In its first year of racing in the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone, seven x seven Racing won the 2025 ST-X (GT3) Championship after capturing its fourth win of the season in the four-hour S-Tai Final: Grand Thanksgiving race on Sunday.
It was the fourth win for the trio of Hiroyuki “Bankcy” Ogawa, Kiyoto Fujinami, and Taichi Watarai, enough to take the championship despite missing the two mid-summer rounds at Sugo and Autopolis.
Sunday’s on-track action began with a successful first outing for the new S-Tai Challenge series, where 42 cars took part in a one-hour race aimed at more entry-level JDM cars. Murakami Motors, the newly-crowned ST-5R class champions, won the race with their #88 Mazda Roadster driven by Satoshi Yoshida and Eigo Suzuki.
Then came the hot-ticket item that was the NASCAR Showrun: Six NASCAR stock cars, including the 2023 Le Mans Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on track to demonstrate the appeal of American motorsport to Japanese audiences.
オーバルコース建設構想の名残であり、富士スピードウェイにとって特別な場所である「30度バンク」に、ついにNASCARが。
(写真提供 #三橋仁明 N-RAK PHOTO AGENCY) pic.twitter.com/GZfx6qQpqI
— 富士スピードウェイ / FUJI SPEEDWAY (@fswpress) November 16, 2025
With the full backing of STMO President Akio Toyoda, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, and 23XI Racing, the showrun brought back the original 1964 vision of Fuji Speedway as a “Daytona of the East”.
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson got back behind the wheel of his Garage 56 car, and did burnouts along the frontstretch. John Hunter Nemechek got to meet the Japanese fans for the first time. Local heroes like Kamui Kobayashi and Takuma Koga got to show off their respective NASCAR and ARCA rides, while Toshiki Oyu and Kazuto Kotaka also sampled the current ARCA cars.
Only Toyoda-san’s choice in attire for the Showrun – dressed in a red and white endorsement of the current United States executive branch, amidst the backdrop of American tariffs imposed upon the Japanese automotive industry – proved to be an unnecessary distraction that took away from what was otherwise a fascinating spectacle.
For the four-hour Super Taikyu Series finale, the pole position went to a GT3 car – but not one of the seven regulars in the ST-X class.
Instead, it went to Bingo Racing’s #9 Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, coming back to action for the first time since the 2025 Suzuka 1000km. Shinji Takei and Ukyo Sasahara’s fastest laps in two-stage aggregate qualifying put the Corvette on pole. Theirs was one of two cars in the new ST-USA class, an exhibition category created to showcase American cars.
The outside of the front row would go to the #33 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Meanwhile, among the ST-X Championship contenders, the #666 seven x seven Porsche qualified fourth, putting it ahead of the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 in seventh, and the #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG in eighth.
Sena Sakaguchi started the race in the #9 Bingo Corvette and led the first laps of the race, but an in-form Kakunoshin Ohta was able to take the lead in the #33 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG. Meanwhile, Satoshi Hoshino in the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo picked up an early drive-through penalty for spinning out the #38 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350.
Both the #33 Craft-Bamboo and #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMGs pitted early for driver changes. Tatsuya Kataoka handed over the #23 car to Daisuke Matsunaga from fourth place, and Ohta gave way to Jeffrey Lee. But only one lap after taking over, Lee brought the #33 Craft-Bamboo car into the pits and retired with a mechanical problem.
Then, after making its first pit stop of the race, Sasahara brought the #9 Bingo Corvette in with a power steering problem. The car was pushed behind the wall and fell out of contention for what could have been a popular overall victory. The Corvette C7 GT3-R returned to the race, but retired with less than 30 minutes to go.
Before half-distance, the #31 apr Lexus RC F GT3 (Hiroaki Nagai/Rikuto Kobayashi/Naoya Gamou/Koki Saga) went to the garage, and as that happened, the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II broke down and brought out a full course yellow (FCY). The race for the overall win had become a duel between the #666 Porsche and the #81 Daishin GTNET Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, and by pitting before the FCY, the #666 seven x seven Porsche took the overall lead once the #81 Daishin GT-R made its next stop.
