Yamamoto and Makino wrap up Super GT GT500 title with win in second Motegi race

Stanley Team Kunimitsu, Naoki Yamamoto, and Tadasuke Makino have been crowned champions of the Autobacs Super GT Series’ premier GT500 class, wrapping up the championship – a maiden championship for the new Honda HRC Prelude-GT – on Sunday with a pole-to-win victory in the Motegi GT 250km Grand Final.

The No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda of Yamamoto and Makino led 42 out of 53 laps in Sunday’s finale, with Makino taking the checkered flag by 1.7 seconds to lead a Honda 1-2 finish over the No. 17 Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Yuto Nomura in second place.

It’s Honda’s first GT500 championship since 2020, capping off an excellent debut year for the new Prelude-GT which finished with five wins in the six races since the end of an extended summer break.

Yamamoto and Makino’s third win of the season wrapped up the championship, Team Kunimitsu’s first since 2020, and significantly, the first since the passing of legendary team founder Kunimitsu Takahashi in 2022.

For the team’s long-time ace driver Yamamoto, it’s a long-awaited third GT500 championship, following a heartbreaking near-miss in 2021, and a career-threatening neck injury he suffered in 2023. Yamamoto becomes the seventh driver to win three or more GT500 championships. Makino, who joined Team Kunimitsu in 2020 as the successor to Jenson Button, took his second GT500 championship today.

Behind them, the No. 39 TGR Team SARD Toyota GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) went from 10th to the final podium position in third, holding off yesterday’s winning car, the No. 12 Team Impul Nissan Z NISMO GT500 (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) by 0.275 seconds over the line. The No. 38 TGR Team Cerumo Toyota (Toshiki Oyu/Rikuto Kobayashi) completed the top five in GT500 – after the No. 23 NISMO Nissan (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) was given a 40-second time penalty after the race.

Sho Tsuboi, Kenta Yamashita, and TGR Team TOM’S fell agonizingly short of a historic championship after the No. 36 TOM’S GR Toyota and the #88 Venteny Lamborghini collided coming to a Full Course Yellow, which caused left-front damage to the No. 36 Toyota, – damage which only got worse after Tsuboi and Fenestraz collided at the 90º Corner after the FCY was lifted.

Tsuboi retired the car eight laps short of the flag, and fell short of what could have been a record-breaking fifth championship – bringing an end to one of the most remarkable runs of sustained dominance in Super GT history.

In the GT300 class, the win went to the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Takashi Kogure and Daniil Kvyat, despite the collision with the No. 36 TOM’S Toyota at the end.

The championship, meanwhile, went to the No. 56 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of João Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura, which came back from a harrowing 17th-place start to finish fourth and seal Kondo Racing’s third GT300 championship.

For the legendary Brazilian driver Oliveira, it’s his third GT300 championship as well, adding him to a five-way tie for the most titles in the history of Super GT’s second division. For the former Honda junior Kimura, his first championship may catch the eye of Nissan as it evaluates future talent for its GT500 ranks.

The battle for the win came down between top foreign talent Kvyat and Sven Müller, who was emerged with the lead after an early, fuel-only pit stop in the No. 666 Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. The No. 88 JLOC team took rear tyres on its stop, Kvyat showed poise under pressure, and overtook Müller with four to go for JLOC’s first GT300 win since its title-clinching 2024 victory at Suzuka. It may also be the Huracán GT3’s final Super GT victory, with the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3 set to debut in Japan next year.

Müller and Taichi Watarai finished second after starting 12th, enough for Müller to finish as GT300 championship runner-up – though a win could have put the German in position to take the title from Kondo Racing.

The No. 11 Gainer Nissan Fairlady Z (Ryuichiro Tomita/Kazuki Oki) took third place, ahead of Oliveira and Kimura, who survived some intense pressure to hang on to fourth place and take the title. The No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Tsubasa Kondo/Charlie Fagg) rounded out the top five.

What could have been a storybook career ending for 59-year-old, three-time GT300 champion Morio Nitta fell short of its ultimate prize. The No. 96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Nitta and Shinichi Takagi was fighting towards the front for much of the race, but a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding took the K-tunes RC F out of championship contention. Nitta and Takagi finished ninth today.

Also bowing out of Super GT today was Manabu Orido, the two-time GT300 champion and drift legend, who finished 25th in the No. 30 apr Toyota GR86 (with Hibiki Taira).

As it did in its world motorsport debut on Saturday, the new No. 32 Rookie Racing GR GT3 Concept (Hiroaki Ishiura/Tokiya Suzuki) ran a competent, trouble-free race, finishing one lap off the lead in 23rd place. This time out, they showed a bit more pace, but a clean run was the aim this weekend – as the bold, controversial GR GT3 prepares for homologation and its first full season of racing in 2027.