World Endurance Championship, will be in the Dunlop-clad #333 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Jaafar will be alongside China’s Li Kerong, who has recent GT World Challenge Asia and IMSA WeatherTech Championship experience.
Adrian D’Silva, an experienced Am driver, will share the #611 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific star Dorian Boccolacci. The #611’s presence not only ensures that Porsche will be in the race, considering seven x seven Racing’s absence, but also keeps Michelin in the GT300 field after SHADE Racing pulled out of Sepang due to a massive fire in a private test last month.
And while only one practice session has been completed, Boccolacci’s top time in Thursday practice could establish a foundation for a home-grown upset in Saturday’s race.
The 2025 SUPER GT Malaysia Festival starts Saturday at 4:30 PM MYT (local time); Qualifying is scheduled for the same time on Friday, with Free Practice 2 on at 10:30 AM MYT – and an official YouTube live stream for the final practice:
Images © GTA, Toyota
