Hitotsuyama Racing drivers Akihiro Tsuzuki and Shintaro Kawabata conquered treacherous conditions to win Race 2 of the SRO Japan Cup finale at Suzuka Circuit, and in doing so, Tsuzuki and Kawabata successfully retained their Japan Cup GT3 Championship by the closest of margins.
The #1 Ferrari 296 GT3 won Sunday morning’s race by just 1.040 seconds after Tsuzuki successfully fended off a difficult challenge from the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren 720S GT3 of Tadao Uematsu (with co-driver Kenta Yamashita) in the final minutes.
The #1 Ferrari of Tsuzuki and Kawabata finished tied on 135 points with the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Yusaku Shibata and Yuya Motojima, but with the #1 Hitotsuyama with Cornes Racing Ferrari taking its fourth win of the year, Tsuzuki and Kawabata won back-to-back GT3 Overall and GT3 Pro-Am championships on countback.
Sunday’s race was effectively run in two halves thanks to rainfall. For the competitors’ safety, the race began under the control of the Safety Car for the first two laps. After the green flag came out to start the third lap, the polesitting #1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari pulled away to an early lead as Kawabata got in the groove.
A crucial moment in the race came at the 12 minute mark when Yamashita in the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren overtook Motojima in the #24 Max Racing AMG for sixth place, putting Kawabata and Tsuzuki two points ahead in the championship.
Seconds later, the #44 Pop Race Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Kelvin Ho went off at the 130R corner – about the worst place to lose control in the wet here at Suzuka – and crashed into the tyre barrier. Ho was not seriously injured.
The Full Course Yellow was called, but after assessing the conditions on track with lowered visibility and standing water in some areas, Race Director Peter Daly called for a red flag, stopping the race after just a handful of laps.
The red flag was then lifted after a little over 16 minutes, and the remaining 14 cars returned to the track under control of the Safety Car. Kawabata led the field back to the green flag with about 36 minutes left on the clock, with the pit window due to open in minutes.
Hitotsuyama Racing dropped to third after serving its 15-second Success Pit Penalty while the #9 Bingo Racing Porsche left the pits with the race lead. Shinji Takei’s advantage was short-lived after Yusaku Maezawa in the #555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari overtook Takei, but Tsuzuki in the #1 Ferrari was soon to catch them both. He passed Takei for second, and then with less than 19 minutes left, Tsuzuki passed Maezawa for the lead.
Behind him, Shibata in the #24 Max Racing AMG clawed his way from sixth on the grid to take fourth place after passing a fast-falling Takei. But the gymkhana legend still needed to pass one more car to take the title, and Maezawa was too far up the road despite a spin in the final minutes.
Uematsu got close to passing Tsuzuki for the win, but would fall just short, and the #1 Hitotsuyama Ferrari would take the win and the championship with the #88 Miracolo Tokyo McLaren in second, and the #555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari of Maezawa and Naoki Yokomizo in third.
Fourth place for the #24 Max Racing Mercedes-AMG of Shibata and Motojima wasn’t enough for the team to hold on to its first championship since its revival in 2025.
In fifth place overall was the #19 Spirit of FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Mineki Okura and Hiroshi Hamaguchi, who also the GT3 Am championship by finishing 7.974 seconds ahead of the rival #45 PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Yorikatsu Tsujiko and Yusuke Yamasaki in sixth.
The two cars entered today in a “winner-take-all” battle for Am class honours in 2026. Okura survived a close call in the final minutes after an incident with the #27 AWD Racing Audi in the Astemo Chicane (Triangle).
Driving conservatively to preserve their Suzuka 1000km challenge, Takei and Ukyo Sasahara’s #9 Bingo Racing with LM corsa Porsche 911 GT3 R finished seventh, with the #96 K-tunes Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Kazunori Suenaga/Sena Sakaguchi).
The #82 Zenko RS Garage with Sunrise Blvd Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport of Yoshitomo Makino and Takeshi Suehiro finished 2026 with its seventh GT4 class win in eight races, this time beating the #29 E-Needs Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 by 9.7 seconds.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