A race that proved to be a war of attrition amongst the GT3 cars was finally decided when, with 25 minutes left, the #81 Daishin GT-R retired from second place with a mechanical issue. Watarai, the apprentice in waiting at seven x seven Racing, had established a comfortable lead after taking over from his mentor Fujinami.
He would hold that lead – by 57.731 seconds after 135 laps – to take the yellow and black #666 Porsche’s fourth win of the season.
The #23 TKRI Mercedes-AMG of Daisuke, Kataoka, Shunji Okumoto, and Yuhki Nakayama came home in second place, and took second in the championship after entering the weekend with a five-point lead.
It’s the first championship in Super Taikyu’s GT3 category for a Porsche customer team – a major milestone for Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific as it expands its involvement in the Japanese market. For Fujinami, it’s his third ST-X title as a driver, after being part of the GTNET MotorSports teams that won back-to-back championships in 2018/19 – and the first for his two co-drivers, Bankcy and Watarai.
The #777 D’station Aston Martin (Satoshi Hoshino/Yuta Kamimura/Tomonobu Fujii) finished two laps behind in third place after recovering from its initial penalty. Only one other ST-X car finished the race – the #31 apr Lexus, which finished 51st overall, 28 laps behind the winning Porsche.
Taking fourth and fifth place overall from the ST-1 class was the winning #2 K’s Frontier KTM X-Bow GTX (Taiyo Ida/Hiroki Katoh/Kazuho Takahashi/Hiroki Yoshimoto), but by finishing the race second in class, the #47 D’station Racing Porsche 992 Cup driven by Tatsuya Hoshino, Kenji Hama, Tetsuya Tanaka, and Taiga Kabaki won the ST-1 Championship.
With the ST-Z Championship already decided, the final race at Fuji became a battle for pride, won by the #34 Techno First Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Yuki Fujii, Riki Okusa, and Hironobu Yasuda (sixth place overall). It was the Audi’s first win of the season.
Finishing second in ST-Z was the #22 Porsche Team EBI 718 RS Clubsport (Shota Kitazono/Rintaro Kubo/Ryoma Henzan/Naoya Yamano), while the class podium was completed by the #21 Hitotsuyama Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Daisuke Yamawaki/Sean Walkinshaw/Alessandro Bressan/Kuniyuki Haga).
The #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 (Kota Matsui/Hiroki Yoshida/Naoki Hattori/Seita Nonaka) busted its streak of consecutive podium finishes when the car shut down momentarily near pit exit. The time lost was enough to drop the car out of the lead and down to fourth in class (tenth overall), but in the end, they’d already won their third straight title.
A mechanical problem caused the #25 Team ZeroOne Nissan Z NISMO GT4 (Yuki Tanaka/Tsugio Matsuda/Teppei Natori/Kimiya Sato) to drop out of contention for a podium finish.
Completing the overall top ten, from the ST-Q class, was the #230 NISMO Nissan Z Racing Concept (Kohei Hirate/Daiki Sasaki/Atsushi Miyake) in eighth, just behind two other homologated GT4 cars. The carbon-neutral-fuelled Z Racing Concept returned for its only appearance this year.
M&K Racing scored the ST-TCR class win as the #97 Honda Civic Type R TCR of Mitsuhiro Endo, Shinji Nakano, Jack Young, and Kento Omiya ran a perfect race and scored maximum points for the weekend.
But despite taking 32 points, it wasn’t enough to overhaul the deficit to the #98 Waimarama Racing Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Fourth in class was enough for Shigeru “Kizuna” Sato, Katsumasa Chiyo, Lee Jung-Woo, and Ryusuke Masumoto to clinch Hyundai’s first Super Taikyu TCR title, as the Korean manufacturer expands its footprint of success in the category worldwide.
The #19 Birth Racing Project Cupra TCR (Takashi Kochiya/Takeshi Suehiro/Jiei Okuzumi/Takahisa Ohno) finished second in ST-TCR.
In ST-2, the #743 Honda R&D Challenge Civic Type R of Hiroki Ishigaki, Akira Bitoh, and Junichi Kidachi took the win ahead of the #95 Team Spoon Civic (Eiji Yamada/Syun Koide/Kazuma Nishimura) and the #225 KTMS Toyota GR Yaris (Riona Tomishita/Hibiki Taira/Rin Arakawa) in third.
A fifth place finish was enough for the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda Civic Type R of Makoto Kanai, Tetsuya Yamano, and Toshiya Nojima to win its first ST-2 Championship title, two years after this team won the 2023 ST-5 Championship.
ST-3 class honours went to the #15 Okabe Jidosha Nissan Fairlady Z34 of Toru Tanaka, Hironobu Shimizu, and Hibiki Komatsu – while, even after the early contact, the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta Lexus RC 350 of Shinya Fujita, Takumi Sanada and Takashi Ito finished second in class and won the title.
This is Tracy Sports’ sixth consecutive ST-3 class championship with the Lexus RC 350, and the ninth title in ten years for Tracy Sports.
Endless Sports’ #3 Toyota GR86 driven by Hiroyuki Saka, Ryo Ogawa, Togo Suganami, and Atsushi Shimaya won the ST-4 class over the #66 Over Drive Mazda Roadster RF (Kyosuke Inomata/Kohei Tokumatsu/Takuma Ikeda/Kunihiro Miyazaki) and the #18 Asano Racing Service GR86 (Takeo Asano/Shinnosuke Ito/Kazumi Mikami/Daiki Fujiwara).
An early engine issue for the #884 SHADE Racing Toyota GR86 of Masahiko Kageyama, Eijiro Shimizu, and Shinnosuke Yamada took the ST-4 championship favourites out of contention for a race victory, even with just the points for winning the class pole and finishing ninth in class would be enough for SHADE Racing’s third ST-4 Championship and first since 2021.
The seven other ST-Q class cars finished the race. Noteworthy among them was the #271 Team HRC Honda Civic Type R HRC Concept, which was running Honda’s new HRC-K20C multi-purpose racing engine. Despite multiple trips to the garage, the trio of Hiroki Otsu, Yuto Nomura, and Shion Tsujimoto completed enough laps and finished 45th out of 52 finishers.
By default, the ST-USA class win went to the #249 TechSport Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, driven by Devin Anderson, Giuliano Alesi, and Kazuki Nakajima. The weekend got off to a tough start when the car’s starter motor failed during pre-event testing.
TechSport and Servus Japan (serving as TechSport’s operations partner for the race) had to contact a dealership in Hiroshima Prefecture to deliver a Mustang Dark Horse R – one that was about to be delivered to a civilian buyer – and borrow its starter motor for qualifying and the race.
Mercifully for all parties involved, the #249 TechSport Mustang completed the race, finishing 39th overall.
Over 40,000 spectators came across two days to watch the final round of the Super Taikyu Series, which begins anew in 2026.
In loving memory of Super Taikyu driver Hajime Omono (12 August 1972 – 28 August 2025): The founder of D.R.C EZO, whose #11 Honda Fit3 RS, affectionately known as “Kodan-chan” and is now run by Sakae Motorsports, has become a fan favourite in the Super Taikyu Series. Omono was a body shop owner and a pillar of Hokkaido’s amateur racing circuit, who also had experience racing in Mini Challenge and the MEC120 series.
Despite battling an aggressive illness that would ultimately claim his life, Omono and “Kodan-chan” finished second in class at this year’s Fuji 24 Hours. He made his final start at Sugo on 5 July.
Images © STMO, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific, and Bridgestone
